My Princess and I: Breast is Best

Friday, March 19, 2010

Breast is Best - But at what Cost?

Every parent has seen them - pictures of a serene looking mother smiling down at her peaceful, suckling baby. They're in every medical office, hospital and parenting brochure. It's a beautiful image - one that as a mother-to-be I aspired to.

I was unsure about a lot of things where motherhood was concerned, but whether or not to breastfeed wasn't one of them. I knew that breast milk was the healthiest choice for my baby, and I was looking forward to sharing that special bond with her. I truly believed that once she was born all of the pieces would naturally fall into place.

After a very long labour, I felt like I'd been hit by an eighteen wheeler. Exhausted and delirious, the baby was put into NICU and was hooked on to IV thus she is good for food.

A few hours after delivering the baby, a nurse wheels a breast pump in and nudged my sleeping body. I was suppose to start simulating for the milk to come in.

On day three, I had to start nursing my baby, I was excited and with a help of the nurse, she managed to latch on for a minute or two, still struggling to fully learn how to suck and swallow. On Day four, they were happy with how my baby is latching on and let us go home.

Once my milk came in and we were back at home things improved for a little while, but when my daughter was about three weeks old, I developed a very painful and sore nipples.To help to ease that, and to monitor how much my baby is eating and she is eating what she suppose to, I use the breast pump and store the milk in the fridge, my lovely mother help me to feed throughout the night and baby even sleep with her!

Then at ten weeks, I noticed my milk is coming out anymore, I called the nurse for help and found out that is because I have been using my pump, and it does not create as good stimulation as baby's latch. Thus I had to latch her on.

Up till this point, Alyssa is 16 months and is crazy about nursing, watching her have her eyes close and enjoying it makes it harder to cut her off, not to mention I had tried and fail to do so because she won't take the bottle.

I have to do it, sooner or later, she can't be a 2 years old toddler running around and still run to her mama for boobies. We had learn that the only way is for me to leave the house for a few days and let daddy do the bottle feeding. Which is still pending and needs to be done....

posted by SuLee @ 10:15 AM

2 Comments:

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