Adventures in Breastfeeding

Like many moms, I nursed Anthony soon after he was born. But once he went into the nursery, it was doctor's orders that we couldn't nurse until my milk came in. Once my milk came in I was allowed to nurse him once a day. The nurses would weigh him, let him eat, then weigh him again. And it didn't take long for us to figure out that his transfers were very low. Because of this and his feeding issues,  Little Man was fed from a bottle. I used a breast pump to get my milk in and carried bottles of milk into the nursery everyday when I visited him.

By the time he came home, he had nipple confusion. He would not latch onto my breast very often, though I tried to offer him a breast at every feeding. I was pumping about eight times a day while taking care of a premature newborn. I was so exhausted, I was considering switching to formula. So I called a lactation consultant. She gave us a nipple shield and there was light at the end of the tunnel. From that point on Little Man latched on every time. His transfers still weren't high enough to be done with the bottle (preemies have trouble organizing their jaws and suckling effectively) but I was able to stop the overnight pumpings at least. Within a week he had upped his transfers enough that he didn't always need a bottle to supplement.

But sadly that wasn't the only issue. He had diarrhea, gas, and the associated fussiness frequently. After discussing it with his doctor, we figured he was sensitive to enzymes from the dairy products I ate so I cut all dairy out of my diet. Do you have any idea how hard it is to avoid all dairy? It's in everything I love. But I was willing to put up with a special diet if he helped. The problem is it didn't. He still had diarrhea, though not as frequently. He also had times when he kept eating even though I knew he wasn't hungry. So one night I Googled 'Will a baby eat when he isn't hungry' and found an article on lactose overload. It's basically when a baby eats too much foremilk (the frothier milk that comes out of the boob first) and not enough hindmilk (which has more fat so stays in his intestines longer). It was because I switched sides frequently because my son didn't like the slower flow. So we reorganized and called lactation again. Now I keep relatching him to.the same breast as long as he'll stay on it. It's too soon to tell if it's working, but he seems to be more content. I have hope. I'm sure we'll have other issues down the road, but for we got this.