Nursing story: Ryan
As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I would breastfeed, just like I did with Alyssa. But this time around, I wasn’t going to introduce bottles. With Alyssa, I introduced bottles when she was barely two weeks old. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was easier to suckle a bottle than a breast, and by the time she was two months old I was pumping milk to feed to her via a bottle. This continued for another eight months.
I also wanted to attempt breastfeeding without the aid of a nipple shield. When Alyssa was born, the lactation consultant insisted that I needed to use one with her, due to my nipples being small and flat. Not knowing any better, I took her word and used the shield. For the brief time Alyssa would nurse, she refused to latch on without it.
This time around I was going to do things differently. I was going to nurse immediately after birth – without a nipple shield, I wasn’t going to introduce bottles, nor would I use a pacifier. And if for any reason I was unable to nurse him right away, he could receive formula, but only by an oral syringe – absolutely no bottles!
Ryan was born on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 at 9:00am. Due to him being transverse, a c-section was necessary. Immediately after birth he was handed to his father and then whisked off to the nursery while I was stitched up and sent to the recovery room for an hour before going to my room. The medications I received during the surgery made me very sick and groggy; it wasn’t until later that afternoon that I was able to stay awake for more than ten to fifteen minutes. I didn’t stop throwing up and the room didn’t stop spinning until much later that night – close to midnight.
Our first attempt at breastfeeding was around 5:00pm that day. This was at the nurse’s insistence. She told me point-blank, “You must attempt to nurse him; otherwise we will give him formula”. Those were the only words I needed to hear. Daniel helped to hold Ryan while the nurse helped me sit up and get in position. Ryan latched immediately, but he would not suck. The nurse promised to have a lactation consultant check on us first thing the next morning, then went to get an oral syringe and formula.
The LC arrived by 11:30am Thursday morning. She assessed the situation, and set to work on stimulating Ryan to suck – tickling his feet, stroking his cheek, tickling under his chin, even undressing him. It wasn’t working. The LC said she was going to get a nipple shield and a breast pump, and would return as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I was to continue trying to get Ryan to suck.
When the LC returned, I explained to her that I wanted to nurse Ryan without the nipple shield. I had done plenty of research in books and on the internet, as well as talking to other mothers directly, and I knew that babies could latch onto small nipples; it just required patience, a bit of coaxing, and some creative “nipple sandwiching”.
She did a quick check of my nipples and was satisfied that Ryan could latch, as she had seen him do. She said that she wanted me to use the shield as a way of coaxing him to suck. She thought that perhaps the feel of the shield pressing further into his mouth/on his tongue/against the roof of his mouth would stimulate him to begin to suck. I was instructed to spend fifteen minutes trying to get Ryan to suck. If he wouldn’t, go ahead and syringe feed him, but pump my breasts immediately afterwards to encourage milk production.
Throughout the day I did this. Ryan never sucked, so he was syringe fed, and I pumped right afterwards.
Ryan was brought to me around 6:30am the next morning – Friday. The nurse also left a container of prepared formula and an oral syringe. But I had no plans of syringe feeding. Now that I had rested up a bit and was no longer ill, I was determined to start breastfeeding immediately. I latched him onto my nipple. Once again, no sucking. I tried coaxing him into sucking by stroking his feet, tickling under his chin, touching his cheek. Perfect latch, no suck.
He started getting frustrated, so I popped on the nipple shield. Voilà ! He latched, suckled, and I cried tears of joy.
I was elated, and Ryan was happy. I kept him in bed with me for the remainder of our hospital stay (we checked out Sunday afternoon), nursing him, cuddling him, sleeping with him. He nursed greedily and happily, often falling asleep when finished only to wake up not too much later and latch right back on.
Nursing has been a success since then. We’ve had a few battles along the way, but each has been overcome:
Around three weeks of age I decided to wean Ryan off the nipple shield. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be! It took a few sessions of me letting him latch on initially with the shield, then sneaking it off. After the third time he latched on without it – smooth sailing!
But about a week after that I came down with thrush. He had no visible symptoms, and I had none but plenty of excruciating pain in both nipples (especially the left). It took about two weeks of treatment to clear everything up – for Ryan, 2ml of Nystatin every two hours; for me, vinegar rinses before and after each feeding, Monistat applied to both nipples every four hours, a daily dose of Acidophilus, and washing and boiling of all breast pump parts and nipple shields every day.
During the thrush I began using the nipple shields again. Nursing was still very painful, but the nipple shields took the very edge of the pain off.
I had been nursing Ryan pain-free for about a week when my nipples suddenly began to hurt again. My supply also decreased. I wasn’t getting as much while pumping (I pump once in the morning – while Ryan is napping – and once at night after Ryan has gone to bed), and Ryan was grunting, flailing and often pulling away in frustration. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Then, after two days of Ryan nursing every one to two hours, around the clock (as opposed to every three to six hours, with an eight hour break at night), I got my period. That explained the sore nipples and decrease in supply. Now I knew to try and keep some extra milk on hand each month around that time, and to try and mentally prepare myself in advance for the pain.
Ryan is currently twelve months old, and breastfeeding is going wonderfully!
Page last updated on August 8 2007.
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess, and a blogger relations person for an adult toy company.
