With the first one, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was young and not very informed about the process (and I say process, because it has been one for me). The baby would wake up at night and cry. Sometimes I would wake up and sometimes my husband would wake up and take care of her. When I woke up, I would nurse her, when he would wake up, he would feed her formula from a bottle. Now, there's nothing wrong with being formula/bottle fed. Don't get me wrong, but I was loosing valuable breast milk by allowing him to do this. Too bad I didn't realize this until after my milk dried up less than six weeks into being a new mother.
For the second, I was very intent on ONLY breastfeeding. I told him he wasn't allowed to feed her unless it is pumped milk and there was only a little of that. If he woke up and I did not, he MUST awaken the "monster" of me. It didn't matter how tired he thought I was or how rough my day had been, he was to awaken the "beast". I had meetings with the lactation consultant once a week for three weeks. We took the baby to doctors appointments every other day for weight checks, but I was starving her. Still not successful, my milk dried up within five weeks after she was born.
Now, my last born almost five months ago and I am still nursing her at night. It took A LOT of work to get where we are, and it's not too far. I pump once a day (and get only about two ounces from each side) and she nurses two or three times through the night. That's it. Nothing more. Again, for the first two weeks, we were in for weight checks every other day and I was starving her. We had to start supplementing at day 10.
This time around, I went to lactation consultants every three days for four visits, the doctor every other day for two weeks, took Fenugreek like it was Tic-Tacs, took Reglan for a month, drank up a lake or two, and drank so much root beer I should have bought stock and the bartenders thought I was nuts (I really like 1919 on tap). I didn't go to the dark beer, because I don't like it and by the time I was desperate enough to consider it, I was told I was starving my child. So, we are where we are now.
I am thinking about trying to gain more milk, now that I am staying at home. I think I know where to start, but I am not going to try more drugs. I have yet to take any allergy medicine, as to not dry up anything milk glands on accident...and my nose is paying for it.
So...what are your breastfeeding stories? What are some of the wives' tales you've heard of? Did you or anyone you know try them? Did they work?
