Breast feeding success stories

[MummaSue]

It really IS amazing. Hehe, she has THE CHUBBIEST thighs (gets it from me)!!! She's sooooo cute!

I text DH yesterday to tell him that I'd got her weighed (I don't get her weighed often, it stresses me out - and I am sick of health professionals telling me she should be on solids) and he text back saying "f&$k". LOL, he can't believe it either.

[maz]

can I let you guys on a little secret

on days when I feel blerg and emotions are all over the place...i come in here and read everyones stories and I end up with tears of joy down my face.

BFing was such along time ago for me now....I am so proud that I stuck to my guns and did it with M. He is such a smart, strong and happy little man, even with his disabilities he just keep son going.
He is 3 in January...and for the little boy who they said would remain extremly small and unable to walk, he is a whopping 17.5kg, in size 4 clothing and runs everywere.

Just believing in your body and what it does is the most positive reenforcment anyone can give.

[MummaSue]

That's fabulous Maz.

You're so right in saying believe in your body. Over the past 15 months, my body has done things that I didn't think it was capable of - IVF, pregnancy and now breastfeeding. I am so proud of myself. (although I'd never tell anyone else but you guys that hehe).

Sue xxx

[HotI]

i'm pretty proud and amazed to. i'm waiting til the 6 month mark, but not too much longer and i will post my story too.

[bec293]

I just posted this in another thread, and thought I'd share it here too. My baby was only born a month and a half ago, but we had a little bit of a rocky start and I'm so glad now I didn't give in to the pressure to formula feed.

I was scared I wouldn't be able to bf. It was something I really wanted to do, and I think being determined to do it helped so much. I had to have an emergency c-section, so my milk was a day or so late coming in. During our first few days in hospital DS lost too much weight and had low blood sugar levels. One of the midwives kept telling me to give him formula, but I was stubborn and wanted to get bf working for us. The same midwife also kept hounding mre to give him to her at night time, so she could keep him quiet when he was hungry to give me more sleep.. but I knew delaying feeding wasn't recommended while my supply was building up (she was obviously not encouraging bf). So I kept breastfeeding, but as I only had colostrum when DS wanted milk, he'd get frustrated and hungry and would cry during feeds. A different midwife brought in an electric pump, so I expressed every 3 hours and topped up each feed with EBM. Then the bf got harder and harder with a frustrated baby, so I just gave him EBM only. This was very hard work, expressing all the time, but I continued it after we went home. I found a lactation consultant, she came to our house to help me with the feeding problems the next week, and the week after. We eventually got the hang of it, and because I didn't resort to formula my supply was great. Now I am exclusively bf, no expressing at all (except to keep an emergency supply in the freezer), and now it is so easy!!

It may be difficult to start with, and now even though its only been 6 and a half weeks, it is just the best. Night feeds are so much easier, and feeding is a beautiful bonding time for us, I love it.

At our last weigh in at 5 weeks old, my boy had gained 610 grams from the week before.. making it a total of over 1.1kg gain in three weeks, so it looks like my milk is working! So proud of my boobs

[MantaRay]

Bec, thank you so much for sharing. Well done hun. That sure is a success story and has really given me the warm fuzzies. I am so glad that your determination paid off for you. You are doing a wonderful job and I'm really pleased to hear that things are easier now

I'm looking forward to your story too Kate.

[MummaSue]

Bec, that is fantastic, good on you hun

[HotI]

I have been breastfeeding for 7 months now. Yay for us! My journey wasn't a difficult one but it involved a lot of research and preparation.

I have a medical condition and have to take medication. If you look them up in the MIMS book, the basic recomendation is not to be taken during pregnancy and not to be taken whilst breastfeeding. I don't really have the choice to not take the meds, and i was interested in having children and my preference was to breastfeed and so my research began. I looked into the studies of the medicines that were used to make the recomendations, and found they were only animal studies using massive doses of the drug. I checked out pubmed for articles on humans taking these drugs whilst pregnant or breastfeeding and although there weren't many articles on pregnancy and even fewer mentioning breastfeeding, no birth defects or conditions were attributed to use of the medications.

