Breast feeding, Pumping and Formula

Just a warning, this is a rant about feeding, so if you don't want to read, I totally understand.

Okay, so we all know how important breast milk is, and I totally understand that.  I have/had every intention of breast feeding as long as possible. In my mind it was going to be something that was going to come easy, and I was going to pump when I went back to work, and hopefully we'd have breast milk until he was about one?

Well, we all know that nothing goes according to plan.  Hello, we have a baby, and according to my plan I wouldn't even be pregnant for another year.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love my baby boy, but just saying, nothing goes according to plan.

Needless to say, it didn't work out.  B came three weeks early, and according to EVERYONE, he was too wrong to latch, even though we tried, so we started him on the bottle the day he was born.  I tried to get him to latch, for three weeks I would try every time it was time for him to eat, to get him to latch.  He did latch a couple of times, but never for more than a few seconds.  I tried the football hold, holding him across me, with lots of pillows, lying down in bed, walking around with him, even standing on my head.  Just kidding, I never stood on my head.  :)  He just didn't want to latch, and why would he when he knew that he could have a bottle if he just cried long enough.  Luckily I let my nurse talk me into renting the hospital grade pump, and God bless her for talking my stubborn head into it.  As much as I hated pumping then, I didn't know how amazing that pump was until I had to return it.  We were able to get enough that we were feeding him breast milk about 95% of the time.  I was able to do both sides at once, and be done in about 15 minutes.

Then came our month, and me being cheap, didn't want to pay another $80 for the month, when I had a $150 pump sitting in the house ready to be used.  At least we had a little supply built up, because when I switched pumps I swear my supply plummeted.  I could barely get out two ounces, and I was pumping almost four times as long!!  I only bought the swing, which I thought would be great.  The HUGE downside, is that you can only do one side at a time.  So my 15 minute pumping sessions were turning into 30 minutes to an hour depending on how long I had time to sit there.  Now, imagine doing this six to eight times a day.  I was not a happy camper.  Plus, B is now getting to the point where he isn't really napping during the day. (Thank God, really praise you Jesus, that Grandma will now be here in nine days!!)

I started taking Fenugreek about a week and a half ago.  I was taking two pills, three times a day. By Tuesday, I had to go back to the doctor and my supply had not gone up.  I read about women who had their supply instantly go up. I talked to my doctor about this, and she prescribed something else for me to take.  Now I take that three times a day.  I still haven't seen much of an increase, so we are having to supplement A LOT with formula, and not really getting that much breast milk out.  It seems like I am either feeding B, or pumping.  I try to pump for longer periods to see if that will help, but it really isn't.  I go back to work in three weeks, I can't believe it is already here, and I don't know how much I want to try this once I go back.  I know I am going to be even more stressed once I go back to work, so that isn't going to help.

So, my main point is, I think my baby may be a formula baby by two months old.  I know there are plenty of formula babies out there, for lots of different reasons.  One of our good friends is a formula baby, because they adopted and he is a great baby, and very healthy.  I'm not worried about any of that, the cheap side of me, just wishes I would have saved the $150 and spent it on formula rather than a pump I was going to use for a month!

Thanks for listening to me vent, or if you didn't, and just skipped this entry, good for you!!