Breastfeeding update

James is six weeks old now and in spite of a lot of conflicting advice given and emotional torture inflicted by assorted nurses and lactation consultants, we have established nursing.  It is actually amazing how different this nursing effort has been when compared to the effort with Jack.

One thing that was different this time: I got David on board ahead of time to agree that if we were required to supplement in those early days, we would use anything but a bottle to do it.   We used a syringe in those early days.

Another thing that was different: This time I was not sent home with instructions from the lactation consultant to SUPPLEMENT WITH FORMULA FROM A BOTTLE after nursing.  She did tell me to pump at the same time too, but WTF?  Everything written about breastfeeding's law of supply and demand warns that this is dangerous to do as a habit because it does not do an effective job of telling your body to make more.

Now, in a big joke by the Universe on me, James is refusing the bottle altogether.  His nipple preference goes the opposite way.  I should be worrying about what that will mean when I have to go back to work.  But for now I'm enjoying the nursing that I felt cheated out of last time around.  Treasuring it really.

The whole early breastfeeding experience has made me revisit the days of exclusive pumping and how hard it was. I was not blogging back then so I don't have the grueling day to day of it written down anywhere.  But Antropologia documented her struggles last year (starting from here) and her posts give a painfully accurate picture of what it is like to have to exclusively pump. (One of them mentions the fact that you have moments of resenting your baby because he/she takes you away from the pump.  I remember that too. )

I don't think I was as tired then, even though I was getting less sleep. (exclusive pumping takes so much more time).  It's ironic that when you are getting more sleep and are more relaxed, the adrenaline that had been keeping you going begins to fall and you get sleepier and stupider.  At least I do.

These days I can totally relate to what BrooklynGirl is going through -- the hopelessness of thinking that one may never get more than two hours of sleep in a row ever again. 

Comments

[Eva]

I am absolutely delighted that things are going so well in the nursing department. See? All that worry for nothing! Of course you had to work to get to this point. Anyway, I am so glad to hear that the new baby's nipple preference goes the natural way.

I can't even read my old posts about pumping. That whole period really sucked. It's been four months now since I weaned from the pump and I try to think about it as little as possible.

[maggie]

I'm so happy for you - it's wonderful that it's so much better this time.