Giving some encouragement to you all...

Ardmhs83

My story is being published on the LLL website sometime this summer.  I shared this story with the editor.  I was very depressed and thought I was going to have to quit nursing several times.  Bfeeding didn't happen easy for me at first.  Just wanted to share my story with you all...here it goes:

I got this email address from a friend on The Bump social network.  She shared a wonderful breastfeeding story with you all and it was posted.  I was inspired to share my story with others as well, so she gave me this addres.

Anyway, my name is Amber and I had my son on August 5, 2010 via C-Section b/c he was breech.  I am from Martinsburg, WV and used the Charlestown, WV chapter of the LLL for help.  Breastfeeding was really hard for me from the get go b/c of the c-section.  Not being able to see my son right away and when I finally did see him, I was pretty drugged up and I am assuming he was too b/c of the surgery.  He didn't latch at all.  The nurses tried to help me so many times, but he just wasn't latching and I was already getting frustrated in the hospital.

My pedi finally came into the room and shared with me that my son was "tongue-tied," but he would be fine and he suggested we not get it clipped until later and only if it caused speech problems.  So as a first time mom, I did what my doctor suggested.  I figured he knew more that I did.  He never once said it could cause breastfeeing problems, he actually said that he should be fine.

Well I ended up only being able to get my son to nurse on a nipple shield and sometimes I would pump and my husband would cup feed him with a medicine cup.  Talk about frustration.  Well this went on for about 2 1/2 months.  It was terrible.  My son nursed for over an hour every single time and nursed like every 30 minutes around the clock.  No sleep was happening for anybody.  I even actually remember watching an entire 2 hour long movie with my son still nursing.  I couldn't eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, leave the house or even shower b/c my son would scream bloody murder b/c he wanted to be attatched 24/7.  I knew something wasn't right and all my pedi did was suggest supplementing with formula...and that was a no-go for me.  That meant failure to me, so I was determined to not do that.  I was so miserable and almost gave up b/c all I was doing was crying and sooo upset all the time b/c I just didn't know why my son wouldn't latch w/o the nipple shield and when he did l
atch with the shield, it took him FOREVER to nurse.  It was never-ending.

I started digging in some of my old papers from when I took a breastfeeding class at our local hospital while pregnant and came across and LLL handout with womens phone numbers on it.  So I decided to just call one of them out of the blue for help.  I remember her first name being Kristen, but can't remember the last.  She came to my house the very next day to help me.  I was so shocked, she didn't even know me and was jumping right in to help.  She gave me several pointers, invited me to the LLL monthly meetings and also suggest I call a LC for more help.  She also told me that some moms get the frenulum clipped b/c it does make breastfeeding easier.  Kristen also met me several other times and even let me borrow her LLL book, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.  The book helped a lot and I even ended up ordering my own so I could give hers back.  I am just amazed how much she helped me w/o even knowing me at all.  I am very thankful for all of her help.

So I took her advice and also called a LC and she suggested the same things and told me to get my sons tongue clipped.  We did right away and it instantly made a HUGE difference!  He nursed w/o the shield, nursed for about 20 minutes and didn't nurse again for 2 hours later!!  It was a total life saver.  I was going to give up, I couldn't handle it anymore.  So glad I called the LLL and a LC...they saved my breastfeeding.  I went on to EBF my son until he was 9 months old, working full time and pumping 3x a day at work.  I am so very greatful and will definately use the LLL the next time around as well.

Thank you all, you really have some great women working with your organization!

 

**Bfeeding can be hard...you can do it!  :-)