Biggest BF'ing struggle that you overcame

aztoid2006 · August 2012

Yea, I am a PW this morning!

What is the biggest BF'ing struggle that you overcame? For some people, bf'ing came easy (I hope!). But for others, I think it was hard. What did you overcome?

aztoid2006 · August 2012

For us, Caleb could not latch right away because he could not suck. We had to go see a physical therapist to teach him how to suck beofre he could latch. For the first week of his life, we used a syringe and feeding tube to finger feed him, then switched to a bottle. I EP'ed for the first month. Then we were slowly able to switch to bf'ing with a nipple shield, and finally at about 2.5 months we were able to ditch the shield.

I am really proud of the fact that we stuck with it. My pediatrician told us at the 2 month appointment that he was surprised we stuck with it and that most people would have given up! Caleb will 14 months on Saurday, and we are still going 2x a day!

Sleepdeprived2011 · August 2012

DS always seemed unsatisfied and he had a hard time gaining weight. It wasn't until we introduced a bottle of formula a day that I relaxed and was able to enjoy nursing him.

kimbo1216 · August 2012

Continuing to pump when my nipples were so cracked and bleeding I felt like they were going to fall off.

Yah. I stopped at 1 year for a reason. lol. An my nipples were thankful!

JavaVino910 · August 2012

BF didn't come easy for me. We definitely had some struggles. The first few weeks we struggled with the latch, especially on the left-side. I would try to nurse her, then pump and DH would feed her the pumped milk with a syringe. The first week I didn't pump enough and we had to supplement with a little bit of formula. I think the first few weeks of struggling with BF in combination with severe lack of sleep and crazy hormones made it the most difficult time in my life.

I'm also really proud of how far we've come and how easy BF seems now. Hopefully if we have another LO, I will be able to handle everything a little better.

amberpro · August 2012

We were lucky. BFing came so natural to me. What sucked was pumping when I went back to work. I had zero stash and pumped 1 day to use the next. It also sucked giving up every break for 8 months.

bookkitten · August 2012

I had crappy supply. I tried everything - fenugreek, Mother's Milk tea, pumping around the clock, nursing "vacations," milk-making cookies, dark bear, oatmeal, and finally, Domperidone. Nope. We still had to supplement. Aaand, just for extra fun, I had some painful clogging issues for a few weeks. I am so grateful for the amazing LC who worked with me and reassured me as I wept and that my husband is a farking Rock Star and never made me feel alone. At 14 months, we still nurse and for the first time, it is stress-free for me. I am so glad I never gave up.

DaisyJanie · August 2012

BFing was really painful from 1 week - 5 weeks. Some of that time I EP'd while my nipples healed, but I still nursed him at least once a day because I didn't want him to forget how, and we had some tongue exercises he needed to do to improve his latch. I had trouble keeping my supply up during that time and was pumping all the time to keep up (and still used a little formula). I'm glad I stuck it out, because it was so much easier once we were past that. And now that I'm only nursing twice a day and don't have to pump at work, it's awesome how easy it is!

bestmaid6 · August 2012

My left nipple in inverted and during the first six weeks it had a huge open sore on it because it was constantly being pulled out when DS nursed. It hurt so much and I would cry when he nursed on that side. It eventually healed, and though it is a bit more sensitive than the right side, we've been going strong ever since.

jcsumm0 · August 2012

DD was in the NICU the first 5 days of her life, so I had to pump to bring my milk in. For the first couple of days, she couldn't nurse or drink from a bottle because they were concerned about possible bleeding in her stomach. Then she got to nurse and she was supplemented with some donor milk. When we came home, for the first 6 weeks or so, she had a bit of supplement (first formula and then my milk), then nursed, then I would pump after that. It was exhausting. Once she was gaining weight and nursing well, we stopped supplementing, and a few weeks later, weaned off the nipple shield.

It was so hard at first but I am so glad I stuck with it.

I love reading everyone else's story too, y'all are making me tear up!

MrsEmilyS · August 2012

DD was in the NICU so we had latch issues at first....I think she has a shallow latch. I BFed with a guard thingy (can't think what it was called) for a few months until one day DD ripped it off and my nips finally toughened up.

All in all BFing came pretty easy for me

Syncronicity09 · August 2012

I had major problems with one nipple. It actually disappeared and I had to force Ash to latch on to get it to come back. It was very painful and caused sores that lasted almost 2 months. BF'ing was excruciating for those 2 motnhs, and I had decided to quit once I went back to work. It cleared up suddenly one day just days before I went back to work, and I was able to continue breastfeeding until 9 months when Ash self weaned.

sunshine336 · August 2012

I remember BFing being painful at first, but only for about the first 10-15 seconds after M latched on- and it was nothing compared to what others have been through- cracked and bleeding nipples, pumping around the clock, etc. So, for me, BFing really hasn't been a struggle. I count myself very lucky.

