Holy smokes..after 6 weeks of....

[Ames]

pumping and feedind breast milk exclusively, she nursed! she latches great and feeds for a long time. she wouldn't stay latched at all to eat the first couple days so I decided to pump only. glad I have the option!! she has nursed maybe 10 times since Thursday, and I still give her bottles because I am on pain meds for a back injury.
Sadly, the same day she started nursing, i noticed she had thrush. So she is on the purple herb stuff that stains everything it gets on. her face is purple..my nipples are purple, my fingers lol.. ugh

[TruBrit(2)]

Yay - Good for you and Mackenzie (on the BF, not the pruple stuff - LOL).
I'm proud of you. Jacob would latch but not suck, I reluctantly gave up and have been giving him EBM ever since. I never had the guts to try him later as the routine we'd established was working so well.
Kudos to you for trying again - keep it up!!
Best Wishes
Tru

[jcc]

I saw your post on the BF board. Congrats Ames! I'm sure you saw I'm torn with the BF vs. weaning to formula issue. I'm honestly still struggling with it. We had latching and sucking issues early on which led me to pump and bottle feed just like Tru. I tried a few times when they were a few weeks old but it hurt so bad I figured the bottle thing was working for us. But - I have also tried more lately and they're doing well. Now I'm wondering whether I should put them to the breast more.....part of me wants to and part of me is so anal to want to know exactly how much they got. But - I must say that a few nights Jordyn has not wanted to go to bed after her night feeding. After an hour or so of fussing, I've nursed her and she eats some and then goes to sleep. Guess I have the goods she wants. It is things like that which keep me interesting in BF. We'll see.

Anyway, so glad to hear she's nursing well. I hope you both recover well and the purple is gone!

[Ames]

Mackenzie wouldn't suck more then two or 3 times without letting go when she was born. I thought she would get the hang of it, but she didn't even get the hang of it from a bottle for a while.

Jcc, the pain of nursing is the worst the first month. I would give it a shot if you want to try again full time. my nipples are pretty tough after nursing Tyler for a year, then having them both pierced (I hear you laughing!). but pumping them so many times a day has re-toughened them up. The first cluster of sucks from her hurt, because the nipples is getting pulled out.. then it moistens up and its fine. I remember that from Tyler.. thinking OUCH THIS SUCKS(literally lol)
Mackenzie loves to fall asleep after nursing. They will eat what they need to stop their thirst and hunger, so as long as diapers are good and the weight gain, your fine and so is she. I produce so much milk that I don't typically have to switch her to the other breast. I get 5-7oz per breast when I pump, so I just let her eat as much as she wants.. she only eats 4 oz from a bottle so I know she isn't going to eat much less then that unless she isn't hungry. Then I pump any remaining milk, and empty the opposite side.

tru-Do whatever works for you and baby. That's the most important. I 'missed' not being able to just whip out the boob lol.. All the bottles and cleaning and sterilizing, and having to take bottles... I am glad she will nurse. She still won't nurse int he night.. but I keep trying. I wouldn't want Brian to give up feeding her in the night to let me sleep either though lol