I discussed the info with my neuro, and an Ob through the high risk pregnancy clinic who agreed that the risk of the medications harming the bub during pregnancy was low and the adverse effects of stopping meds were high. However they were not so willing to commit to breastfeeding. I got in contact with Rodney Whyte who looked into my meds for me, and he said that although there was little published data either way, he would be comfortable in me trying breastfeeding. He said that it was actually abit easier to work out meds for breastfeeding compared to pregnancy because with breastfeeding you can observe the baby and look for many potential adverse effects where as with pregnancy you can't see the bub.

He also pointed out that my meds have a side effect of reducing prolactin, and this could affect my ability to produce milk (wouldn't know til i tried) and that meds used to increase supply would decrease the effect of my meds (so not an option for me). With this in mind, i wanted to be as proactive as possible. I got a subscription to the ABA and read their book "Breastfeeding Naturally" cover to cover. I went to a breastfeeding class and bought some BFing singlets i would be comfortable to feed in. I read heaps of the threads on BB on breastfeeding and many of the articles on the ABA website.

So, when my beautiful baby girl was born she was placed on my tummy straightaway. Some of the goo was wiped off with towels (also to stimulate her cos she was a little shocked). We had skin cuddles and soon after she made it to my breast and had her first feed- amazing stuff! We stayed there for more than an hour before bub was weighed and dressed and had a cuddle with her Dad.

Whilst in hospital, the midwives said that we looked like we had done this before, bub and i worked out breastfeeding pretty quickly. I credit this to the info i got from BB, the ABA and being able to have that gorgeous skin contact with bub.

My only difficulties were on Day 3 when bub was feeding lots and lots and i was tired and wasn't paying attention to her attachment and we did a little nipple damage. The midwife on duty that night was very unhelpful., especially when she told me that i was 'starving' my baby after i asked if i was doing something wrong after bub had been feeding constantly for hours. Again, without the info i had received from BF supportive folk i may have made different choices at that time, but i really wanted it to work.

As my medical condition sparked up after the birth, i needed some help in looking after bub but breastfeeding was something that only i could do for her, and it was so cool that it was working! I learnt to feed lying down and other positions. When we got home, DH would get her up for me and change her nappy and bring her to me for a feed.

DD had great weight gains over the first few weeks which then slowed down. At 5 weeks she only gained 30 grams for the week, and the MCHN at my Mother s group recommend that i go to the local council breastfeeding day stay clinic just to check technique. I went to this which just rattled my confidence. At the clinic, when the LC found out about my meds she rang an info line and then said that both meds affected prolactin and i would be unable to exclusively BF bub. She started telling me about formula and how to make it up, which to choose....

I drove home crying. Then i talked to DH who said it didnt make sense. My boobs were still massive, i was leaking milk often, baby was happy, plenty of wet nappies etc. We weren't ready to give up yet.

Bub really only took one side each time at this stage, so i began offering the second side each time. She often wouldn't take it but i kept offering. If she got cranky with one side, i would offer the other instead. I figured she knew what she needed better than me so would go with her flow. At the next weigh in, she had put on 320grams in two weeks (including the week where she put on just 30g) so the extra offering was working or maybe the scales were not working the week before?

Bubs weight gains were about 100g a week. She was born at 75% percentile weight but slowed to 50% but has been pretty steady there. I think that is just her make up. Trying to force feed her didn't work and just created stress. I regained my faith in bub and me to work it out.

So, we made it to 6 months exclusive breastfeeding Yay! and are now starting baby led solids. I don't know what effect, if any, my meds have made on my breastfeeding. We still feed over 8 times a day. Not sure whether this would have happened anyway or it is the way to encourage my boobs to make enough milk. Whatever it is, it works for bub and me.

My next goal is 12 months, but at this stage i would still like to go to 2 years. We have had a couple of illnesses in the family and so far bub has had minor versions of the sicknesses, its cool to think that breastmilk might have helped with this.

[sloane]

that's an awesome story kate you & your DD sound like a great BFing team.

fwiw, my DS was still feeding 8 times a day (at least) at 7 months & still has 3 feeds during the day plus overnight at almost 17 months....some babies just seem to be little guzzlers!

