What's your breastfeeding story?

[SuseB]

I was thinking that breastfeeding stories might be just as interesting as birth stories to other women. I breastfed my DD until she self-weaned at 11 months. We had a lot of problems early on with undiagnosed silent reflux and I really had to persevere to keep breastfeeding going in the face of HV worries about her weight and all her problems with feeding (arching, screaming, frequent night waking etc). We got referred to a paed at 5 months, and with Gaviscon and a start to solid food at 5.5 months things improved and feeding was fine for the next few months. But I think DD had never really associated feeding with comfort because of the reflux, so she dropped feeds as soon as they were replaced by proper meals (she eats like a horse). By 10 months she was down to just one feed in the early morning, and at 11 months she started refusing that, and that was the end of breastfeeding. Looking back on the experience now, however, I?m just really pleased and proud to have fed for as long as I did, although I was disappointed when we stopped because I would have gone on for a lot longer. Anyway, once I thought about this as my ?breastfeeding story? I thought I?d like to hear other people?s stories - so come on ladies, hit me with your breastfeeding stories... maybe the thread might be inspiring for people having problems.

i had dd1 had said all along - even before i got pg that i would BF and assumed as i was so "determined" it would be a breeze! Anything but, dd1 refused to latch so i had to use a nipple shield, then i had major cracked nipples, mastitis 4 times, low milk supply due to the mastitis, then due to ff topups - we experience nipple confusion. Finally after 4 long months of struggling i got her weaned from the bottles and nipple shields and we started to exclusively BF and carried on until she self weaned at 25 months as i was pg again.

Now with dd2, i got mastitis 2 times, had major over supply, over active letdown.. still carrying on at 5.5months and will continue for quite some time yet!

I love BFing, even though i have experienced my fair share of problems. I still think it is the best thing in the world

I bf DS until 17 months when he self-weaned himself off his final 'goodnight' feed.

Had mastitis once fairly early on, but it cleared up with antibiotics (although next time round, knowing what I know now, I'll be trying the hot flannel/cold flannel, savoy cabbage routine first).

Didn't once think about giving up as DS got on really well with it. Tried weaning onto solids at 4 1/2 months, but no real joy, so gave up until 6months when he took to it much better, but still was having quite a few feeds.

Got it down to 3 feeds per day (morning, lunch and bedtime) by about 10 months, and then just 2 feeds (morning and night) when he was about 11 months as I was going back to work and didn't want to have to express for him to have feeds during the day with childminder/grandparents.

Eventually, as I said, it was just the night feed, but he gave that up himself. I would have carried on indefinitely as loved it. Am really looking forward to doing it again. I did a breastfeeding support course too, and got seriously into it!

Great idea for a thread!

DD was born by CS after they discovered she was breech and our first BF was with the midwife rolling me onto my side and shoving her head onto my nipple.
I was finally shown rugby hold after the 2nd night of trying to feed surrounded by pillows which saved us from giving up. I had cracked nipples and my milk didn't come in for 6 days as I had such a stressful time in hospital with unsympathetic other mums on my ward offering me formula 'to shut her up so we can all get some sleep' and DD lost a lot of weight before I discharged us.
Fed DD exclusively until she was 11 months and then started to give her cows milk in the day and BFing day and night after having to leave her for a day at short notice when I had no EBM left.
DD weaned herself from day and night feeds when I got pregnant, she started refusing the morning feed and then when I was 6 weeks pregnant she refused the night feed as well and moved onto cows milk.

Really good way of doing this, great idea!

BF'd both of mine to just over 5 mos - short I know but I went back to work (long unreliable hours) when they were 6 mos. Was quite pleased with being able to do that at all, as I have particularly tiny flat nipples (basically like the palm of a hand) - it was hospital midwife with ds (my first) who told me to get nipple shields - not for the protection but to give the baby a purchase at all. Maybe controversial, but it worked fine (and benefit - BFing has given me still small but neatly non-flat nipples, if that's not TMI!).

Breast pump (powerful electric one) an essential - managed to drain away several near-mastitis lumps, as well as being able to express during the 5-6 month bit.

So even if you are nipply-challenged, you can do it!

This is a really good idea and my 'story' is one of contrasts....

I gave up feeding DD after around 6 weeks of hell - In fairness to me I had a very traumatic and medical birth (pre eclampsia, type 1 diabetic, induced at 36 wks, failed ventouse, forceps and massive pph followed by blood transfusion) I struggled from day 1. I battled through cracked and bleeding nipples, thrush and mastitis and was in any event very poorly after the birth. I eventually allowed myself to give up after 6 weeks but I am still racked with guilt. With hindsight I should have got help early on but believed the midwives when I was told it all looked fine. I should also have allowed myself to heal and just taken to bed with DD.

