Boob Progress!!!

I just read my friend BB's blog and we are living parallel lives so it seems! BB if you want to call me - anytime - I will tell you everything I have learned in the last 8 years, but more importantly the last 8 HOURS - about breastfeeding struggles. Email me and I will send you my phone number at home...

Anyway - we have made progress today! I am not banking on us being out of the woods completely - but holy shit she just at a 34 gram feeding from ME!! LIKE REALLY!!! I am over the moon right now!!

We met with a feeding specialist this morning who did seem to concur that there was *some* kind of tongue tie going on. However - as my PCP advised me yesterday, in these parts... tongue ties, unless they are the simple anterior type that are the most common - are typically not dealt with until such a time that they affect speech development. Obviously speech is the last of my worries right now - having my child get back to her birth weight before she's a month old is the only freaking goal at the moment. The doctor's don't count "breastfeeding issues" as reason enough to clip a type 3 or 4 tie.

So - JC, our feeding specialist (who is an absolute delight, I might add...) gave us some techniques, and new bottles/nipples to try out today. One of the things we have to do is (amazingly) get her a PACIFIER. Not just any paci - but the ones that are straight like sticks, not orthodontic or whatever - becuase Amelia doesn't like anything touching her tongue past the first little tip. Hence - when breastfeeding, she clamps down on my nipple at the front of her mouth (FUN!) and chews rather than sucks. There is zero stimulation to produce more milk this way... (ding ding ding... low supply anyone?? Why YES!!) and she will never get the high calorie hind milk by doing this.

We worked with JC for about 90 minutes this morning, and she was able to convince Amelia to eat from a 1940's looking nipple that I would never have purchased left to my own devices. I go for the splashy marketing and fancy packages touting their products to the the "best for breastfeeding babies". Call bullshit on that - they are NOT. The standard evenflow small nipple is the best option for us since it reaches far back into her mouth and has to be on at least the middle of the tongue or even further back to work.

Well - work it DID!! It took some time and whispers of all things good into her sweet little ears, but hot damn she took that nipple and ran with it! With the bottles we had been using, it would take her 30-45 minutes to drink 2.5-3 ounces of expressed milk. She ate 3 ounces in about 10 minutes with this traditional nipple. YAY!!

I pumped twice this afternoon so Ken could repeat the process using that traditional nipple - and then at 5 today I nursed her and it was SO DIFFERENT. She really sucked - didn't chew - and we have a 34 gram gain to proove success. We'll see what the rest of the night brings - but my instincts are telling me that this progress is real, and we are on the right track.

It has taken everything, EVERYTHING in me to not toss in the towel on this. The pain is intense, the frustration beyond belief and the tears have pretty much not stopped for 5 days now. But to me, and for her - it's worth it...

God I hope I am right...