Baby Care - 4

Nursing
Here is a big stress/worry factor - nursing. After D2 I realized I could have done better with D1.

You know, I really don’t remember much of day 1 for both D1 and D2. They did sleep a lot, and I don’t know how often I tried to nurse them. Then on day 2 they are really vocal. So I had D1 latched on the whole time. This unfortunately set up a vicious cycle, where he nursed and slept and nursed and slept in short intervals and I got no rest and I don’t think I produced enough milk in a 1/2 hour to feed him enough, so he was hungry soon and so on.

With D2, I got lucky, not because I was smarter, but when I was at the hospital, my nurse that day was a lactation consultant and she said, all 2 day old babies are hungry and cry. You just nurse him every 2 hours (meaning start times 10, 12, 2, 4, 6 etc). She said, I could nurse him for upto 40-45 minutes at a time if I wanted to, but I needed to get the rest too. So that is what I did. Trust me there was a lot of crying that 2nd day. But by day 3 my milk was in just fine and we got to nursing every 2 hours. At first I still nursed about 40 minutes each time and this slowly reduced and we are down to 15-20 minutes a nurse now.

D2 tended to fall asleep during nursing a lot during the first few days, so I kept waking him up so he would get a belly full, so we wouldn’t fall into the same cycle as with D1. This worked well for me. Ways to keep the baby awake - try to burp him often, change his diaper in between changing breasts (mid-bottle), tickle his toes, get him naked (they hate that when they are little), tickle his ears, jiggle him gently.

I also had to wake him up a lot during the first couple of weeks to nurse him. Not longer than a 3 hour interval at first. Later I let him sleep as long as he wanted in the night and had a 4 hour limit during the day. If he sleeps longer than that I wake and nurse him. My babies were born on the little side, so no surprise, I was concerned about them gaining as much weight as possible, not to mention the doctor and nurses also made it sound like a positive thing that the more weight the better since they were not so big to begin with. Today, I don’t know if it was necessary to wake him up for a feeding when he was ready to keep on sleeping. It seems their bodies would know when to sleep and eat. And while as parents we want to try and place a pattern to it, I don’t know that we have to be regimental about it.

I know they say feed on demand and I did do that, but there was a 2 hour limit (once in a while I would do 1.5 hours, but no less). Other than that, I nursed round the clock every 2 hours if needed. If he cried before, I would try to soothe him or just let him cry it out and just sit by him and gently stroke him and talk with him. I have done so much better with nursing and he is definitely gaining weight quite well.

Sore Nipples
You will get sore nipples. For one thing the baby nurses for 40 minutes each time about 10 times a day, that’s a lot of nursing. Later on your nipples are not sore, I don’t think it is because they harden or toughen up, but the baby is simply not nursing as long. Also, the first couple of months, your milk will come in copious amounts. Way more than the baby needs and this all overflows. Especially, with the first baby. With D1, I couldn’t keep my clothes dry. With D2 I only leak when I nurse.

When your nipples are leaking constantly and all that nursing is going on, they are never dry it seems and this makes them really sore and even painful to nurse. So much that you might seriously consider quitting. I am not kidding. I tried using pads, not wearing a bra and just changing my shirt, so my nipples were not in a wet bra or pads the whole time. But be careful too much no bra will make your breasts sag because they are so heavy with milk.

Another reason for sore nipples early on is, the babies have such little mouths and they are just able to suck on your nipple, which gets painful and sore easily. Later as they grow, their mouths latch on to the breast and not pull on the nipple. So the soreness goes away.

When I was nursing with D2 and was home, I would use one of those little ziploc 4oz containers and stick it under my bra and nurse on the other side. This way all the milk leaking collects in the container and I am dry. I don’t know if you can wear these all day or not. But it’s worth a try, if they will keep your nipples drier and out of friction with your shirt. Or you may get lucky and not leak as much.

Finally a note on to nurse or not to nurse. I think sometimes it works like a charm, sometimes you have to work at it. Sometimes, it is simply not meant to be. Despite what lactaction experts tell you, I believe (I don't have any proof of this) that some women do not produce enough milk to feed their babies adequately. Accept where you are and you will reduce so much stress from you life and enjoy your baby more.