With DS I had an emergency cs and had prepared for his dropping blood sugars by expressing colustrum in advance. He was syringe fed that after birth and I was devasted when they had to take him to SCBU for a duscky episode. He had formula that first night and I thought that BF would be doomed again - but this time I got the help I needed and just stuck it out. I was kind to myself and would just spend hours in bed feeding or watching tv whilst Dad or Grandma looked after DD (lucky for me to have the help) It was still quite hellish and still had cracked nipples and had mastitis but here I am now 'still' feeding at 14 months.

Problem is now I feel even more gulity about DD and what we missed out on together I guess that is the essence of BF - when it works well it is fabulous but when it isn't then it is hell.

Fantastic idea, should be given to all mothers-to-be instead of feeble cartoons of parents saying "they feed quite frequently early on" which is what I got at my NCT class...

Anyway, I had DS1 and set off feeding but he wasn't very good at sucking as he had jaundice and was a bit sleepy. Seemed to go ok for a couple of days but gradually started to hurt more and more and after about 3 days was really really painful so that I hated the idea of him feeding and one day he even sicked up some blood in his milk (mine, that he had swallowed). Midwives said latch was fine.
He also wanted to feed almost continuously after about 6pm so that by about 10pm in the evening of the 5th day I decided to give him some formula, feeling like I was poisoning him.
Even his daytime feeds took about an hour and a half.
He was also desperately wriggly so I could hardly keep him in position and had to swaddle him in order to feed him.
Anyway, this continued until after about 2 weeks (seemed like forever) I noticed it was not hurting quite so much and after about a month it only hurt at the beginning of feeds. And then after about 6 weeks hardly hurt at all.
And by about 3 months I could feed and have one hand free to read a book!
Went back to work at 6 months, feeding morning and evening until about 10mths. Then period returned so I guessed not much milk was being drunk, so I stopped.
Phew, long!

Bf ds1 and ds2 no problems at all, they were naturals!
Ds1: went back to work when he was 4 months old. Had previously thought I would have to give up bf when working but one line in the Great Ormond St Baby book "It is absolutely possible to work and breastfeed" convinced me to give it a go. This was 11 years ago so trotted to Mothercare and bought small, crappy battery operated pump. Considered a bit weird by colleagues but persevered. Usually managed to express enough for one feed the following day and gave formula for 2nd feed. Fed him till he was 11 months old.
Ds2: Got duplicate baby! MW in hospital warned me that bfing no.2 might not be the same as no. 1 as "It's a different baby" but he looked exactly the same. Got mastitis twice but sensible GP advised me to feed through, my neighbour at the time was told to stop bfing when she got mastitis. The Avent Isis breast pump was new on the market and I liked the look of it. Got 10oz with it the first time I used it! At 4 months, ds2 was given a bottle of formula in his creche as they said he wouldn't drink the breastmilk cold and thought you couldn't heat breastmilk!! The same day he came out in a rough rash which my GP diagnosed as exzema. She advised me to continue to bf as long as possible. I made a big effort to express and luckily he didn't have to have any formula for most of his first year. I bf him till 13 months.
Ds3 was born 8 weeks premature. From the start I said I wanted him to be bf and used a pump as soon as he was born. He was tube fed for about a week in NICU before being tranfered to SCBU, where they gave him bottles of EBM. I managed to express an impressive amount with my manual Isis, the hospital pumps ( Medela) didn't work well for me but possibly because they were very well used. I had to pump every 3 hours. In SCBU I asked if I should put him to the breast. The nurses told me to go ahead but looked dubious. Ds3 took to it very well but I was always being told by the sister in charge to top up with a little bottle of EBM because "We can't see what he's getting" She was an older Irish woman ( I am in Ireland) but a lovely little Asian nurse and a lovely pro-bf Asian doctor encouraged me to keep putting ds3 to the breast and told me to bf him exclusively when I got home. I am very glad I listened to them! Ds3 gained weight and thrived at the breast. However he is the personification of stubborness and at 5 months ( 3 months corrected) he decided he wanted nothing to do with bottles at all! I had to go back to work and was very worried he would starve! We went through every bottle and teat on the market, he took the MAM ultivent and then later refused it, he later took the Playtex disposable nurser with Naturallatch teat. We did have some problems in the creche as if he ate solids he would then refuse to drink! Eventually I got the lady looking after him to give him the milk first and that worked! Eventually fed him till 2.6 months. I gave up mainly because ttc no. 4 and was bleeding between periods and gynae felt perhaps bf was preventing ovulation. Went cold turkey, told ds3 it was "all gone" and was hearrbroken at his tears but within a few minutes he went out to play with his brothers. After 2 days he stopped asking for it.
However 2 months on, a couple of nights ago I brought him into bed with us as he had woken in the middle of the night. When I woke up he was sucking away at my breast! Don't think he got anything though!

