The Art of Breastfeeding

My breastfeeding experience has being like most mothers, difficult, painful, happy and magical!!

As soon as Max was born i fed him, he latched perfectly, in the hospital he latched the first few hours.. then he stopped he was irritated so we decided to give him formula to top up. The weeks after were hard, getting your milk supply up means sitting down and feeding constantly every 1-2 hours at the age of 4 weeks i went to my local baby cafe where they observed me feed and they noticed he had tongue tie so gave me a nipple shield and it went so well he fed better and was more settled on the boob, they also gave me a lactaline personal duo electric pump which i would pump constantly for to get my milk supply up. At first id pump 8-10 times a day and get 3oz if that a day but after a while ive built up my supply and i get 5oz in 2 pump sessions.

I went to the weigh in clinic when Max was around 6 weeks old and he just wasnt putting on the weight, we did this for a few weeks and we had to go to our local hospital to see the consultant, at first they gave us a thickener to put in Max's expressed milk and then some infatrini which is a calorific formula to gie to him once a day, this didnt help much they got very worried and he got transferred to Oxford hospital consultant care they were so worried about him they mentioned admitting him and tube feeding him as he had severe reflux. They did brain scans, ultrasounds on his stomach a belerium scan and didnt find anything (thank god) he looked so ill and weak i questined my milk supply but i kept being reassured by the consultants and breastfeeding councillors that its not my milk it was the reflux.

I tried fenugreek to boost my supply up it didnt work, then i tried oats i ate porridge every morning and it did make a difference i felt more full, i could express more and Max seemed more satisfied.We started weaning him at 5 months and his weight increased dramatically we were so relieved in the space of 3 months hes gone from looking ill (picture above) to being a happy healthy bouncy boy (picture below) I am still feeding him and loving it! He has a couple of bottles 1 of expressed and one formula at night but the rest is down to me and im so proud of myself and thankful for the help i got off the baby cafe i wouldnt have being able to do it without there help. He is still small but he has gone from under the 0.9th centile to very close to the 9th i am going to do a open university course in September so i can become a breastfeeding councillor and help other women who have struggled. Breastfeeding is worth it and its helped me and Max bond together its something only I can give to my son.