Looking back

I know it has only been 6.5 short weeks since Colin has arrived. Overall, I still feel relatively inexperienced as a parent, but am enjoying it. In particular, I am finding him more and more enjoyable every day as he begins to interact more and more. He is still growing like crazy, and I can't wait to find out how much he has gained at his 2 month appointment at the beginning of April.

I do however want to look back on one thing, breastfeeding. I posted quite often after Colin arrived regarding the difficulties we were having. During those first few weeks, I didn't know if I would be able to continue feeding him due to the large amount of pain and suffering (yes suffering) that I was experiencing. We went through 3 lactation consultants before finding one who actually looked at Colin. We then ultimately discovered one of the largest underlying reasons we were having so many problems - he has a sensitive gag reflex. He doesn't want anything in his mouth very deep and will actively use his tongue to shove stuff back out. Of course, shallow latching means pain for his momma, plus the added friction of his tongue. We worked with Colin regarding his latching and have managed to come out the other side! I was reflecting this weekend how especially on one side, I no longer have much pain during latching or breastfeeding. I wouldn't have thought this was possible! So i've decided to write a few blurbs on what has helped, not only for my records, but for anyone else who might experience these difficulties. For those who haven't had any issues - i'm extremely jealous - and you can feel free to stop reading :)

First of all, lactation consultants do help and I would recommend getting help ASAP. I really think that one of the reasons I had so many difficulties was because we weren't seen by a lactation consultant for 36 hrs after birth. Of course, this was primarily due to the fact that 23 babies were born the night Colin arrived, so can't really slight the hospital for this (even though we asked multiple times). Second, if cracking and/or bleeding occurs - get some gel pads! The hospital gel pads were the best. They are cool, non-sticky, and stop all irritation due to clothing. We did also try the Lansinoh gel soothies (on the advice of a second lactation consultant), but I was much less impressed with these. I think that Ameda's comfortgel pads would be similar to the hospitals and I plan to use theirs next time I need them. The gel pads are especially useful because using any type of nipple cream to help soothe is not pleasant on open wounds (especially lanolin).

Regarding nipple creams, my sister recommends Motherlove's nipple cream. I have tried this brand and it does feel very nice as it is non-sticky (more oily). It has a nice scent and is easy to spread. Overall though, I feel that once you are healed enough to handle lanolin cream, it is the way to go. Lanolin is waterproof, so it helps pain in the shower and also adds some shielding from baby during feeding. I've also found that while Motherlove says it promotes healing, within a few uses of lanolin, my cracking and pain were already lessening. Not sure if it was just time for everything to start toughening up and heal or if it really was the lanolin - but either way, it would be very coincidental if lanolin wasn't at least helping. The downside is lanolin is very sticky. When they gave me some in the hospital, I tried it and thought i was going to pass out from the pain of putting it on extremely sore, cracked and bleeding nipples. I compare these nipple creams as I do chapstick. Some chapsticks help by adding a protective layer and not making things worse, while some actually help heal your chapped lips. Same thing here, the Motherlove helped by not making things worse, but the lanolin actually helped heal.

One of the other great things has been pumping. If the pain and suffering become too much to bear, pumping is the way out! I have exclusively pumped one side for a week, alternated between feeding and pumping each side, and ultimately was able to double pump and double feed alternately. Of course now that I am back at work, I pump during the day and feed him at night. I know this won't work for everyone, but just lessening the friction due to Colin's tongue helped me heal and take the pain away. Pumping is not necessarily pain free with damaged skin, but the relief was enormous to me.

Of course, all this healing was possible by helping Colin with his latch as well. We changed bottle nipples, got the right pacifiers and added finger feeding all to improve his latch. He doesn't necessarily latch anywhere near perfectly, but he has improved to a 'good' status for him, and isn't causing more damage to me.

Ok, well enough on that. Sorry for those of you who read this entire long thing. I'll post more pictures next time!