Adventures in Babyfeeding

On his third day of life, the first day we had him home alone, my poor little Andrew wasn't having any wet or dirty diapers. Around the 18-hour mark of the dry spell, I called the provincial health help line and was told to take him to emergency. We were there for nine miserable hours, from 11:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., with me crying intermittently from the guilt and frustration of not being able to provide well enough for my baby despite what felt like constant nursing. At the hospital they took blood from his heel (twice, because they didn't take enough the first time) and twice tried unsuccessfully to catheterize him. They declared him mildly dehydrated and had me feed him a bottle of formula. We left with instructions to supplement with formula.

Since then we've been paranoid — is he getting enough? For the next week we gave him formula by bottle after every breastfeeding session. Once my milk came in, on day five after the birth, we rushed out and bought a $200 breast pump to relieve the engorgement and with the hope of replacing the formula with breast milk. Between the frequent, long feedings and Andrew's preference to nap on me, I've been having a hard time figuring out when to pump and have only been managing it once a day.

I have a very sleepy baby who is all eager to take the nipple but falls asleep within minutes. He never seems to suck deeply. One of my baby books calls him a nipper napper. And I guess he's probably become used to the ease of bottlefeeding and just waits out the time I keep him on the breast until I give in and offer the bottle. I also often have to wake him from naps when it's been too long between feedings.

And my nipples hurt.

I went to a breastfeeding clinic today and found out I've been doing everything wrong. At the hospital they told me I might find football hold easiest because of my large breasts; the folks at the clinic said I should really do cross-cradle. I should supplement with a lactation aid instead of a bottle, and I should stop pumping to allow my breasts to fill up. I should start taking three different kinds of supplements (fenugreek, blessed thistle, and domperidone) three times a day to boost my milk supply. Oh! They also said he had a tongue tie, meaning the little flap of skin under his tongue (the frenulum) was too tight, and clipped it on the spot. Apparently there are no nerve endings there, and it didn't seem to hurt him.

It's all just a little overwhelming. Shouldn't breastfeeding be easy and natural?