On breastfeeding Jules

When my daughter was born, I thought my breast milk production would be as easy as a snap. I never understood why some women would give up and preferred bottle feeding their baby instead. As a nurse, I learned and understood the invaluable benefits of breastfeeding for at least the first six months. Of course, I want the best for my daughter and it is exactly what I had planned before giving birth. Little did I know that breastfeeding your baby, the most natural thing to do, can be quite challenging and at times frustrating for first time moms like me.

When we brought JM home from the hospital, I was instructed to breastfeed by demand and continue this despite there seemed to be no milk coming out of my nipples. On her first three nights, JM was crying all night because she was hungry and mom has no milk coming out. I recall I had a moment of weakness as I literally burst into tears out of frustration and helplessness. Not only that, but it was the first time I let my child down. But I knew better and beating myself up won't help. So I did what a sound person would do, I reached out for the formula milk in our cupboard and after mixing with water, gave her ml. by ml. through a sterile syringe. (Yeah, nurses have them at home!) It was not very ideal but yeah, I did that exactly and my baby took it until she was full. That moment I realized that despite your planning and wishing what is best for your baby, in the end, her basic needs must be met first before satisfying my ego, and that is earning the bragging rights that I exclusively breastfed my daughter from day one. A hungry baby only knows she is hungry and won't care if it breast milk or formula. So I did mixed feeding until my milk supply was established. So breast milk advocates, do not throw me in front of the firing squad yet because, I am exclusively breastfeeding for the past 3 months.

HIPP formula milk

Until recently, my daughter seem to fuss more often than usual and gets hungry faster or isn´t full even after finishing up two of my breasts. Plus her weight when plotted against an infant´s weight-height curve, belonged to borderline underweight. The nurse at the health station was concerned and suggested that I should try to give her supplement feeding with formula. After giving her NAN formula milk before and unsuccessful, she said I should try HIPP ecologic instead because it tastes milder.

NAN formula milk

Knowing my child will reject the formula if I give it to her in bottle, I retrieved a syringe (no needle, of course) from my stash and tested a few drops. She took it but she me gave this "what-are-you-giving-me or doing" look. After giving her the second batch of milk drops, she was solo unhappy and cried big time and I knew, it will be a loooooong struggle if I continue pushing my luck. So there, I stopped.

Feeling defeated, I sat on the couch after putting her to sleep and did a lot of googling for tips on how to make her take the bottle. What I found seems to be promising and I can´t wait to give them a try. A lot of them advised that I should give my daughter at least a month in order for her to get used of the bottle. My daughter is an adamant baby, should you try to deviate from her routine. :) Gulpe de gulat (all-at-once) won´t work, so a better approach will be to do it as slowly and as gradual as possible. :)

XOXO, Rosanne