ONE YEAR!
One Mama’s Year (so far) of Breastfeeding Story
One awesome single mama, a homebirth, the second baby, first time nursing, the NICU…wow what a story, what an inspiration!
Thank you to my friend and guest blogger Amanda Forgit for sharing her story!
At 1:19am on Monday March 9, 2009 Alton was finally born, at home. 8lb 6oz 21 inches. He was due in February and it was a nice long labour. Within the first two hours I nursed for the first time. I never nursed my first so this was a brand new experience for both of us. With the help of one of my midwives, we latched successfully. Whoa, I never realized how strong a baby could suck! He stayed on for a while while everyone was examining the placenta, he then unlatched and seemed content. After taking pictures and being given postpartum care instructions my three midwives tucked us into bed sometime between 4 and 5am. They left and my two friends went to go rest themselves. I kept trying to nurse him every time we would wake up, but he would refuse to latch on. Later that morning when my friend Kristin woke up she tried to help me get him to latch on as she had herself nursed two babies. Nothing, he just wouldn’t latch! I tried giving him a binkie (pacifier) or a bottle nipple and he wouldn’t even suck on those. Around noon I called my midwife and she suggested trying to nurse still but pumping after each attempt and feeding him by syringe. We were thinking his blood sugar might be a bit low causing him to be lazy and hoping getting some milk in him would perk him up.
He kept this up until she came over that night to check up on us. She couldn’t get him to latch or to suck on anything either, not even her gloved hand. We gave him some oxygen and checked all his vitals. His breathing was a little fast but not out of the range of a newborn. We decided to thaw some colostrum I had saved in the freezer. I was pumping the last few weeks of pregnancy (I was already overdue when I started) once or twice a day to try to induce labour and had about 20 half ounce cubes frozen. I wasn’t going to waste that precious stuff! We both decided to keep up what I was doing overnight and call the pediatrician in the AM.
When the office opened in the morning, I called and made an appointment and they fit us in for late afternoon but we couldn’t get our pediatrician had to have the backup. All day he remained the same. When we get to the office it turns out our pedi stayed late and was able to see us after all. She knows us very well, and I am so glad we were able to see her. I didn't feel like taking any homebirth crap from the other doctors. The pediatrician could not get him to suck either and was a little concerned about his breathing even though it was still in the normal range for a transitioning newborn. She wanted an x-ray thinking he might still have a little fluid on the lungs but radiology was closed so she sent us to the local hospital for one.
I did not have a car so my ride came and brought us to the hospital, and we stopped at subway because I hadn’t eaten for a long time. That was the best roast beef sandwich and sprite that I have ever had in my life. At the ER I checked in and they were all fine with letting us sit in the emergency waiting room until they asked me how old he was and I said “one day old,” and they freaked and rushed us out back. Yay for no waiting! The doctor came in as I was feeding him a little frozen colostrum, and we brought him to radiology. A little while later he comes in and tells me that Alton has a pneumothorax or in lay terms: a collapsed lung. The upper left lobe of his lung has a hole in it and was leaking fluid. The doctor told me that it was not my fault, and that the homebirth had nothing to do with it. I needed to hear that. He gets and IV and they ask me to leave the room so that they could go in with a needle and tap the air out of his chest. I call my midwife and update her. I also called my parents, who had my daughter, to inform them of what was going on. I get to come back and they are moving him upstairs to maternity into the Special Care Nursery.
He gets hooked up to everything, and I talk to the nurses and explain everything all over again. I give the nurse the last teaspoon of colostrum in the bottle and she feeds it to him saying that we shouldn’t waste a drop. It was his last milk for a while. I ask for a pump, as I haven’t pumped in almost 8 hours. I get set up and pump with the Ameda Elite, and we start freezing it as he was just put on orders of no oral feedings. Since I wasn’t a maternity patient they couldn’t get me any ibuprofen. But was able to get some pads and a peri bottle. I came so unprepared thinking we were going back home after the pedi appt. I call my midwife and she comes over and brings me some and just sits and talks with me. They have an empty triage room that they let me sleep in for the night. My midwife gets me settled (she is very familiar with this hospital) and gets some more food into me. She leaves and I get some much needed sleep.
I pump my breasts a few times that night, and head over to the nursery in the morning. It is Wednesday now. They take another x-ray in the morning and the air has collapsed the lung again so they re-tap it. He is hooked up onto sugar water IV now and developing a slight jaundice. They aren’t too worried because he just isn’t ingesting anything to flush his system with. That afternoon after another x-ray the air is back they decide to re-tap the lung and to put in a permanent tube to have an exit for the air, which will hopefully release the pressure enough for the tissue to heal itself. They place the tube and decide that he needs to be transferred to the Children’s hospital as he is now outside the scope of their care. The neonatal transfer ambulance arrives and gets him settled for transportation. I ask every single person and make sure that my frozen milk is transported with him, not settling until I see it on the stretcher with my own eyes. My mom comes to be with me and brings me home to get all the things that I need, and then drives me into the city to meet me up with Alton. I get there and get hooked up with a symphony breast pump (love it!) I get a room for the night in the parent wing.
