Breastfeeding

Yikes. It is hard. This is not an easy post to write...(or admit). But here are my honest encounters for the first two weeks...

So far there are a lot of things I wish someone at the hospital that had my records in front of them would have told me.* I know it is easier to blame someone else, so that is exactly what I am going to do :) And by a lot I mean two...

1. No antihistamines. My chart said I take Zyrtec...little did I know Zyrtec can kill supply. Now I am dealing with allergies (which is fine, I don't mind that) AND lack of supply (not fine, I do care about that).

2. Being treated for GBS makes you more at risk for Thrush. Would have been nice since the last two weeks I have been in intense pain and chocked it up to the learning curve/toughening. I Internet research (as I do with everything...) and my symptoms lead to a bad case of Thrush. Thrush is pretty common but a pain in the butt to get rid of. Noah has no signs yet thankfully. It is basically a yeast infection that shows up on nipples and inside the babies mouth, sometimes in the diaper too but doesn't respond to diaper rash treatments. Yikes. It is not harmful to anyone but a big discomfort...harmful in the fact that I can't stand to feed him right now...I can't sit through the pain! I rented a hospital grade pump for a week and am going to pump while we feed him formula/what I pump until it is tolerable. We have his two week pediatrician appointment Monday and I am going to do over the counter treatment until then and get prescriptions (hopefully for both of us since you can pass it back and forth) on Monday.

Here are a few symptoms...sounds nice, huh? I made it through the first week or so with my prescription pain pills, ice, and cringing/clenching/squealing. It seems to have gotten worse though.

• intense nipple or breast pain that occurs from birth, lasts throughout the feeding, or is not improved with better latch-on and positioning - latch is fine (at least it was in the hospital), especially with the shields
  
• nipples that are itchy and/or burning and that may appear pink or red, shiny, or flaky and/or have a rash and tiny blisters; nipples may also appear normal - I know everyone wants to know haha...they buuuuuuurn
• shooting pains in the breast during or after a feeding if the yeast has invaded the milk ducts - yep...definitely have that one!!
  

I had a tough week with feeding and think it is mostly because of these two things. When my supply tanked my confidence did too, and combined with so much pain I was just not a happy camper. He has lost weight (supposed to be at his birth weight at least by his 2-week...he is down a pound). So we started supplementing with formula Thursday night. That was tough for me - I should be able to feed him, right? Anyway, enough about my personal issues with that, he seems to be doing good. He always had the right diapers, etc. just wasn't gaining weight :(

I went to a Breastfeeding support group at the hospital yesterday (free!) and it was great! We didn't get into the pain, got caught up with supply, so that is my own thinking. The lady running cringed when I said I had been taking Zyrtec until a few days ago...yikes. Also, I use nipple shields. He won't latch properly without them...the lactation consultant in the hospital told me to and OK'd it. A nurse at a pediatrician visit Thursday (not our normal pedi office) said that is why he wasn't gaining weight. I know its not true...the new shields are much better material and have no affect on supply...the lady running the support group just shook her head in anger when I told her I was told that. At least I already knew that one wasn't true but still...way to kill my confidence and tell me I am a bad mother. She also told me I needed to rent the hospital grade pump for 1 week and pump 5 minutes after every feeding and once an hour for 5 minutes to signal to my body to produce more. Hopefully that works and then I can go back to my pump I just bought - double paying sucks! I also hope that doing only pumping for a few days doesn't mess this up...I really just can't sit through a feeding and I have a pretty high pain tolerance...

In the end I am glad I had time to sit around on the Internet and look into these things and REALLY glad I went to the group yesterday. It was nice just to socialize with others with babies and others having problems too. I will go back next Friday hopefully with a better report!!!

Also I think I get one free at-home visit from a lactation consultant. They gave me a flier at our "going home" class when we were being discharged. Need to call in on that one this week!

Oh and also for my supply I am doing the following (thanks to the breastfeeding message board on the bump.com):
-steel cut oatmeal for breakfast with brewers yeast (disgusting...), flax seed meal, sliced almonds, and I added brown sugar, strawberry jam, and raisins to mask the brewers yeast
-trying to drink 120 oz of water...this would be 5 water bottles full...I usually only make it to 3 or 4 because drinking water is pretty boring and I forget
-Lactation Support pills (found them at a "granola" store) - they contain fenugeek, blessed thistle, etc all the different herbal stuff that is supposed to support supply
-pump a few minutes after each feeding to signal to my body to produce more
-chocolate rice milk. Ok this one has nothing to do with supply, but it sure is tasty!

Off to get some over the counter medicine and try to make this pain go away (pretty doubtful...think I have one of the "bad" cases). But here is to hoping...wish me luck!

*This is my only vent about the hospital. Overall I had really great care. Everyone there really was very nice and knowledgeable and accommodating and they checked on us all the time!!!