Hi ladies,
I haven't posted in a while due to being kinda overwhelmed with work and baby. But I wanted to come back to say thank you to everyone for all the knowledge and support that I have gained from this board, it truly was invaluable. After 15 months of breastfeeding, 14 months exclusively, I decided to wean DD because (surprise!) we are expecting baby # 2. I know that nursing while pregnant is an option, but weaning was the best decision for us. It was very emotional and I can't help but cry as I write this post, but DD is now happy and fine with milk in a cup. I had a very rocky start to BF and in the beginning it seemed like it wouldn't be in the cards for me, so I also wanted to share my story to let anyone going through a similar experience that you can do it!
I had an unplanned c/s due to fetal distress at 41 weeks. I never went into labor on my own, and while DD latched on like a champ (I was able to do skin to skin and nurse her 15 minutes after surgery) my milk just wouldn't come in. The first couple days she literally nursed around the clock and wasn't getting hardly anything. I saw a lactation consultant, but she lost so much weight we had to give her formula by the 3rd day. The LC encouraged me to still nurse as much as I could and sent me home with a hospital grade rental. It was hard and a real struggle to get more than a tiny amount out. But we stuck with it and slowly but surely my milk came in, although it still wasn't enough. Week 1 was mostly all formula and whatever drops of milk I could produce. Then Week 2 was a little more breast milk, but still mostly formula. Week 3 started to pick up for my production but she still needed about 3 bottles of formula a day. Then, so thankfully, by the beginning of Week 4 I had enough milk to nurse her with no supplementation and we never looked back!
I know that I would not have made it without all the wonderful ladies on this board. So thank you again and I'm looking forward to BF baby # 2!
Re: Ending my BF Journey for now - thanks and my story