Supplements

I read the blog of Katie Allison Granju. She recently had a baby after the sudden death of her older son from a drug-deal-gone-bad. A self-proclaimed breastfeeding lactivist, Granju hasn't been able to nurse her littlest baby.

She writes about how she's embarrassed to use formula in public because she's been so hard-core breastfeeding for her other children.

But sometimes, it doesn't work out. It's not meant to be an embarrassing thing.

You can read what the NY Times wrote about her in A Breast Feeding Guru Who Uses Formula.

Early Trouble

As I have mentioned many, many times, both of my children have rough nursing starts, but the thought of the cost of formula encouraged me to keep trying no matter what.

The first had latch issues.

The second seems to have inherited her sisters inability to latch, but more than that, she just wouldn't suck. I started asking for a lactation consultant in the delivery room. A pediatric nurse helped me so much until I got to my recovery room. After a good night's sleep, we tried to get the baby to latch and nurse the next morning with very little luck. I had a very demanding, rude nurse so I immediately started asking for the lactation consultant again.

The nurse kept saying "they are sleepy for the first 24 hours so let's just keep trying." I knew things weren't right. I'd nursed a baby before and I was really worried about making sure my milk came in and my supply was established.

Finally, the lactation consultant came in to check, saw my problems and tried to help me fix it. We sat with the baby and watched "Jon and Kate Plus 8" while coaxing her to eat. She finally brought in a pump and a finger-feeder. I pumped and she fed the baby with the finger-feeder. She did okay.

Every so often, I'd try to nurse, pump and then finger-feed. I was really avoiding trying to use a bottle, but she told me after three days, I'd have to give up the finger-feeding if she hadn't gotten nursing yet.

I was set to be discharged when the baby was just 36 hours old, mostly because I just couldn't take the awful nurse anymore and I wanted to go home. The baby was already getting yellow so I was told to wake her up every two hours to feed her. The lactation consultant stopped by before I left and handed me a nipple shield. I told her that's how I got my first to nurse. She said she felt I knew how to use it in combination with pumping.

I kept pumping and finger-feeding, we introduced a bottle, we let her practice sucking on a pacifier, we woke her every two hours to try to nurse. I was exhausted. But then one nursing session, she latched. She was using the nipple shield but it happened. It really happened.

All of my pumping led to an amazing supply, too.

She was good with the nipple shield. We had a good relationship. Then right before Christmas, I lost the nipple shield and was force to try without it. Guess what? She latched and did great! We continued on until she was 11 months when my giant supply took over and covered her for another six weeks.

Rough starts or not, my kids and I stuck with it and made it work for us.

Fortunate soul

I’ve been lucky. I’ve had two jobs in the span of time that I’ve had my two children and both jobs have been supportive of my pumping situation.

At the first job, I had my own office and could shut and lock the door for privacy as often as I needed it. I did put a piece of tape over the lock that said “Do Not Disturb” just to be clear that people should not enter the room. I really never had to tell anyone what I was doing or how often I was doing it. It wasn’t a big deal.

The second time around, I wasn’t working in a private office so it was apparent when I was coming and going. I also pumped in a room that had a semi-public bathroom and a fridge and coffee maker in it. I undoubtedly always interrupted someone’s trip to retrieve their Diet Coke. But my boss was accommodating and would even help me out if something was schedule around my designated pumping times.

I can’t imagine being unable to pump at work or being faced with such a challenging work schedule that you can’t get away. What if you wanted to nurse but couldn’t because of your job? It’s just mind-blowing.

I was so happy to see this article this morning: 5 Things Employers Should Know About Breastfeeding. It appears the new health care bill is going to lay some groundwork for right for nursing mothers and I’m thrilled. Now if we could only do something about the awful maternity leave rules, I’d be elated.