The Breastfeeding Diaries: Chelsea from The Williams Journey
Hi, my name is Chelsea and I blog over at The Williams Journey. I'm excited to share my breastfeeding story with you today! I was 36 weeks and was not feeling well at all so we went to the hospital. They came in and checked me and I was 2cm and they thought my water broke. She then ran some test to see if my water did break. They came back and told me my water had broke, and I started to cry. I looked at my husband and we were just very overwhelmed because we were not expecting her to come early. We were having a baby!!!! They admitted us at 3:30 am and I had to call my mom and my dad as they both live out of town 3 and 6 hrs away... We were in our room and I wanted to walk the halls to get everything going. They came in at like 10 and I was 4 cm, and started to get in a lot of pain. I asked for an epidural and they came and put it in and I then fell asleep for 3 hours when I woke up I was not making progress. They gave me poticin to get my contractions going. It took about an hour or so and I was at 9 cm :) Then I had to push for about an hour and a half and I met my sweet baby girl :) I have never been so in love, she was adorable and she was all ours :)
She was born Nov 24 at 6:25 5 lbs 14 oz. Then she was jaundice and we had to take her to get blood every other day it was so sad and broke my heart. Finally a week later her jaundice went down and her weight went back up. I am starting to breastfeed and it has been one of the hardest things. She was under weight so I had to give formula and go back and forth and my milk did not come in for 4-5 days so we are trying to do the best we can. No one ever tells you what it is going to be like. Every day I feel like it gets better and better.
I always new I wanted to breastfeed but, never knew how hard it was going to be. No one tells you any of those details and I am glad for not knowing some because I would have talked my self out of it. I am sharing my story because I want other mommies to know that some mommies do struggle with breastfeeding. Lily came 3.5 weeks early and my milk was not in, I could not get anything out so I did have to bottle feed her in the hospital and I was soo upset because I thought what if she won't breastfeed after this, but then thought I need to do what I need to do for my daughter. So the next day the lactation specialist came in the room to see me and made me feel like I was doing everything wrong, it was not a good experience. I then left the hospital feeling very discouraged but did not give up. I started pumping to get my milk to come in from what they told me in the hospital. I then went to support group 2 times a week and that was the best thing I ever did. There were other mommies in there having the same problem and the instructor was so very helpful. It was also a nice time to get out of the house and have adult conversation.
I finally was getting the hang of it after about 2-3 weeks of pain it was all coming together. I am glad I stuck with it because it was so rewarding... Then Lily was extremely fussy and gassy and we went to the Dr. to try and figure what was going on. She was diagnosed with an allergy to cows milk protein which is more common then I thought it was. So NO dairy for this momma, yet another obstacle that I did not let me stop trying. The hardest part was I had started to pump and store milk for me going back to work and it was a month supply that had all dairy in it :( this mommy was so sad I had to start over. I then went back to work after 4 months and tried my best to keep it going but only lasted another month. I started to dry up. I did make lactation cookies which were so good but it did not seem to help as much as I thought it was. I think the stress of leaving my little one and going back to work started to make my milk dry up. So after a month at school I had to stop because I was only producing 2-3 oz for the whole day :( So I made it 5-6 Months!!!
I tried my best and I hope the next baby it is a lot easier and I can breastfeed for a year is my goal. I am so glad I can share my story, I hope that it helps other Mommies out there and if you need any support or encouragement I am here!!!
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