Currently I'm dealing with family members "advising" me to wean sooner rather than later, but since I live so far away I can just smile and nod and then hang up the phone. I can tell DH would like me to start weaning, but he isn't going to fight me on it.

march2008 · August 2012

2 things:

1. I woke up the day after DD was born and I realized I had cracked nipples with a bit of bleeding. The LC in the hospital kept telling me that her latch was "fine" and that I just must have had sensitive skin. I ended up hiring a private LC a few days after we got home because it became so incredibly painful to nurse. I had to pump for several days and DH fed her for me with my pumped milk, which gave my nipples time to heal (they got scabs all over them and looked like they had been through a war!!!). We then used a nipple shield for several more days and then I started to do only every other session with the nipple shield. Long story short, we got through all of that after several weeks and continued on with no problems, up until DD turned 9 months and her teeth came in....

2. Which brings me to problem 2. When DD was getting her top front teeth in at around 9 months, her sharp teeth gave me some abrasions on my nipples and her latch got completely off. I had to work with a LC again and we realized that I had some sort of infection that came about because of the wounds I had from her teeth. It ended up being both bacterial and fungal and I had to pump while DH was home and he bottle fed her again. I still BF during the day - in excruciating pain, but we got through it. It took several weeks to heal. DD is 14 months old and we're still BF'ing and hope to continue on as long as she wants.

MommaA117 · August 2012

The pain of razor blades in the beginning. After that is was easy.

northtamarack · August 2012

Cutting out all soy and dairy - even the hidden sources. I was back at work once we figured out LO had a dairy intolerance. Not only was I exhausted (DS cried a vast majority of the time), but I had to figure out how to re-think about eating. Now it is NBD, but it seemed like a mountain at the time!

Mastitis wasn't fun either.

ann_jeremiah · August 2012

Coming up with a crazy schedule of nursing and pumping, because DS wouldn't suck long enough for a let down.

Also the toe curling pain when the sucking would start.

LauraOTR · August 2012

We had a really rough first few weeks. LO was only 5lb, 12oz and slightly jaundiced when he was born, so he was super sleepy. I could barely wake him up to nurse him and when I did get him awake, he wouldn't latch, or would latch and immediately fall back asleep. He lost more weight than he should have, so on Dr's orders, we had to feed every 2 hours around the clock. When he wouldn't latch, I'd have to pump, and we syringe fed him. So, it would be 20 min of trying to nurse, 20 min of pumping, then another 20-30 min of feeding....By the time he was finished, I'd get to sleep for an hour before starting the process again. It was exhausting and I wanted to quit every day. I remember crying to DH that I just wasn't goign to be able to breastfeed, but we kept trying.

After he gained some weight and woke up a bit, right around 2 weeks, he finally started latching regularly. I think our last syringe feed was around 3 weeks. At that time, the pain had been getting really bad, and just kept getting worse. Went back to the LC around 5 weeks, who told us he had a really long upper lip frenulum, and was tucking his top lip in, which was tearing up my nipples (no bleeding thanfully, but they were like cherries and latching was like razors). We consulted a pedi dentist and had his frenulum lasered around 6 weeks. It took some retraining (I'd have to flip his lip out each time b/c it was habit), but he was doing better almost immediatly and the pain was gone by about 2-2.5 months. Around 3 months, I'd say it was downright easy.

I'm so glad we stuck with it, despite the two major issues early on. I nursed until almost 14 months and it is the best thing I've ever done. I miss it every day, but we were both ready to be done. Despite all that, I will 100% give my all to nurse #2 (whenever #2 comes along).

LollyBug18 · August 2012

You ladies are rock stars! After first I was thinking that I hope new mommas-to-be were reading this thread and being scared off by all the troubles but every trouble worked out and ended positively (or is still going in a lot of cases!).

For us, I don't know that I'll ever forget the break down that I had on day 11. DH had to take off work to take us to the LC because I was in so much pain from DD's pore latch. I wasn't healing and she wasn't getting any better at eating, despite being told by the hospital LC that we were doing everything right. I was miserable and hormonal and just a big ole mess. We went to the LC and she told me I was right, that the other LC was wrong, showed me how to fix DD's latch and it was pretty smooth sailing after that. The other really hard time was when I was first pregnant again and still nursing about 5 times a day. I was exhausted and felt like I could barely get off the couch, it was so draining. But we started supplementing with a bottle or two of formula and it got a lot better. I'm glad I didn't wean right away.

kpaivel · August 2012

This exactly.

ETA: Oops, meant to quote.

kpaivel · August 2012

MommaA117:
The pain of razor blades in the beginning. After that is was easy.

This exactly.

chuicafina · August 2012

When DS was a week old, he took a chunk of my right nipple off. It was a small chunk, but it was soo painful for about a month until the tissue came back. I have no idea how he got that chunk, but my nipples were just so raw. I dreaded nursing him on my right side so much during that time. I think my supply on that side never fully recovered. We're still going 4 times a day, though, so we made it through!

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