my nursing story
For all Moms who are thinking of breastfeeding, here is my experience. Please contact me if you have any questions, or if you are just in need of some encouragement or advice. I have gained a lot of knowledge and support from the breastfeeding community and other great communities for Moms here on LJ.
When the time came to "choose" whether to breastfeed or not, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. I did the research and knew it was what was best for my child and our family. At the time, I did not realize how demanding it was, what a big commitment it was, or how hard it would be. It has been worth it. My doctor and nurses were very supportive of this, and they were extremely helpful to me in the first days and weeks.
When my son was born, we had a difficult time latching and had to use a nipple shield. I also used a hospital rental pump and was prescribed an Ameda Purely Yours electric pump after the first week. The first few weeks he would only nurse with the nipple shield, which was a pain to use but I learned why they made me sign a form acknowledging the use of this before they gave it to us in the hospital. I was very lucky that there was no nipple confusion, because he seemed to prefer nursing compared to the bottle, and once he got the hang of things and I could latch him properly we did wonderfully. He gained weight right on track, and eventually he was weaned off the shield too! We still gave him bottles of expressed breast milk occasionally, mostly just when he was being babysat by family members.
I started out slow with setting goals in our breastfeeding relationship, because at the beginning it seemed so hard. When we reached one week, I was thrilled. Then a month, two months, and onward. After a while I knew I wanted to nurse him for more than 6 months, preferably more than a year. We have had some difficult problems including biting now that he is teething, but I am learning when he is just playing to take him off and wait a while before offering to nurse again, and this has helped a lot. We are now nearly at the first year milestone. He is eating more solids these days, and now that he has learned a few baby signs his favorite one seems to be "milk". :)
When the time came to "choose" whether to breastfeed or not, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. I did the research and knew it was what was best for my child and our family. At the time, I did not realize how demanding it was, what a big commitment it was, or how hard it would be. It has been worth it. My doctor and nurses were very supportive of this, and they were extremely helpful to me in the first days and weeks.
When my son was born, we had a difficult time latching and had to use a nipple shield. I also used a hospital rental pump and was prescribed an Ameda Purely Yours electric pump after the first week. The first few weeks he would only nurse with the nipple shield, which was a pain to use but I learned why they made me sign a form acknowledging the use of this before they gave it to us in the hospital. I was very lucky that there was no nipple confusion, because he seemed to prefer nursing compared to the bottle, and once he got the hang of things and I could latch him properly we did wonderfully. He gained weight right on track, and eventually he was weaned off the shield too! We still gave him bottles of expressed breast milk occasionally, mostly just when he was being babysat by family members.
I started out slow with setting goals in our breastfeeding relationship, because at the beginning it seemed so hard. When we reached one week, I was thrilled. Then a month, two months, and onward. After a while I knew I wanted to nurse him for more than 6 months, preferably more than a year. We have had some difficult problems including biting now that he is teething, but I am learning when he is just playing to take him off and wait a while before offering to nurse again, and this has helped a lot. We are now nearly at the first year milestone. He is eating more solids these days, and now that he has learned a few baby signs his favorite one seems to be "milk". :)