Breast feeding success stories

[Roquen]

I thought I should post here in the hope of inspiring someone else to keep BF! My story isn't anything amazing, but here goes..!

Jordan was born 26 Feb 08, 40W+6d. After a really traumatic 30 hour labour, he was taken away from me for 30 minutes while I was in recovery. At the time I was upset as I really wanted a chance to try and feed asap but I was shaking uncontrollably and extremely exhausted and it did give me a chance to gather myself and prepare.

When I was reunited with him, the midwife assisted me with trying to feed, in a number of different holds, but he couldn't latch on and was getting frustrated. My normally B cup boobies were DD and chocka block full. He was jaundiced, so got tired easily too which wasn't helping. We ended up expressing a few drops of colostrum and used a syringe to drip into his mouth, the next feed, we expressed a little more and had to stomach tube, then the next feed we got 20ml so he had that from a bottle.

After about 3 days of frustrating BF attempts where he was only getting small amounts every so often, we tried a nipple shield with success! He could finally latch on and have a good suck. I was experiencing a lot of pain even with the shield which was turning me off the whole idea. When home, I gradually tried without the shield, with or with out it though, the pain was toe curling, excruciating every feed for the first 10 minutes or so, and this lil man was feeding every 2 hours around the clock on the dot!

I persevered, and resorted to the odd panadol to get through a feed, and kept reminding myself why I was doing it. Around the 4 week mark, (still at 2 hourly feeds), he was able to latch on without the shield, so I threw it away so I wouldn't be tempted to use it anymore. The pain was still happening, but after about another 3 weeks, it vanished. I have now been exclusively bf for just under 4 mnths, and I love it!

I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to feeds now, I used to dread it! I am so glad I stuck it out, many nights when I was in pain from the birth, in bed trying to feed a screaming little man, I wanted to give up so much, but it was well worth it as now it is truly a enjoyable experience and its our special time together.