Breastfeeding Day 1 – expressing colostrum by syringe
My baby boy Will was born at 4am on a Sunday morning. He is my second child and I failed to breastfeed my daughter so was keen on making breastfeeding a success with my son. I’d prepared by watching youtube videos on ‘latching-on’ and read ‘The womanly art of breastfeeding’ from the La Leche League whilst I was pregnant.
Most of the colostrum he received on the first day was from a syringe as he fell asleep as soon as he got anywhere near my breast. By the evening of the first day, however, he had woken up and started to latch on, and once he did he didn’t want to latch off! He fed constantly from 10pm – 2am while I was in hospital. I went to the midwife on duty for help as I’d had two nights without sleep and was facing a third. She showed me the laying down breastfeeding position so I could get some rest. She came back several times to try and put Will back in the cot but every time she did he screamed and she would tuck him back in with me. We woke up at 6am together in the hospital bed.
I didn’t google anything on this day – all the help I needed came from the midwifes.
Breastfeeding Day 2 – constantly breastfeeding
Still in the hospital, Will continued to be constantly attached to my breasts. I moved him from one breast to another for 4 hours. I got midwifes to check my latch as I was concerned he was’t getting much colostrum because he was feeding constantly. Will finally went back to sleep at 2pm and I got a little bit of rest for a few hours. The midwifes warned me that Will was just priming me so that I would make enough milk, they also warned me that that night would be hard work and that he would need lots of breastfeeding.
We were discharged from hospital at 6pm. Once home I started breastfeeding at 8pm and continued to move him from one breast to another for the rest of the night, whilst watching ‘good latch’ videos on my phone. At 4am, exhausted and tearful I asked my husband to open the emergency formula which we fed to him from a syringe. I was very distressed and felt that I had already failed at breastfeeding, but I desperately needed some sleep. He took 90ml of formula and my husband settled him back in his moses basket and I got a few hours sleep.
Breastfeeding Day 3 – sore nipples
I got up at about 8am after a few hours sleep feeling fragile. I continued to breastfeed Will but my nipples were starting to feel really sore. When the midwife arrived, I got them to check my breastfeeding latch and position again, they said everything looked fine, the midwife told me not to breastfeed for more than half an hour on each breast as I would get sore. My breastfeeding sessions were lasting over an hour – I was pinned to the sofa.
I spent another night breastfeeding for long periods and it was becoming painful. I was concerned that Will wasn’t getting enough colostrum, he would only suck for a few seconds and then rest for long periods.
Breastfeeding Day 4 – tongue tie, formula, expressed breast milk and engorgement.
We dropped my daughter to playgroup and then my husband took me up to the local Baby Cafe. Once there, I spoke to a health visitor about my nipple pain and concern about Will’s latch. She looked in his mouth and said he looked as though he had tongue tie. I felt immense relief that there was actually a problem and it that wasn’t just me not being able to breastfeed. We were very lucky to get an appointment at the hospital’s tongue tie clinic for the next day, many people have to wait weeks. I asked the health visitor what I should do in the meantime, should I continue breastfeeding or express until my appointment? She suggested I try nipple shields.
Once home, I tried the nipple shields which Will hated, the rest of the afternoon and evening Will received formula, expressed milk and breast milk from my breast. Funnily enough, now that I knew there was a problem, I was more relaxed about breastfeeding and I noticed that it was starting to hurt less. I was scared about giving Will formula in case it affected my supply, but I was also scared that he wasn’t getting enough breast milk, and was falling into an exhausted frustrated sleep, rather than a contented one.
That night I was also starting to suffer from engorgement as my milk was coming in, so I needed to express during the night, as my breasts were becoming hard, painful and huge!
Breastfeeding Day 5 – the tongue tie clinic and engorgement
I awoke with very sore engorged breasts and as I was cleaning our breast pump I managed to tear the membrane. My husband and I spent the next 20 minutes turning the kitchen upside down, frantically searching for the spare membranes, which we found luckily! We arrived at the clinic I was anxious, but the Doctor at the clinic chatted to me for a good half an hour, about my breastfeeding concerns, and told me I was doing a great job, which made me cry! We laughed at the fact that I had managed to put mascara on that morning, despite everything! The tongue tie procedure was actually over very quickly. We were asked to leave the room when Will had his tongue frenulum snipped. I fed him straight after the procedure – there wasn’t an amazing difference in how it felt but I was starting to feel less pain.
Breastfeeding Day 6 – more latch concerns
Even though Will had the tongue tie procedure, I still had concerns about whether he was latching on correctly. Will had a favourite breast, my left one, and I tended to feed more often from this side as it was more comfortable for me. I had less nipple pain on this side too. On my right breast he never seemed to feed as well, he just didn’t seem to swallow as much.
The midwife returned and Will was weighed. Amazingly he had put on weight since birth which is quite unusual in the first week. Although I didn’t feel like things were going well with breastfeeding, at least my baby wasn’t starving!
Breastfeeding Day 7 – how long should one breastfeed take?
One week on I still wasn’t confident about my breastfeeding technique. Will was still falling asleep during most feeds and I was worried he was exhausted. He was also taking up to 45 minutes on each breast.
My google searches during the first week of breastfeeding:
- correct latch video
- breastfeeding clicking noise
- colostrum feeding flutter
- colostrum feeding butterfly
- colostrum feeding
- breastfeeding first few days
- day 2 breastfeeding
- earlswood baby cafe
- breastfeeding cafe horley
- latch on techniques
- breastfeeding tops uk
- lily pad breast pads breastfeeding tops uk
- breastfeeding tops
- asda breastfeeding tops
- breastfeeding sucking
- breastfeeding sucking pattern
- breasfeeding cafe earlswood
- breastfeeding after tongue tie
- breastfeeding short sucks swallow
- tongue tie
- baby cafe earlswood
- deep latch technique
- good latch
- breastfeeding sucking swallow
- compression feeding
- faster breastfeeding
- famous bottle fed people
- history of breastfeeding uk
- history of breastfeeding
- breastfeeding cafe horley
- percentage of breastfed babies uk
- multi vitamins while breastfeeding
- breastfeeding week by week
- what to expect when breastfeeding
- breastfeeding positions for deep latch
- breastfeeding selfie
- breastfeeding pillow
- argos breastfeeding pillow
- painful latch newborn
- good latch breastfeeding
- latch on techniques
- breastfeeding bras
- engorged breast
- breast feeding counsellor east surrey
We persevered though, and by the end of the second week, we were getting better at it. The latch wasn’t hurting anymore, and we were starting to get a bit quicker at the feeds.
I ended up breastfeeding for a whole year, which I never intended to do, I thought I would just do the 6 months. Once breastfeeding was established, it was so convenient, warm milk ready whenever Will was hungry! It fitted into my chaotic life, with a baby and 2 year old.
Nature & Nurture 