I had 3 different experience with my 3
es, latched on well, no problems,other then complete oversupply, to which I received no support, other then that I had to take it as part of the parcel...and I leaked through constantly, badly and obvious, which wasn't pleasant, and es, as my other 2, also was a happy chucker....and with him I was adviced that maybe on Formula he wold fare better, as supply was more controlled....at the time I didn't feel strongly about feeding, so, did just that...however, bottledfeeding was a nightmare, as my son asn't in a feeding routine and weren't having that, and also he was stillsicking up all over the place when he as walking already!

MS, had a diffciult time at first dispite him being a brillaint birth with no interventions other then breaking the water...
but he had probs latching on, and it was me by myslef who thoguht that maybe expressing a bit to make my nipples/breast feel softer etc...that we finally got the grip of it!
Had a fair few bad bouts of thrush with hi, but we got through it.
However, at 9 month he got his first tooth through and he bit fromthereon...always at the end of a feed, smiling...so, he wasn't to much effected by me telling him off or being in pain...as ong as he wasn't deprived, eh...I stopped f'ing him after a month of complete agony....as I was so worried with every feed when he would bite me...I tried to work out when and the first signs to hinder him....as I obviously wasn't going to stop him

Ys, had a bad start in life, emergency C-section, but luckily I knew enough and whenever he would stir I tried to latch him on...many midwifes asks over and oever again...oh is he on again, isn't he giving you any rest...and I always said, that no he wasn't demanding it as suvh, but he woke and I thought I see if I can latch him on, as I know that is the best way to establish a good milksupply...
we had hardly any probs with bf, he had a bf strike around 10 month, which worried me, but went back to bf'ing fine...he bit me only bery rarely and was always shocked when he did, but at around 13 month he bit me and I pulled away in pain and he got so upset and after that he just would not latchon anymore, I tried daytime and nighttime, light or dark...nothing got him back to it

i fed ds1 for 5 1/2 months, only stopped as hv said thats why he wasnt sleeping through the night and i should ff him instead. i was really sad when i stopped feeding him. he didnt sleep through till he was 2!!!

with ds1 i had no intentions of listening to any hv about feeding and am now still feeding him at nearly 14months, but have cut down to am and pm feeds only. at 10 months he has 2 bottles of formula to see him though nursery as i dint have enough time to express while working all day as well, but am so glas to have bf for so long. i could hold him on the boob and walk about while feeding him too!! so when i had forgot my drink i could get up and grab it !! brilliant!!

perhaps i should have added that with ds1 for the first few days i was ill (i was induced early as had sever pre-eclampsia which turned to eclampsia) and wasnt able to hold him myself to feed him so the midwives held him to me to feed him.
with ds2 i had sever pre ecalmpsia and induced early, but not as bad as with ds1. but as ds2 was much much smaller and had bad jaundice i had to wake him to feed every 2 hours for what seemed like months and months. he was readmitted at 6 weeks as he still had jaundice and slow to put on weight. but hey ho, hes till very small for his age, and has allergy milk protein which has probably helped me to keep bf for so long. (although he does have some soya formula now, just 2 bottles a day)

bloody hv for giving that advice

Ds1 - I had no great commitment to bfing, but thought I'd give it a go. It worked well, although he cried a lot and my mother and the inlaws thought he needed a bottle. Obstetrician told me to stop feeding at 15 months because bleeding while just pg with dd, and he thought it would bring on miscarriage.

DD - no probs, except got pg when she was 7 months old. GP told me to switch to Aptamil, as it was the same as breastmilk. I didn't, but gave up when she was a year, because it didn't 'feel' right, and I resented her feeding for some reason. Which is odd, because that didn't happen feeding ds3 while pg with ds4.

Ds2 - expected this to be a breeze. In agony after 3 days. He was sucking in his lower lip ie it was in this mouth, and this was making his sucking too strong. My friend was a LLleague member, and pulled his chin down shich pulled his lip out, problem solved. Sent her a massive bunch of flowers

ds 3- Quite sore, with bleeding nipples after a couple of days, but it was a latching on problem.

Ds4 - Still feeding ds3 so no pain at all, went swimmingly except ds3 gave up the night ds4 came home. He was down to about 2 feeds a day at that stage, 16 months old.