I slept 7 straight hours that night and wake up in the morning to my milk coming in! Woot! And OW! That morning the doctor gives the ok to start oral feedings. I finally get to semi hold him! He cannot leave his incubator because his chest tube can only have minimal movement. I prop him up and he drinks two ounces. That afternoon/night his tube is removed, as it seems his lung has healed! We just need to watch him now. I get to nurse him. He is still sleepy but latches on after awhile and drinks for about 10 minutes each side. I keep pumping after he eats. In the morning after I’ve rested I come back to find that he has drunk through all of his milk supply in the night. I nurse him on and off all day when he is hungry but he isn’t always interested. I hold him all the time now and am a pro at all of the wires. A nurse covering breaks comes over and is like are you supposed to be taking him out of the warmer yourself? I say: “My baby lady!” The nurse tries to help but has about as much experience as me. The IBCLC comes to visit us but he is asleep. She is able to get me a Medela “pump in style” breast pump to bring home with me and gives us some tips. We then find out that they are sending us home! After all that we discovered that because he was born a compound presentation (with his hand on his face) and took a breath before his whole body was born, one lung got more than its portion of air and over inflated causing the pneumothorax. The reason he didn’t want to eat was because the body will natural use its energy to breath over eat. It was really his only sign. The neonatologist said that most babies don’t even get diagnosed if this is their only sign, and then are misdiagnosed with failure to thrive.
At home he refuses to nurse and is screaming at me. I finally give in and feed him bottles during the night and the next morning. He gets checked at the pedi and still won’t nurse. I am getting very frustrated all day and then finally Saturday night he latches on and has an “AH-HA moment.” Finally we are nursing and not looking back! It was still painful/uncomfortable to nurse but tolerable. And we could only nurse in the football hold.
We go to the doctor again on Sunday and discover that he has thrush from the antibiotics he was on in the NICU. He gets his antifungal meds, but I start developing symptoms too. I treat myself with his meds on me and diflucan, and both of us with probiotics. We start to heal and then the next week I start to develop mastitis. Fever, chills, sore breast. I call my midwife and the LLL leader and I start on some homeopathics. I go to my PCP and he confirms that I have early mastitis and I get antibiotics. But with ibuprofen, homeopathics, warm compresses, and lots of nursing it starts to clear. I pump everyday and have over 100oz in the freezer now.
At 8 weeks he develops and unusual rash covering his entire face and spreading to his body. We figure it to be dye allergies and I go on an elimination diet. After some careful processing I determine that dairy, soy, and gluten are bothering him. After all this time since then I have since been able to eat everything but soy. And at a year old he is confirmed allergic to soy and gluten but can eat dairy himself. He is also diagnosed with reflux at this time.
After 12 weeks of having a semi-oversupply my milk regulates and he starts to loose weight. Combined with a growth spurt I am nursing non-stop, sleeping and nursing. There are only about 2 hours per day that we not nursing. This goes on forever. I start taking mothers milk tea and fenugreek. I have to keep upping the fenugreek until I got to 27 capsules a day and was getting signs of overdosing. I get my prolactin and thyroid levels checked from my new gynecologist. Thyroid is perfect but prolactin is very low. She and I decide that I should go onto domperidone. The domperidone helps but after awhile he starts to loose again.
At 7 months I start to supplement with a bottle of my freezer stash but it runs out. And at 8 months I get hundred ounces of donor milk from an awesome local momma. At 9 months I get one thousand ounces from another awesome momma who exclusively pumps for her babe and he starts taking two 6oz bottles instead of one. He starts gaining weight and around here also starts becoming interested in solid foods.
At 11months he starts bringing his tongue forward and nursing becomes slightly less painful. I weaned myself off of the domperidone and herbs for my own sanity. And I pumped for the last time in February. We have enough donour milk to last until at least April. Nursing is still uncomfortable but he loves it and after the extra milk is gone we will see where he goes from there. I have a love hate relationship with nursing, but I know that it is best for him. Sometimes I feel like a failure for not being able to be the one that provides all the milk for my baby. But I am proud that we have made it to a year and he has only had breast milk and no substitutes. At his 12-month appointment he was 20lb 4oz and 30in tall. He is such and awesome little man.
:)