Thursday, January 26, 2006
Breastfeeding
25-JAN-2006:
Breastfeeding has been such a struggle for me since Dominic was born. During my 3-day stay in the hospital, he refused to latch on or suck on my breast. I have tried again and again but in vain even with the nurses' help. Perhaps because of that, my milk supply did not come in and I had to use a breast pump to stimulate milk production. On the 5th day, I see trickles of milk as I pumped, but I couldn't even produce 1/2 ounce of milk. By then, Dominic was consuming 2 ounces of formula every 2+ hours. We had to give him formula because he was crying and we couldn't get any sleep.
On the 7th day, my breasts finally started to engorge and I was able to express 1 ounce of breast milk every 2-3 hours. By now, Dominic is already consuming 3 ounces of formula every 3 hours. I accumulated the expressed breast milk in the fridge and feed it to him when I had accumulated 3 ounces. I was able to give him about 2 feeds of breast milk each day.
In a week's time, my milk supply had increased and now I was able to feed Dominic 5 feedings of breast milk every day (he eats 8 times a day). Things are going good. By the third week of his life, Dominic is drinking 4 ounces of breast milk every 3 hours, 5 - 6 times a day. I was thinking that soon, I'll have enough milk to feed him fully on breast milk. It was tough work because I was perpetually pumping milk all the time. By now, I have given up direct feeding. I guess expressed milk works for me because I can see exactly how much Dominic is drinking.
When Dominic was about 5 weeks old, he began to drink less and less. He will only drink 2 ounces and refuse to continue. I was worried that he may be infected or ill. This happened for 3 days when I finally realized that it was breast milk that he was refusing. When I feed him formula, he happily emptied the bottle. It also took much longer to feed him breast milk (40 mins as opposed to 15 mins if being fed formula). I realized that he didn't like the taste of breast milk. I can understand that because I think it tastes terrible too.
Yesterday, Dominic refused to drink my breast milk at all. He cried and cried until we finally gave up and fed him formula. Since then, I have decided that I'm not going to breastfeed anymore. In my situation, the disadvantages truly outweighs the advantages. First, I had to spend large amount of time expressing milk, even in the middle of the night, because I was not able to get my baby to latch on. Next, it's a hassle to have to warm up the milk everytime Dominic gets hungry. Finally, he doesn't even like the milk. Well, at least he was given a chance to choose and he has made his preference clear. And one whole month of expressing milk round the clock is enough for me. I can even feel that my arm muscles has toned up.
So, that's my breastfeeding story. I hope to be more successful with my next baby. But seriously, there are reasons why formula was invented. I believe it is truly for our convenience.
Breastfeeding has been such a struggle for me since Dominic was born. During my 3-day stay in the hospital, he refused to latch on or suck on my breast. I have tried again and again but in vain even with the nurses' help. Perhaps because of that, my milk supply did not come in and I had to use a breast pump to stimulate milk production. On the 5th day, I see trickles of milk as I pumped, but I couldn't even produce 1/2 ounce of milk. By then, Dominic was consuming 2 ounces of formula every 2+ hours. We had to give him formula because he was crying and we couldn't get any sleep.
On the 7th day, my breasts finally started to engorge and I was able to express 1 ounce of breast milk every 2-3 hours. By now, Dominic is already consuming 3 ounces of formula every 3 hours. I accumulated the expressed breast milk in the fridge and feed it to him when I had accumulated 3 ounces. I was able to give him about 2 feeds of breast milk each day.
In a week's time, my milk supply had increased and now I was able to feed Dominic 5 feedings of breast milk every day (he eats 8 times a day). Things are going good. By the third week of his life, Dominic is drinking 4 ounces of breast milk every 3 hours, 5 - 6 times a day. I was thinking that soon, I'll have enough milk to feed him fully on breast milk. It was tough work because I was perpetually pumping milk all the time. By now, I have given up direct feeding. I guess expressed milk works for me because I can see exactly how much Dominic is drinking.
When Dominic was about 5 weeks old, he began to drink less and less. He will only drink 2 ounces and refuse to continue. I was worried that he may be infected or ill. This happened for 3 days when I finally realized that it was breast milk that he was refusing. When I feed him formula, he happily emptied the bottle. It also took much longer to feed him breast milk (40 mins as opposed to 15 mins if being fed formula). I realized that he didn't like the taste of breast milk. I can understand that because I think it tastes terrible too.
Yesterday, Dominic refused to drink my breast milk at all. He cried and cried until we finally gave up and fed him formula. Since then, I have decided that I'm not going to breastfeed anymore. In my situation, the disadvantages truly outweighs the advantages. First, I had to spend large amount of time expressing milk, even in the middle of the night, because I was not able to get my baby to latch on. Next, it's a hassle to have to warm up the milk everytime Dominic gets hungry. Finally, he doesn't even like the milk. Well, at least he was given a chance to choose and he has made his preference clear. And one whole month of expressing milk round the clock is enough for me. I can even feel that my arm muscles has toned up.
So, that's my breastfeeding story. I hope to be more successful with my next baby. But seriously, there are reasons why formula was invented. I believe it is truly for our convenience.