Good idea for a thread.

DD1: had emergency cs and it was such a blur/shock that I can't remember her first bf. The hospital gave her top-up formula, but once my milk came in we went from strength to strength. Remember feeling rather trapped at about 3 months when she was feeding VERY frequently. I went back to work part time when she was 7 months and expressed. She wouldn't take a bottle at all but drank from a cup. She was a very bad sleeper and reliant on bf to get to sleep.
I got pg again, continued feeding but the night feeds were a strain so when she was about 19/20 months old I stopped feeding her at night. Continued feeding her after dd2 was born (in fact, I fed her while I was in labour).I really enjoyed the tandem feeding at first as it helped to retain a bond at a time of change. By the time she reached 2 1/2 I wasn't enjoying feeding her so much, so I gently encouraged her to wean (restricting the length of feeds / distraction) and she gradually stopped.

DD2: another emergency cs, a bit of a delay in giving her her first feed after the birth but I was much more confident and it has been plain sailing most of the time. In the early days I would feed her whilst carrying her in the sling when I went out or while playing with dd1. She has never had formula. DD2 wouldn't take a bottle either, but that didn't really matter much. She is now 2.3 and has 3 or 4 feeds a day, and we're both still enjoying it so no plans to stop.

Some inspiring stories here!

dd - I assumed I'd BF her and it'd be a natuaral easy thing to do. After 6 weeks of bad latch, cracked nips, thrush, no sleep and incipient PND I gave up. Gutted.

ds - hoped to BF but didn't want to pressurise myself. Had an easy home birth and he fed as soon as he was out. Had a very very good midwife who delivered him and came every day after - had to troubleshoot quite a few problems but it was never as bad as with dd. He's 4 months old and exclusively BF. I feel so proud of myself but oddly I don't enjoy BF the way I enjoyed bottlefeeding dd. Not sure why that is but hopefully it'll come

I didn't breastfeed ds at all on his first night - he had a fairly hard birth and just slept and slept - my instinct was to let him. In the morning all hell broke loose when the midwives found out. I couldn't really establish feeding in the hospital so discharged myself and managed to muddle along at home. He was jaundiced for a few days and they muttered about it a lot but I had this insane confidence in him and my body to sort it out. Luckily I was right.

I frequently suffered with blocked ducts and also had a scary nursing strike when ds was nearly a year old. I had great support from LLL during those times. Otherwise breastfeeding has been one of my favourite parts of being a mother, and we continued until ds chose to stop when he was nearly 4.

Just like determination, I was so sure I was going to breastfeed that I was sure any little hurdles that popped up would be easily sorted. Oh My God it was SO. HARD.! Ds latched on straight away when he was born, later back in the room it proved a bit more difficult and I had to ask for some help which mainly involved midwives forcing my nipple rather violently into his mouth . For the first week or two it seemed to go fine, he regained his birth weight quickly but then we had 2 lots of thrush and tongue tie which didn´t get sorted until he was 6 weeks old.

It was hard, much harder than I had expected and there were tears and arguments between me and dh who, although mostly supportive, occasionally lost it at 4am in the morning when I was feeding while bawling my eyes out. I thought I would never make it to the magic 6 week mark when so many people say it gets better. I decided that if things didn´t improve after the tt was corrected, I would stop. It was so hard and I really think I didn´t fully bond with ds, or at least start to properly enjoy him, until we got past the problems. It was so difficult being scared to feed him and feel like every interaction with him was painful and unsatisying for both of us

After the procedure there was an immediate difference and about a week later it was completely painless. I did have another bout of thrush but it was quickly cleared up and nothing like as painful as the tt latch so we got through it fine. ds is now 16 weeks and still going strong, not thinking about when I´m going to stop..right now I´m really enjoying it. And dh told me last night how proud he is of me for battling through and being so stubborn

... no small mention should go to this forum on MN for all the support and encouragement I got when I was really down. It really did keep me going)

DD fed or screamed all day and all night from birth. At 15 weeks we finally discovered that it was because she is milk intolerant, so I had to give up eating any dairy myself, so that it wouldn't pass to her in my milk. We also discovered shortly afterwards that she had silent reflux, but by then gaviscon was enough to get us through it.

I'd only planned on feeding her for 6 months originally, but we're still going now at 18 months! She was still having around 8 feeds a day at 11 months, but I cut her back to 2, which suited me much better, and meant that she finally started eating solids properly.

We go through phases, usually when she's teething, where she wants to feed lots and lots, but we get through them and usually go back to twice a day now. I'm hoping she'll self-wean sometime soon (would like to have dairy again so that I can do Slimming World), but there are no signs of it happening!

