Have you ever felt particularly ornery and refused to do something, even if--or perhaps because--it was best for you? Well, that's what happened to me a few days ago when I decided to go on a nursing strike. What's that, you ask? Well, it's just what it sounds like: I suddenly refused to breastfeed and only wanted to drink from my baba. Now, this wasn't a happy choice or anything... in fact, Mommy May and I were both quite miserable about it.
Mommy May has been feeling more than a little stretched and stressed out since going back to work, and this just about put her over the edge. Mommy and Daddy May started training me to drink from a bottle (my baba) since I was about a month old. Mommy May nursed me whenever she was home, but she wanted me to be ok with drinking from a bottle once she went back to work. Everything went along very smoothly at first. They were a little worried about something called nipple confusion, but I seemed to handle the differences just fine.
As an aside, Mommy May has been doing her absolute best to pump as much milk as possible while at work. She pumps 3 times during each work day--and 1-2 more times at home each night after I go to sleep!! Even with all that pumping, she can barely keep up with how much milk I'm drinking each day while she's gone. She says she was getting more and more stressed out with each pumping session, and then I suddenly didn't want to breastfeed anymore with her on the weekends. To make up the difference, we decided to pick up some formula that Lila's mommy recommended, but that stuff was nasty!! It smelled gross, and I can tell you from experience that it also tasted gross!! I was having none of it. That, gentle readers, was the last straw for my beleaguered Mommy May.
Mommy May talked to a lactation consultant at Kaiser, and the nurse had lots of good advice for us. She recommended that Mommy May carry me around in a sling, take a warm bath with me, nurse while walking around (no easy feat, I can tell you!), and feed me while I was sleepy or just waking up. Most of these things worked to some degree at different times, and, after a few days, we started to move back to our normal routine. We even tried a different formula (Similac Advance with EarlyShield), and I didn't mind it at all! For the most part, I am happily back to nursing when I'm with Mommy May and drinking breastmilk or formula while she's working. I have to admit that I really like my routine of nursing with Mommy May during the morning and at night and drinking from my baba during the day. I guess you can call me a creature of habit.
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2 comments:
So glad breastfeeding is back on track. I'm curious which of those suggestions worked for you and Evan?
Lillian, there were two things that worked best and got him nursing again. The first was to walk him around and feed him while walking. He has always liked being held and rocked to sleep, so I used the same position and eventually got him to feed--though he still fought it at first! The other was to use his favorite time of day, bath time, and take him and feed him in the shower. He didn't complain at all and latched on right away.
As we move forward from this, the lesson I have learned is to be sure and feed him often, particularly when he's happy and still sleepy from a nap... and, of course, before he gets so hungry he can't wait!
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