[MummaSue]

Awesome BF story Kate, I had no idea that you had all of those medical issues!! You're a machine!!

I also feed around 8 times a day sometimes more, sometimes less. I just let DD do what she wants, she knows best.

Well done on 7 months!
Sue xxx

[fi1980]

Wow - so many women have done such an amazing job often under really difficult circumstances it's just wonderful to see so many of us perservere and give bf everything we've got!

I'll keep my story brief! I've now been breastfeeding for over 12 months and I am so proud of myself and so glad I was able to make it this far.

Before having my daughter I had no real expectations for breastfeeding other than hoping I would be able to do it for a at least a few months! That might sound silly but it is just something I had never been exposed to. My mum didn't bf for long and all my friends and family seemed to have trouble bf and bottle feeding was the norm. Because of this I got a lot of pressure to put DD onto a bottle - every time she was unsettled or I was stressed I was told to just give her a bottle - as though ff would magically make everything better?? I still get told the same thing, even my next door neighbour who frequently hears DD when she is unsettled told me just the other day that maybe she needs a bottle at night

Well I showed them!! It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. Aside from having little support or encouragement to continue bf I ended up with PND which almost put an end to our bf journey. Thankfully I got some help and was able to stick it out and get back on track and 12 months into it we are still going strong with no sign of stopping anytime soon All this and I returned to work when DD was not quite 4 months old so learnt to become a champion expresser!

I'm so glad that I perservered and continued to bf, it is such a wonderful experience and is something that I know I will miss when I've completed my family and have no more babies to feed! But until then I'm going to continue enjoying every special minute!!

Fi

[MummaSue]

Good for you Fi xxxxxxx

[MantaRay]

What amazing stories. Thank you for sharing Kate and Fi. Well done to you both

[finsmum]

What an excellent thread!

My beautiful girl was born a little over 2 years ago after an induction at 42 weeks. She was tiny (under 3 kgs) and a very enthusiastic if inexpert feeder. She was shoved onto my breast by an insensitive midwife (the same one who scared me into the induction in the first place..) and after that I got her latched on, albeit painfully, often in the days that followed.

Every feed hurt, it seems it was because she had a tiny mouth and just got the nipple, not the aureole. When my milk came in at day 4, it was worse, she was feeding constantly and it hurt, but I never considered quitting; this was just something we'd figure out!

After a week or so the ends of both nipples were raw and bleeding, and I think she got as much blood as milk! I was only
worried for her, but after being reminded that breastmilk is made from blood and it was fine for her, I just persevered, trying to get the positioning right and grinding my teeth at the pain..! Slowly slowly we worked on it, and I called the ABA helpline one evening to ask if literally constant feeding was normal..! Taking her off to fix positioning seemed to make her terribly upset and desparate, as she thought booby was being taken away! Poor love!

In a month or two we got the positioning down well enough that my nipples healed. After 6 weeks I saw my chinese herbal gynocologist, and got my low supply problem fixed - later on (at about 8 months) I used fenugreek to bump it up more.

My daughter is now 2 and a bit, and is naturally starting to feed a lot less during the day, although her molars coming through have seen a return to a lot of feeding the past few days! I intend to go with her on weaning at her pace, and feel very comfortable with that.

I feel very joyful at sharing this beautiful realtionship with my gorgeous child!!

[MantaRay]

Great stuff finsmum. 2 years is a fantastic effort especially after such a difficult start.

[~clover~]

I can join in!!

We're there! We've succeeded! We beat all our problems & haven't had a problem for almost 2 weeks!!

DD has a high palate, which caused us some drama's. She also has pretty crappy suction & looses her latch with every suck, but she's getting better.
We're just lucky I have a massive let down & great supply so that it just falls into her mouth, lol.

Our first 2 weeks were ok, but then we struggled with reflux & constant cracks to my nipples.
10 weeks was our turning point this time around.

Feeling so much more relaxed & happier than ever atm

[MantaRay]

Ah Clover, I am so happy to see you here!! Congratulation hun, you have done a top job.

[finsmum]

Thank you!!