Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
**Tara**
I just saw your question in my other post about nursing, I didn't know if you'd check back there so I thought I'd answer you here.
It's going ok....
We had a real struggle in the hospital which resulted in me doing a lot of expressing and pumping and feeding her through a syringe (and me doing a lot of crying). She finally seemed to get the hang of it shortly before we left the hospital though. First feed at home was a disaster = me in more tears with my IL's on their way any minute. DH had to go out and get my prescriptions so he actually stopped back at the hospital and talked to the lactation consultant again and got some more tips and a tube to feed her through so that she would suck on my finger and still have to "work" for her food. I was really worried she would get lazy and not want to have to actually latch and suck.
We ended up not needing it though because she has been latching and sucking all on her own now. I've discovered that if she is not fully awake it's a bit of a battle to get her to stay latched. I think I have slow let-down so it takes quite a bit of sucking on her part to get the milk flowing and then she sometimes gives up, or falls back asleep.
Right now my main concern is that she sometimes only feeds for like 6 or 10 minutes. She often kinda coughs/chokes because she tries to eat too fast and then won't go back on or falls asleep after she comes off to do that. Sometimes after a diaper change and burp she will go back on, but sometimes not. I'm worried she isn't getting enough, but more-so that she isn't getting the hind-milk and that I will start not producing enough. I'm going to ask the home-care nurse about it again when they call in a few days.
Any advice?
ETA: When the health care nurse came Tuesday she was already an ounce over her leaving hospital weight so they weren't concerned then (but she was also eating at a time longer before then)
Re: **Tara**
Sorry I didn't go back and look. I'm kinda scattered brained lately!
Nursing is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. It takes time and practice for you both to get on the same page and get things figured out. It is the very first time for both of you so there will be a learning curve to get over.
To try and keep her awake during feedings try nursing her naked and rubbing your hand backwards up her back. That always kept Parker awake enough to eat.
To combat the slow let down try pumping a little right before you feed her so when she starts nursing it is almost there already. That should help her so she doesn't get frustrated and just stops. I know that is a pain in the rear, but she will eventually learn and you won't have to do it anymore.
Do you have a place you can go where you can weigh her, nurse her, and then weigh her again to see exactly how much she is getting at each nursing session? At the hospital by my work they have a breastfeeding clinic that was free that did that. It was so helpful and put my mind at ease.
Keep at it and don't beat yourself up. I found that when I was really frustrated and crying at every feeding that it went worse than if I would calm myself down before hand. If you are relaxed she will sense that and relax herself. I hope this was helpful and if you have any other question please ask!
KR would only nurse 10 minutes, I would try to make him nurse more and sometimes he'd be interested, but mostly (especially the first 2 weeks) he would just fall asleep.
I actually didn't leave the hospital early because he wouldn't wake up to eat. He just wasn't hungry.
Literally, I couldn't wake him up. I tried a cold wash cloth-just a diaper...nothing.
To this day he's quite an efficient nurser and won't eat for more than 15 minutes.
I had the problem about 5 days into nursing that I realized he had a sucky latch-the damage to my nipples was horrifying. I would cry whenever he latched. I ended up watching videos to help me with latching and never looked back!
I would always pump after I nursed him to build my supply too.
Thanks girls!
Tara - I think I might try the pumping thing to start when she is having difficulty , although her last few feeds she has been getting right down to business. The health clinic puts on drop in nursing sessions twice a week, so I think I will go to one of those next week and see what I can learn. My mom and I also mentioned taking her to the health clinic tomorrow to weigh her just so that I can get some peace of mind.
Cristin - We did the same thing in the hospital to try to get her to wake up, she doesn't care at all and just sleeps right through. I'm learning that if I just wait until she is good and ready things go so much more smoothly.
Do you think I should/can start pumping right away? Do you pump the side that he was eating off of or the other side? She only takes one side per nursing session.
::Butting in::
If you plan to start pumping right away, pump off of the side she just nursed off of first. Also Wyatt has never nursed more than 3-7 minutes at a time either, If she is gaining weight you should be fine
I don't have a lot of advice beyond that. We had completely different issues starting out. Good luck!!