Posts Tagged ‘breastfeed’
Breast Is Best . . . Or is it?
The other most common question I seem to get asked since I have had Will is whether or not I am breastfeeding. Well, here’s the story of both Madison and Will on this topic.
Madison’s Breastfeeding tale
Madison would never latch on. I met with lactation consultants and everything, and she would not latch on. We had decided that breastfeeding was the way to go. We continued to try and breastfeed when we brought her home. However, she started to become very jaundice. When we brought her in the doctor, we had a blood test done, and her billyrubin (sp?) count was 14.7. Once that number hits 15, they have to have a billy blanket. I was given 3 choices: keep trying to breastfeed and she’d probably end up in the hospital, give her formula, or go buy a breast pump.
We did the later of the three. I ended up pumping for 4 months with her. I quit when I started resenting pumping. I have to think it works, because Madison hardly ever gets sick. She never has had an ear infection. She’s had a few colds and the flu, but that’s it.
Will’s Breastfeeding tale
Well, we are running into some of the same problems with Will. Once we get him latched on, he will eat. However, we have had major problems getting him to latch. Last Sunday, we made the decision after trying to get him to latch for an hour and half at 3 am, that this is not working. I would literally feel myself tense up when I had to feed him, since we were having some many problems. Needless to say, we decided that I should again pump. He will get all the benefits of breast milk, and somebody other than me can feed him. Again, not a perfect solution, but it is the best we can come up with. He also started becoming jaundice, but when we brought him in last Monday, it was already going away.
Where do we go from here?
Honestly, I don’t know. I am not sure if I can do this for 4 months again. However, I have been pumping and freezing what I can. For those of you who have pumped before, how much should I be freezing in each bag? I have been only doing 2 oz in each bag. I do know once you thaw it, you have to use it, so my theory was to do small amounts. However, I now have a ton of bags in my freezer.
Let me know your thoughts!
Women Unite
I enjoy reading blogs from other mothers and Where’s Mommy’s Prozac? is no exception to that. She has a great post talking about why she titled her blog that. I think it is great. After chasing and arguing with a three year old all day, I could definitely use some Prozac. In that post, she talks about her post partnum depression and how it still effects her today. A lot of people do not understand what having a baby does to your body. Everyone gets the body changes. Not everybody understands the hormonal changes.
***warning: talking about women stuff here***I know after I had Madison I had the period from hell. It lasted 3 weeks. I would get a week off. Then I had it again for three weeks. I sucked it up while I was breastfeeding since there really isn’t anything I could do about it (I know about the mini pill but I really didn’t want to go the birth control route). After Madison was four months old I quit breastfeeding (actually, she never breastfeed. She would not latch on. I tried everything. Went to lactation consultants. That still didn’t work. I ended up pumping for four months and she was bottlefed breastmilk). I also went back to the doctor and asked for help. We started me on the pill. That seemed to help with the 3 week period. I went back to a normal regular cycle. However, that did not help with the hormonal problems I was having. About a week before my period, I would not be able to function. It was bad. Bill actually asked that I go back to the doctor to find out what was going wrong. I ended up being diagnosed with PPMD (at least I think that’s what it was called). It is PMS to the extreme. I ended up taking what I called my “happy” pills for a couple of months. Even with health insurance, they were costing us $50 a month, so I started tapering them off myself.
Back to my point, it is nice to hear someone talk so frankly about antidepressants and how they have helped her life. She also talks about a variety of other topics. I would classify her as a general blogger. She talks about her kids, her life, her smart alarm clock that isn’t so smart, etc. It is a great read.
1 Comment »
