One More Feeding
Karin
AZ USA
From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 19 No. 1, January-February 2002, p. 11
My husband and I eagerly
awaited the birth of our son, Jacob. We agreed that breastfeeding was
best and took a breastfeeding class. Okay, I thought, women have done
this for thousands of years, so I can do it too. I knew it might be
challenging, but I am a determined woman. My friends and family asked
if I was planning to breastfeed and for how long. I told them that I
would give it my best shot and we'd breastfeed for at least three months,
but my ultimate goal was one year. I believed that if we breastfed for
three months, we'd probably go to six months when my baby would start
solids. Then, since we would be half way through a year, I reasoned,
why buy bottles and formula for six months when we had free, superior
milk already available?
Jacob was born three weeks
early and he didn't seem very interested in breastfeeding in the hospital.
We worked with a lactation consultant, but he had a lazy suck, which
I was told was typical of early arrivals. I expressed my colostrum and
syringe-fed my newborn. My milk came in on the morning of our hospital
discharge and I figured that Jacob would latch on better. The lactation
consultant helped us some more with positioning and latch-on, but Jacob
still wasn't very interested. We started using a nipple shield and he
managed to latch on.
The first few nights at home
were fine. I had to wake Jacob to feed him every two hours, but he latched
on well enough to the nipple shield and he nursed for several minutes
before he would fall deep asleep. I felt like a breastfeeding success.
It was so wonderful to watch him nurse and become so content at my breast.
But there was this plastic thing in the picture. Oh well, I thought,
at least he was breastfeeding.
I tried to latch Jacob directly
on to the breast, but he pinched my nipples and then choked on my milk
because I had a large supply. My husband comforted me and coaxed me
into calling the lactation
consultant again. Jacob and I met with her at the hospital. He latched
on well when she was there to help me. I went home confident that we
would breastfeed, not aiming for three months, but for one more feeding.
Three months was too overwhelming. So, again, I made an attainable goal
for myself: one more feeding.
"One more feeding"
became my motto for the next four weeks. We had at least three more
sessions with the lactation consultant, we began attending LLL meetings,
and I began reaching out to other breastfeeding mothers. "One more
feeding" stretched through nights and into days and then became
a few weeks. I was managing one more feeding, but I began looking to
the future wondering when it was going to get better. I always seemed
to be struggling to get Jacob to nurse and everything seemed so unpredictable.
The first question I asked my wonderful LLL Leader was "When will
this get better?" She could not tell me when, but assured me that
it would.
It took Jacob and me a good
six weeks to get breastfeeding down and another month before I was comfortable
breastfeeding in public. At home I would watch my wonderful son nursing,
and the picture was now perfect; no plastic shield, no more overwhelming
let-downs that choked him, fewer and fewer nursing pillows.
We achieved our three-month
goal, and then our six-month goal. I was certain that we would wean
when Jacob began walking, but now that he has been walking for more
than a month, Jacob doesn't appear to be ready to wean, nor am I.
I hope that other struggling
mothers will remember to take baby steps, just as our children do. One
more feeding has gotten us far!
Last updated Friday, September 15, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:30:37 UTC 2007.
