It's funny...since I got pregnant I was adament..."I am going to nurse Autumn for the first year." It's what is recommended by the American Pediatric Association and I just felt like it would be best for both of us. Since Autumn has arrived though we've struggled our way through the challenges of breastfeeding. I had heard many times before becoming pregnant that breastfeeding is a learned skill...and although it's natural, it's far from easy and many people struggle. I never thought it would be as difficult as it has been for us though. The first weekend we were home we were doing ok, I was having a lot of pain while nursing, but we were managing our way through it (probably partially because I was still on pain meds from the surgery). When we went to our first pediatrician appointment on Monday though everything changed. I told them about Autumn getting kinda frantic while eating...and not staying latched on. When they weighed her and she was only 8 pounds 6 ounces the tears started coming. She wasn't getting enough food. She'd lost more than 10% of her body weight...so the pediatrician immediately said we have to supplement with formula until my milk supply could keep up. As he examined her though he said this really doesn't make sense. She doesn't look like a baby that's gone from 9 pounds 9 ounces down to 8.6. So he did some investigating and found in the hospital records that they likely weighed her wrong in the OR and she really only weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces at birth. We can't be sure, but because she left the hospital at 8 pounds 6 ounces they were pretty positive 9.5 was her actual weight. As another aside, there was confusion at the hospital about her length. We were told she was 21.5 inches long at one point and 20.5 at another. Since she was only 20.5 at the doctor and we're assuming she's not getting shorter, we're going to go with 20.5. What a mess!! Based on the new information he said we are ok for now, to just keep feeding her and we'll check back in a week.
Unfortunately the stress and anxiety of the whole situation was really weighing on me and that started affecting our feeding times too. Almost every feeding I was crying, Autumn was crying...it was going down hill quick! By Wednesday I felt like I needed help. I tried to contact my primary care physician, but the office was closed. I finally ended up calling the pediatricians office again asking if someone there could help or if they could recommend a lactation consultant. They said to bring her in, the doctor will check her out and one of the nurses can try and help with the feeding issues. I later determined this was a huge mistake and another derailer in our feeding journey, but there was nothing I could do now. Her doctor is not there on Wednesday's so we saw another jerk doctor that said we absolutely had to supplement at this point...she was down another 2 ounces. I attempted nursing in front of one of the nurses to get help and of course Autumn latched on, stayed on and did great. We left the office feeling worse than before...and things continued to be a struggle. After going to the pediatrician one last time on Friday for another weight check I was at the end of my rope. I cried all the time, was extremely frustrated, was in pain, and most importantly was worried about Autumn.
Finally we made the decision that the pediatrician was not working out. So far all they had done was freak me out and derail us time and time again. I called my primary cares office to see if she sees newborns. When I found out she did I was ecstatic!! I made an appointment for Autumn that day! At this point I was exclusively pumping and bottle feeding Autumn. When we got to the office Dr. Grawey immediately got to work on fixing us (I just love her!) She told us to stop using a pacifier, to stop using a bottle and to try nursing Autumn as much as possible. She said to get ahold of a lactation consultant and gave us a prescription for thrush (a yeast infection that is likely one of the main causes of the pain). She said to get support...to go to la leche league meetings, to go to a breastfeeding support group, anything and everything possible! I left her office feeling so much better! I called the lactation consultant she recommended and she said she was right by our house now and could be there in a half an hour! I was excited! We were going to get through this!
I know this story is getting long so I'll try to wrap it up...Barb, the lactation consultant, worked with us for about an hour and a half on Monday. Unfortunately though the outcome was not great. It turns out that there really is a problem preventing us from successfully nursing. With out getting too detailed...our anatomy just does not match up right now. Autumn is unable to properly extract a sufficient amount of milk at this time. We've been trying to purchase a supplemental nursing system (a tube taped to my breast that will deliver milk I've pumped out). This way Autumn continues to "nurse" and gets the milk she needs. Another bump in the road though...nobody in town has one in stock right now. So as of right now, I am pumping and we are feeding Autumn through a bottle.
I hope and pray that some day Autumn will be able to nurse normally...hopefully some day sooner than later, but for now we're doing the best we can!! And we'll take any and all prayers you want to send our way :o)
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