I was determined to breastfeed and my dh, mother, sister etc were all very supportive and pro-breastfeeding. I spent ages reading about breastfeeding, bought nipple cream, nursing bras etc.

My ds arrived in a great hurry (nearly born in layby of M62) when I was 34 weeks pregnant. He was whisked away into intensive care and I was given such poor care that I discharged myself 2 hours after giving birth. Fortunately I was able to borrow a heavy-duty breastpump (from a different hospital) and got my supply going.

Flash forward 3 weeks and ds was well enough to try breastfeeding. Never managed to get him latched on properly and despite advice from every tom, dick and harry in the hospital I was in absolute agony with sore nipples. He was discharged despite my worries that things weren't right.

At home I found the pain unbearable and resorted to giving him expressed milk via a bottle. Somehow kept expressing for another four months until, magically, he latched on without pain one day and we started exclusive breastfeeding at the tender age of four and a half months.

Carried on until he was seven and a half months.

Managing to breastfeed my ds filled me with a greater sense of achievement than anything I have ever done before or since

Some really inspiring stories on here. I've been thinking about the thread over the weekend and I'm wondering about putting a book together on the subject - real life breastfeeding stories to inspire and inform other women. I am a publishing bod in RL but this would be a personal project. It wouldn't make any money but I think it would be worthwhile - I wish I'd had a similar book to read when I was having problems. If anyone on the thread is interested in contributing, could you CAT or email me at susanlast at hotmail dot com? I'd be thrilled to hear from you and then I could get things in motion (already have grand plans for notes for contributors, and have even embarked on writing up my own story properly as a guide...) Plus would love to read more stories on the thread too...

DS was born at 35 weeks, so instead of my lovely,cuddly feed straight after birth I'd imagined, I was hand expressing into a stupid little pot every 3 hours. First time I was allowed to put him to the breast was when a colleague was visiting, and the general traffic in SCBU wasn't quite what I wanted ! Established exc bfing, and went home within the week. I went back to work ft at 4.5 months and pumped for all his day feeds till 13 months when he dropped the last one of his own accord. Still feeding at 15 months, and not planning on giving up soon, although really must get a dual voltage breast pump.
Have had a couple of blocked ducts, but otherwise was really lucky. But had great support from DH and my doula.

Just as a positive and hopefully encouraging story- dd was born at 40 weeks and throughout the pg I'd said Id try to bf but if I couldn't I wouldn't beat myself up about and switch to ff. Dd had her first bf at a few minutes old, didn't want to latch off (MW removed her in the end, think it was to get her dressed and move us to another room) and feeding naturally clicked into place from then on. From the secodn she was born I never had any problems with milk supply, latching on, blocked ducts, mastitis or anything else- she was a natural. Only slight downside was that I could never convince her to take EBM or formula in a bottle when she got a bit older but I bf until 18 months when she was ready to stop. I'm expecting no.2 now and plan (hope) to do the same thing.
Obviously this doesn't happen very often but I wanted to let people know that bf isn't always difficult/ painful/tiring- it doesn't mean you've done anything wrong if it is but it is possible! BEst advice is to stay relaxed and confident and get help and advice whenever you need it.

Bumping this because progress is being made on making this idea into a real-life book! I've got quite a few contributors lined up but I need lots more to make the book really useful, so it would be great if anyone else who's interested could get in touch, either by CAT or email: susanlast at hotmail dot com. I've called in few favours from publishing friends and all being well the book should be published next spring - providing I can get enough people of course! Thanks for any help...

dd Fed well and no probs for the first two months, then fed constantly for the next two months, was very sicky and pretty (both of us!). Weaned at four months and stopped bf at 6 months to my relief.

ds Fed well from birth, started to feed constantly at 15 weeks, waited another week then weaned. Now 6 months loves his food and has four bf a day and one in the night. All his feeds now are really short and I wish he fed more often. I love it this time and will be gutted if he wants to stop before I want him to stop. I'm sure that I could probably get him to stop the night feed as he sometimes sleeps through, but I don't want to

Resurrecting an old thread, just to let you know that the book I mentioned up thread is finally finished (yay!) and will be published in June, launched during Breastfeeding Awareness week. If you want to have a look, see www.lonelyscribe.co.uk (forthcoming titles), amazon (search breastfeeding stories) and find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Breastfeeding-Stories-to-Inspire-and-Inform/326859357387631. Really hoping the book will be useful. There's also a launch, on Wednesday 27 June, in Belper, Derbyshire - if you or anyone you know might be interested in coming along, get in touch!