Lactation consultant meeting summarised

I sincerely hope everyone is doing well and everyone is chasing their dreams with hope and trust.

So I took my baby to the lactation consultant in the hospital he was born after having cancelled 10 scheduled appointments with her.

She asked me to completely stop feeding from the bottle, stop the pacifier and feed him through spoon and use the supplement nursing system (SNS) by Medela. She also recommended skin to skin at all times to increase my supply and to help him to latch. I didnt stop the bottle or the pacifier. 1) when he was born he was 5lbs and he really needed to gain so I believe the bottle helped him gain. Hence I could not ditch the bottle -the bottle is my son’s true buddy. 2) My son has severe colic issues so I really need to use the pacifier.

However I started skin to skin before every attempt to breastfeed and I tried the spoon and the supplement system.

The spoon was a complete failure – he spat everything out thinking I was giving him his colic medicine and the SNS was a failure as he does not latch. The SNS is basically for babies who latch but the moms dont have enough milk supply.

So the skin to skin was my only option and it actually helped. The very first time I tried it, he immediately went down to my boob and tried to lick. I took him and got him to latch. This was a success. I started by doing it once a day and then it went up to thrice a day. Which for me is a big deal. So he started nursing for a total of an hour daily. I was happy but I wanted more success.

Ten days after he suddenly stopped nursing again and I could not get him to latch at all. Same crying business over the boob and same frustrating result of not nursing at all. Our follow up with the consultant was 2 weeks from the first appointment and we had no progress to show anymore.

The consultant saw his behavior and her remarks were “Nursing him in the last 2 weeks has made him more averse and now he is totally nipple confused. He will refuse the boob now and its a little late for this to work out now.”

I was really sad but she made me feel comfortable by reminding me that he is totally happy and healthy with his current diet and I should not get depressed over such an issue that wont even matter once his solids start.

I have made peace with this situation and I am just enjoying the snuggles and coos now.

On a positive note, my MIL finally left last week and I feel very relaxed and happy now. I am actually getting to spend time with my husband and son. I am able to pump in the living room with freedom now and also feed my son his bottle at the same time (thanks to a fellow blogger to tell me about the expression bustier). I am also really enjoying feeding my child as much as I can provide, it is my Lord’s will, I will be happy with it.

Thanks to all of you ladies for your advice and time in my last post. I really appreciate all your love and kindness. You all made me feel comfortable about not having enough milk supply for my child. Thank you my lovelies.

By the 1st of February my child will be 3 months old, Lord willing. I am wondering where time flew while I was worrying about silly latch issues. 😂

Much love,

A