The Breastfeeding Chronicals- Chapter One

I always knew I wanted to breastfeed my baby, if possible. Before Maddy was born, my decision to do this was pretty simple (and even a little selfish:
-It just "seemed" like the right thing to do. My mom did it and Ross's mom did it.
-Formula is expensive, and we are always looking for ways to save $
-I had heard you burn 500 calories a day breastfeeding. This pretty much sold me on it.

To be honest, I had a lot of hesitations and fears about it. I was a little icked out about having a human sucking on my boob all the time. Maybe its our culture, but it was hard for me to imagine breasts being anything other than sexual. As I have mentioned before, I was always appalled when I would see a woman breastfeeding in public. It made me uncomfortable, even though I knew I would be breastfeeding.

Fast foward to Maddy being born. The plan was that she would come out of the womb, lay on my chest, and she would naturally suck away and find nurishment and comfort in me.

Um....nope.

Don't get me wrong. Our first meeting face to face was magical. I recently watched it on video (YES, Ross filmed Madelyn's birth!) and it was amazing how her and I stared at each other forever. It really was. But when it was time for her to nurse, she didn't perform the way I thought she would. My boob was there, right there next to her mouth, but she was less than interested. I still wonder to this day if it was the small dose of IV narcotics for my labor pains.



I felt confident and held her right up to it like I had learned how to through my intense research and what I remembered from nursing school. Her tiny lips landed on my nipple, gave a few weak sucks, then she lost interest. In movies, a nursing baby is depicted as sucking on the nipple; but in actuality, the baby is supposed to take the entire areola in its mouth before sucking. This is needed to actually draw the milk out. Maddy just sucked on my nipple. This, my friends, is PAINFUL. Do not underestimate the power of a baby's suck.

The nurses were very helpful, but it just wasn't happening. I ended up staying the hospital 2 nights after birth- just to keep working on the nursing. I loved my nurses, but I really think they were a little quick to give us a "pass" on the nursing. By that, I mean that they can't discharge a nursing mother until she demonstrates correct technique and successful breastfeeding. So they would watch me, and if Maddy had a few successful sucks, they would say, "Great- there you go!" and then run off to chart that I was ready to go home.


The night we brought Maddy home from the hospital will forever go down in history, in the Lumsden household, as one of the worst nights of our lives.