Nursing Story - Maylie and Greg (for adopt-a-mom)
Maylie was born at Grant hospital, vaginally with epidural, after a long labor that wore me out. I had the epidural after 12 hours of natural labor, and she was born the standard way after 1.5 hours of pushing.
She pretty much immediately latched on, and had a good latch right from the start. I had some nipple pain for a little bit, and got really sore. My mom, who had nursed 4 kids for 2 years apiece, helped me out with support and good advice. After working through the pain, I didn't have any more pain, or any more problems.
I started pumping when she was a week old, and was able to pump enough milk to last her at daycare until she was a year (she tended to eat 4-6 oz per 5 hour period). In fact, I threw out a grocery bag of little bags full of milk when she was 13 mos old, and we found a hidden bag at the way bottom of the freezer when she was 4!
She went through bottle strikes at daycare, and had a nursing strike at 6 months old (from teething). When she was 12 or 13 mos old, I got pregnant with Greg, and started having severe nipple pain. I worked on cutting her nursing down (and having to grit my teeth when she did nurse), and at 18 mos old I was able to fully wean her. Then at 20 months old, we took a bath together, and she latched on and started nursing (which I'm told is very odd, since they normally forget how). I was 30 weeks pregnant, and the nipples didn't hurt any more so we restarted nursing.
Her brother was born when she was 21 months old. And so we started my attempt at tandem nursing. Greg was born at home after a precipitous (2.5 hour) labor, with a midwife. He had problems nursing right from the start. He would latch on but then push the nipple out of his mouth with his tongue. After a few days of unsuccessful nursing, the midwife said that I had to start supplementing him because he was VERY ruddy and jaundiced, and if we didn't get it to go down, he'd have to have medical attention for it.
We started him on a bottle, using pumped milk. I'd nurse, and then my husband would top him off. His ruddiness and jaundice got better, but his nursing didn't. We worked on tongue training him, using a pinky finger to get his tongue in the right position, before trying to latch him on. He also had a pacifier to help with his "discordial suck?" It got to a point where he was getting most of his milk from the bottle.
He wasn't able to get the milk out of the breast efficiently. So when I tried to nurse him without giving him a bottle, he was very unhappy and cried from being hungry. But if he got a bottle, then he'd forget how to latch on right. So I got an SNS from a friend, and used that and after a bit, was able to only have him on the breast, without using the SNS or giving a bottle.
Meanwhile, I was tandem-nursing Maylie. I couldn't nurse both kids at the same time, because if she nursed sitting up, her teeth dug into my nipples. So I could nurse her only in the cradle hold. But then with all the nursing problems I was having with Greg, it was just difficult to give her the opportunity to nurse, because if Greg wasn't nursing, I didn't want anyone else nursing either. When she was 24 mos old, we got thrush, and I didn't want to have to treat 3 people so I told Maylie that "nana hurt, and when nana doesn't hurt anymore, she can have it again". Since she wasn't totally attached to nursing anymore, she was OK with that and she didn't nurse again.
I tried to keep up with the pumping for Greg at daycare, but unlike his sister, he ate massive amounts at daycare. He went for 5 hours a day and would eat between 9 and 15 oz (vs Maylie's 4-6 oz). Also, I couldn't pump and nurse at the same time with him, because he was too wiggly, and with all the problems at the beginning, I didn't create a big supply. When he was 8 mos old, I had to start him with some formula at daycare (along with what I pumped).
We had a successful nursing relationship, and when he was 21 months old, I started getting tired of him throwing huge tantrums if he didn't get to nurse when and where he wanted at that very second that he wanted it. So I told him "no" for a couple days, and so he was weaned. (He wouldn't accept food or drink or any other substitute, which were tricks I'd used with Maylie)
So I didn't nurse any child for a year, and enjoyed having my breasts back to myself, until Vivienne was born on 7/19/07. She was born at home after another precipitous labor (1.5 hours). She nursed great from the start, and I am happy about that. I don't have to pump for daycare anymore, because I stay home with the 3 kids now. Vivi is only 2 weeks old at the time of this writing so there isn't much to report other than things are going well. I expect to nurse her well into her 2nd year. I like the idea of child-led weaning, but I seem to not be very patient with toddler nursing, so we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Vivi is my last child.