workingberlinmum: Breastfeeding and it's challenges

Alfie's favourite mode: sleeping

You'd think that having breastfed a baby before, the second time should come naturally and easily. Thanks to the honesty of a number of friends who experienced some of the struggles of breast-feeding second time around, I knew that this wouldn't necessarily be the case. So, when I too had problems breast-feeding baby No. 2, I wasn't all that shocked and felt calm enough to go about trying to tackle it. As with most newborns, Alfie likes to sleep...and sleep...and sleep. Being that a baby needs to be awake to feed, all this sleep can cause more than a few problems when it comes to breast-feeding! However it was a little more than that. For the first 24 hours Alfie wouldn't even open his mouth despite me trying every trick I remembered from when Milo was little and even more tricks that I discovered thanks to videos on Youtube. Nothing seemed to work. When he finally did open his mouth he just wouldn't suckle. It was quite the obstacle.

Here are some of the tips I came across for waking a sleepy baby

Tickle the baby's feet
Strip them down to their nappy
Stroke the baby's cheek
wiggle the baby's arm around

I'm grateful that this problem came second time around rather than the first as experience has taught me to not panic yet and to just keep persevering. My midwife recommended I use a dummy/pacifier with Alfie as that would possibly build his interest in suckling (this did indeed work) and told me to keep trying and trying. She recommended I pump a little to get some milk out and give him a taste for it and this worked to get him to feed on one side. I felt like we were getting somewhere. Then he just wouldn't feed on the other side. In order to make sure he was getting something at least, I kept feeding him on the one side I knew he could take and then pumped on the other to ensure the milk came in. I remembered that with Milo I had had to use a nipple shield on the left because he had trouble latching on, so I went and bought some shields and that did the trick. I also found the shield useful for both sides when the milk came in as my breasts then became so hard that Alfie had no chance to latch on either side and the shield gave him something he could grab on to!

Here are the shields I use. They are from Medela but there are also other types available.

Nipple / contact shields for babies with latching problems when breast-feeding

Sleepiness was still being a persistent problem. Just being near my chest would put Alfie in to a deep sleep and by yesterday evening after having spent 40 mins just trying to get him to wake up to feed I was feeling a little deflated emotionally and quite the opposite physically! I called my midwife and told her that I was starting to get anxious as I knew he needed to start putting on weight but thankfully I have a relaxed midwife and she told me not to worry and to stick with it.

Overnight I woke every 3 hours to attempt a feed and managed to get two out of him the whole night. That's at least better than I'd managed the night before. Then, this morning we had a breakthrough. He did his first laying down feed which was nice for me as all I had to do was lay there and then the next feed he managed to be awake enough to feed on both sides! WOOHOO. The pain from the milk coming in has now gone and the after-contractions are getting more bearable and I reckon will be completely gone come the morning. I feel like we've gotten through the rough patch and confident that he will have gained enough come his next weigh-in Sunday to not warrant needing to consider other options.I'm glad we got there in the end.

Breastfeeding has been made a little easier for me thanks to the following items:

Medela nipple shields (available in different sizes)
Medela Harmony Manual breast pump
Burp clothes. I made my own but there are loads of lovely handmade ones to buy on sites like Etsy or you can use lovely muslins like these gorgous ones available from Aden & Anais
Newborn dummy/pacifier
Lansinoh nursing pads

Ps. I hope this post makes sense, it's been written around breastfeeding and settling a baby!

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