Suck On What?

The Mommy Kelly wrote a post yesterday that sparked my memory.

I tried to breastfeed both my children. It didn't work. I know most woman have difficulty nursing in the beginning. My problems were a little more complex then that.

Belle was born on Monday, January 26th at 10:25 am. Her first outing was Tuesday evening. A friend of mine was hosting a Party Lite candle party and I wanted to go. My sister-in-law, Amy and I bundled up Belle and got in the car. Belle began crying so much that soon I had to pull over and let Amy drive so I could sit in the back seat with Belle.

I was able to calm Belle down by putting the crook of my pinky in her mouth. In the process I noticed that her mouth seemed a little dry and there were no tears on her cheeks. I had been nursing Belle for twenty to forty minutes every three hours, so although she seemed dehydrated, I didn't think it was possible.

The next morning was Belle's first pediatricians appointment. After I met the doctor I told her the story from the night before and we talked about the breast feeding schedule. The doctor did a quick examination of Belle and then opened a cupboard and pulled out a 2 ounce bottle of formula. Without a word the doctor proceeded to feed my child. Belle finished the bottle in record time even though I had just nursed her a hour ago.

We went on to find out that my body was not producing any milk. We used formula to keep Belle alive and nursed to try to get my milk to come in. I rented a hospital grade breast pump to try to simulate milk production. A thirty minute session of pumping yielded less then 1/2 an ounce of "milk". After 2 weeks we gave up and gave in to full time formula feeding.

Seventeen months later Ariel was born. I was determined to breast feed her, but aware that I could run into the same problems. The breast feeding seemed to be going well. At three days old Ariel didn't appear to be dehydrated but still I followed a 40 minute breast feeding session with a bottle of formula, just to see if she was still hungry. She greedily ate the entire bottle.

I once again tried everything I could to get my milk to come in; pumping, beer, hot compresses and even prescription medication. Nothing worked.

My children's exposure to breast feeding is very limited.

Recently my friend Jill breast fed her daughter while she was babysitting my girls. Jill covered herself up during the feeding, but my girls were still enthralled. They asked a lot of uncomfortable questions. Poor Jill, did her best to answer them.

Last week Belle was playing mommy with her baby doll. She asked me to babysit her doll while she went to work. As she handed her doll to me she said, "And Mommy, if she gets hungry, just let her suck on your belly."

I was trying so hard not to laugh that I missed the prefect opportunity to explain breast feeding to my daughter. I need to remedy this, otherwise the birds and the bees talk in 5 years is going to be very uncomfortable.