Boobies.

During my pregnancy I kept imaging what delivery would be like. I pictured myself of having my new baby rest on my bare chest for her first hours of her life. Because our little peanut was born at 4 lbs 5 ounces and had to spend 5 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), that went out the window. She spent the first 30 hours of her life in an incubator hooked up to monitors to  make sure she as healthy. I was able to do 30 minutes of skin on skin with her once within that time period. I have read that skin on skin is extremely important for milk production so my fear was that this would inhibit my supply. I was also on medication for my preeclampsia that could possibly delay my milk coming in. Yup. Sure did.  These factors along with the fact that our peanut was super duper petite and couldn't latch made it impossible to nurse her at first. Enter 'The Pump'. While in the hospital I was pumping every 2 hours and once home it was every 3 hours. Ugh. That f'n pump...

Once discharged from the NICU I made it a point to put peanut to breast before most bottle feeds to get her thinking about nursing.  While in the hospital I saw 3 lactation consultants, all of which focused their time on finding ways to get my supply to come in, rather than getting peanut to latch.  Once discharged we were hooked up with another lactation consultant at the out-patient nutrition follow-up clinic for peanut.  While helpful, their number one concern was to make sure peanut was healthy, getting breast milk if possible and gaining weight, which she was. Their priority was never to get her to breast. I moved onto a Lactation Consultant from Public Health who was really sweet, but her focus was seeing how I was doing mentally, and was FAR too timid to be helpful with breastfeeding. Lets be honest, you need someone willing to manhandle the fun bags, and this girl certainly wasn't willing to. Onto the next.  I went to a clinic that was relatively busy so I didn't get the one-on-one help I had hoped for, and therefore it wasn't very helpful. Onto the next. I then visited a local Lactation Consellor that I had heard a ton of great things about.  She lifted my spirits by reminding me that I shouldn't feel guilty for bottle feeding, because 'feeding the baby is your job', however beyond that she wasn't very helpful.  At this point my daughter was 5.5 weeks old. We had been trying to breastfeed for quite some time with no success.  Needless to say I was feeling defeated and was about to give up.  We had tried everything - pumping a little before nursing, finger feeding, Supplemental Feeding System - nothing was working. Onto the next.  I had told myself that this would be my last attempt. It would be my 8th lactation professional in 6 weeks and it was getting to be a little too draining on me.

Then I met my hero - Carol. She is truly the Baby Whisperer, or tit whisperer as I like to call her. She is a doula and lactation consultant who really knows her shit. Within 5 days she had peanut breastfeeding exclusively. It was hell on earth to get to that point but it was completely worth it.  She worked with us one-on-one for five days, tweaked our feeding position and took the time to educate me on the entire process. Carol took the time to hear our story, to listen to my concerns, was compassionate to peanuts preemie situation, and offered support like no other.  We haven't perfected the nursing thing yet but we are certainly out of the woods now. I was told time and time again that peanut probably wouldn't be able to breastfeed since she had been used to the bottle and it is a very tough habit to break. Yes, it was an extremely hard habit to break but it wasn't impossible. I lost my mind a few times last week but it was completely worth it.

This long winded story was to tell you that Carol Peat at Babies Naturally is an absolute guru and is highly recommended!  If you or anyone you know is having an issues with nursing contact Carol - she will be able to help you.