So if there is one thing you are told over and over again its "breastfeeding is hard". Its one of those things you hear, yet secretly hope you are the person whose child comes out of the womb all ready to eat like a pro. I was one of those people... I had dreams of my son being able to latch on perfectly the first time and having no issues what soever. HA!
He did come out and latch on... just not correctly. Those first days in the hospitals he mauled things up pretty nicely... lets just say things were swollen, cracked, and purple! With the help of some nurses and an amazing lactation consultant we managed to get things back on track... somewhat.
We got home and suddenly, on my own, it was almost like he'd forgotten everything we'd learned. They say thats normal, that babies forget... but no matter how normal it is it was frustrating. I tried nursing in every position I could think of... what worked once seemed the next time to just be a disaster! I tried different pillows... nothing seemed to really help.
It all culminated last night around 11pm when he woke up to eat. We had so far had a pretty good day breast feeding and I had hopes of a quick (30 - 45 minute) feed and then off to sleep. You see, i stupidly hadn't gone to sleep yet even though he slept from about 4pm till 11pm with one meal in between. Yes, I broke rule number one: Sleep when the baby sleeps! For the next 3 hours or so he switched from one breast back to the other, one position back to the other, and every now and then would drift off for an entire 5 minutes only to have to repeat the entire process. Somewhere around 1:30am I started to bawl. My poor husband just sat there, unable to do anything. I was sore, I was tired, and I had a baby who had no interest in anything but me.
He did eventually fall asleep... and he slept for about 3 hours, one of his longest night stretches yet! Of course he was up this morning doing a similar feeding routine... eating, then laying down for about 10 minutes before eating again. I did however follow rule number 1 this time... when he passed out this afternoon around 2 I handed him off to my husband and upstairs I went for a few hours of shut eye.
Here's hoping tonight goes better then last night.
It is so so hard those early days!! I'd say it got significantly better after 6 weeks ... and then again better after 12 weeks. Hang in there mama!
ReplyDeleteHenry was also a sleepy eater -- so for the first couple of weeks, I would undress him to his diaper - and use a wet washcloth to keep him awake and eating. This helped to get us on an eating every 2 hours by day schedule, and helped me to figure out when he was really hungry, or just needed to use me as a soothie :)
You are not alone! All of my friends tell me this. Not that it makes your situation any easier for the time being though {{{HUGS}}} Hope things get easier!!! Good for you for getting some sleep when he does.
ReplyDelete