World Breastfeeding Week Continues! Did you miss my first post? Here I am for the second installment in our "Adventures in Breastfeeding"! This one is about some roadblocks we experienced, what we learned along the way and why it is worth it to persevere!
As new parents, life with the Reporter was all that we envisioned and more--crying, crying and more crying (and that was just me!), sleepless nights, and loads of laundry. However, breastfeeding seemed to be the bright spot in all the cloudy days of new-parenthood. It was the one thing that I felt confident in until about week three when we hit our first roadblock--oversupply. I will spare you the details, but you should know that oversupply results in TONS of extra bags of frozen milk--a big plus when you are thinking about how you will escape from this screaming being at some point for more than 2 hours at a time.
I was giddy with excitement, thinking that I would have an incredible freezer-stash when I returned to work or just wanted to go get a few highlights in my hair to bring back some color to my life (besides the dark circles under my eyes). However, that would require a baby that would accept milk from a BOTTLE. Well, what was I thinking? The Reporter would have NONE of that. Yep, roadblock number 2. And before you ask, yes, we tried EVERY trick in the book short of drilling a hole in her pacifier and hooking up a feeding tube. I would leave for extended periods of time (more than 2 hours in mommy-speak), thinking that she would surely get hungry enough to take milk from a bottle. "No baby will starve themselves to death," older women would tell me. Well, obviously they had not met my little love. I would return after a brief hiatus to screams and tears and an overly hungry baby. Next up, The hubby tried holding the bottle under his arm to feed her, as if to simulate the position of breastfeeding. Um, no. Not happening. We even went as far as to have me wear a shirt prior to the feeding, let the hubby put the shirt on to feed The Reporter and hope that he smelled enough like me to make her calm and encourage feeding. Again, no go. Luckily, I worked with a woman at that time, that had dealt with a similar situation. She helped me to realize that some babies just have a preference, and you are it. She was able to use a medicine cup to feed her girl, if push came to shove, but I knew that a medicine cup would only help so much.
We were a two-income household. I HAD to return to work and I couldn't let my baby starve all day while I was away. Again, luck was on my side. I was able to take a position that allowed my sweet, strong-willed child to come in to feed every 3 hours. At first, I was worried that it would impact my productivity and scheduling of students/clients. However, after the first few weeks we got into a great routine and I looked forward to each feeding because it meant that I got to reconnect with my baby and take a minute to breathe during an otherwise busy day at work. We were blessed with the fact that my mother and the hubby were able to bring the Reporter to me in the morning and I could drive home for her afternoon feeding between clients. My employer was completely supportive of this arrangement (It certainly helped that she, too, had nursed her babies--there's that motherhood bond thing again). Not only did it make my transition back to work smoother (hello, seeing your new baby twice a day and having a bath in oxytocin as you nurse), I was happier and more productive because I didn't spend time *thinking* about being with my baby all day. I also missed less work because I had a super-healthy girl (I didn't miss any sick days for her in her first year of life!). It was a win-win situation all the way around.
Unfortunately, there was still that little issue of no more than X-number of hours away from my baby at a time. This didn't allow for more fun-time for mommy or any date-nights away. But, you know what? I survived. WE survived. And in the the grand scheme of things, it was a blink in time. Sure, it was tough and there were times that I wanted to just spend A DAY ALONE, for ME. But I also knew that I was doing something that no one else could for my girl, and that made it all worth it. And the best news was, as she got older the feedings could stretch out more and more and more, allowing for more time for me to take care of me and an occasional date or two!
We made it! And we just knew that when we decided to have another child, that surely that one would take bottles!
Right?!
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