Breastfeeding journey

Lauren is 8 months old! And I am still breastfeeding her! Yah!

I always knew I would try to BF for a year. I wanted to give her what I believe is the best for her. But I also discovered a little selfish reason: it's quick and easy! I can not bother with buying formula, boiling water, washing/sterilizing bottles, warming up milk in the middle of the night, etc. I am too lazy! :) This is the best "fast food" ever!

Breastfeeding was hard! I remember visiting the breastfeeding clinic before she was born and I was told that it may not be easy for my case. Surely enough we had latching problem from the first day. She could not latch (I think 3 lactation consultant came to help me in the hospital) and she was losing weight. She would scream and flight when I try. I was so stressed out and upset. We ended up buying human milk from Women Hospital and later on supplement with formula for a few weeks. The human milk was "liquid gold". It cost $5.00 for 75ml. Ouch! And it's not always available - they are reserved for more needed babies.

After we got released from the hospital, we went back to the BF clinic to get help. She was able to latch on with a shield. We used that for a couple of weeks until she doesn't need the shield anymore. During that time, feeding is a 2 men job.. (k.. one man and one woman). I nursed her for 30 minutes, and then pumped for 20 minutes while Tim gave her a bottle. After all that we have to wash and sterilized her bottle and the pump bottle. It takes about 1.5 hours and I was nursing every 2-3 hours.

But it was not comfortable either.. it was actually painful! I thought it was because of the constant pumping and nursing.. but I was wrong. I was actually injured. Every time she took the left side, I was in excruciating pain for a few minutes. I would scream and cry EVERY TIME. I wanted to give up but I kept telling myself that the pain will pass and BF is the best for her. I was seeing the doctor bi-weekly but I never mentioned the pain for 6 weeks. I was more concern about the milk supply at that time so I kept forgetting to ask the doctor. So finally, when the doctor told me I had enough milk supply for her, I asked the doctor to exam me. She was surprised to see the obvious wound and she had to treat it with some chemical to burn the wound. Ouch!!!

At last, the pain went away and I no longer gave her any formula. I was very proud of myself! The only thing was everyone else still like to make comments like "are you sure she's getting enough?", "maybe she's still hungry?" when she was colic or waking up every 30 min. I was never able to convince Tim that the milk supply is not the problem. We did a lot of "communication". He tried to use different way to question me -- even the nicest way -- I still get really pissed when he does. :D

Now she is eating solid and still nursing 6 or 7 times a day. I couldn't be more proud of her and myself.