Lil bundle latched immidately after birth, and I had LC's visit us in the hospital daily to help get us both comfortable. We left the hospital with her latching well, and eating a lot! However, the latch started becoming extremely painful. She had eaten so much the second night in the hospital that she had literally drawn blood from my nips, and I had open wounds. Every single time she would nurse I would hold my breath in pain, and honestly I did not want to feed her because it hurt so bad. I made an appointment with the LC to check and make sure she was latching correctly because I knew it was not suppose to hurt. The LC checked her latch said it was great, checked her tongue, and said there was no issue. She stood there stumped for a moment as to why it was hurting me so bad. She then put her finger in Mckinlee's mouth and was like "OMG your baby sucks like a piranha". It was then that she gave me a life saver in the form of a little object called a nipple shield. No more pain, no more bleeding, and a perfect latch every time!
We have been using nipple shields since Mckinlee's 4th day on earth. She latches automatically, eats well, and has no nipple confusion at all. She is able to go between binky, bottle, and nipple shield no problem. The only downfall is that they are messy, but we are working on that. (Any mama's out there who have used them have any advice on how to cut down on the mess?).
Mckinlee usually eats every 2 1/2-3 hours, but she cluster feeds before bed. We have started giving her a bottle at midnight and I will pump while hubby feeds. She is taking about 3 ounces at that feeding, and then she sleeps until around 4. That is the only bottle she takes during the day unless our schedule is awkward. She is doing so great, and I am so thankful that breastfeeding is going so well this time.
7 comments:
Yay Sarah, I am so happy that it is going well for you!
aw! good for you! breastfeeding was probably one of my fav parts of infancy - such a great mommy-baby bonding time :) enjoy it, sweet friend!
I just want to warn you that nipple shields will decrease your milk supply over time. They actually have warnings in the directions that come with the packaging about this possibility. With my first baby I was given them while in the hospital and by 3 weeks postpartum I had almost no milk left and had to give up on breastfeeding. I was devastated. I have had 3 more babies and never used a shield again and have never had any more problems with production. It made me really upset that the LC at my hospital started me on something without warning me of the effects of continued use.
I say this with genuine love and concern from the experience of my own disappointment. Just make sure you educate yourself about whether it's the right thing to do or not.
I used nipple shields with Owen for the first 6-8 week and I nursed until he was 6 months old. I too was bleeding and in so much pain. Breast feeding in general is kinda messy the first month or so. at least it has been with both of my kiddos.
Once your body adjust you can try to nurse without the shield. If she doesn't switch right away just keep trying. And It won't hurt like it did in the beginning ever again... I promise. Even with the next baby- it's never as bad as that. This time I had no use for the shields, everything went very smoothly.
I can't believe how similar our situations are - a toddler boy, brand new baby girl, issues bf'ing with the first, better luck this time, until bleeding nipples. I haven't tried the nipple shield yet because last time it really hurt me. I'm trying to work on her latch.
Good luck to you, glad the shield is helping.
I only had to use the nipple shield for for the first few weeks. After that my nipples had healed baby wasnt sucking so hard. I took a tiny bit of Lanolin and rubbed it around the inside of the shield then applied to my breast. Held it in place and leaked a little less.
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