As natural as breastfeeding may seem, nobody will tell you that it's gonna be easy. Some lucky few will experience smooth sailing experience right from the first latch, while most of us will go through some bumps along the way.
I had always thought that the second time around would be a whole lot easier. Heh. Better luck next time (for me) in the breastfeeding department. I thought sore nipples and latching problems only occurs for first timers. Was i wrong! The second time around, i was as eager to breastfeed my baby in the delivery room as i did the first time. This baby, just like my firstborn, is reluctant to open his mouth wide enough to allow ample portion of the areola into his mouth. As a result of that (and me being impatient to wait until he opens wider), i got an episode of sore nipples that lasted for the first two weeks. Things got harder when he didn't sleep much, which made everyone tell me that he didn't have enough to eat, which of course made me panicky about my milk supply. I succumbed to the pressure and gave my baby some supplement in the form of glucose water on occasions. Regrets? Hell yeah! But then again, thinking about the sleepless nights, soreness and fatigue, the decision probably helped the situation a little (or so i would like to think).. so, redha je la...
I started having my makcik urut coming to give me post natal care somewhere around the 6th day post delivery. She advised that maybe i should give the baby a little portion of formula milk once at night. Out of exhaustion, i ditched the glucose water and gave my baby 2oz of formula milk at night, at the end of one of the night-time breastfeeding sessions.
My biggest fear is to not have enough milk to nourish my baby. My fear was realized when my son's pead wasn't very happy about his minimal weight gain past the one-month mark. He only gained about 400 g, when most breastfed babies can gain until about 1kg! He advised that i should supplement the feeding sessions with expressed breast milk, and come in again for assessment in two weeks. :(
I had been expressing milk since before my makcik urut comes.. but of course, i couldn't collect much. And, the few that i collected, were used during my massage sessions, which i had booked for 15 days (i have 2 more days to go). So, apparently, i don't have enough EBM to supplement after each feeding session.
I tried to breastfeed on demand (as i always did anyway), and one feeding session sometimes lasts forever, ending with baby sleeping in my arms. He will wake up soon after we put him on the mattress, which results in me not having the chance to increase my pumping sessions, and skip my snacks.
Anyways, i set a personal target that he should weigh 4.5 kg at the 2-week appointment (increment of 800g from previous visit), so my 1 week goal is for my baby to gain at least 400g. I promised myself that i didn't meet that goal, i was gonna increase si formula milk supplement to twice daily - once during the day, and once at night. I went to the hospital again for my postpartum check today, and took the opportunity to weigh my baby. Sadly, he only gained 200g from his previous weight, a far cry from what i had targeted.
Since i wasn't on track with the baby's weight, i went to see the lactation consultant.. well, she's not really a consultant i think, just assistant, trained one la. So after a good chat and assessing my diet and my latch, she advised that i have to ensure that the baby remains AWAKE and feeding for at least 30 - 45 minutes and to not allow him to sleep in that period, and to ensure that i feed him every 2 hours. I also have to eat 5 to 6 times a day.
I did some calculations, so i'm gonna have 2 hour nursing schedule during the day and 3 hours at night. Which means that it's time for me to wake my little munchkin. Sigh.. he's sleeping so peacefully.. kesian pulak nak gerak.. But i guess, it's for his own good.
Do wish me luck on my breastfeeding journey this time around. Harap dapat exclusive breastfeed sampai he's 2 years old. Amin!~
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