The Joys of Motherhood

Nursing is hard. It seems like something that is built into your body and is the way you are supposed to feed your baby should be like second nature right?? WRONG. Nursing is one of the hardest things I have ever done. We are 11 days into this adventure and I have already gone through so many different challenges with nursing.

1. In the hospital, Brynlee wouldn't latch. I had the midwife come and she helped her do it and she was latching great!
2. Still in the hospital, she wouldn't stop screaming. She wasn't interested in eating at all. She would be perfectly mellow and then I would get her ready to eat and she would just scream. Come on girl! I'm giving you the food right now....oy.
3. Once she grew out of that one, we got home and then she did ok for a day or two. Then She went back to the screaming. This time it pushed me to the edge and I just broke down crying. I was ready to just give up and give her breast milk in a bottle for the rest of the time. My mom talked me out of it though and we figured out she just couldn't latch because I had too much milk.
4. Once my milk came in, she switched from screaming to just squirming. She would suck a couple of times, move her head all around, make a mess, and then do it again. It was so frustrating. Sometimes it would take me over an hour and a half to feed her because she wasn't consistently eating. So annoying.
5. Once my milk regulated she could latch on again. And latch on she did!! Every hour and a half. I honestly felt like I was spending my entire day just feeding her. She would eat, fall asleep for 30-45 minutes and then want to eat again. It was exhausting!!!
6. Once I decided I wasn't going to feed her so often and hold her off it seemed like everything was going great...until my milk wouldn't let down (This started last night). She isn't the most patient baby in the world and when she wasn't getting milk, she just screamed. It was awful. This is our current problem. Hopefully she will learn to be patient and try a little bit harder to make it work. Hopefully this problem doesn't last too long.

On the plus side...last night, she only woke me up ONCE!!!! She slept from 9:30-1:00, I fed her until just after 2, and then she stayed asleep until 7!!!! It was amazing!! I feel so rested and so does Spencer. It's amazing what a good night's rest can do for the soul!

Today we are going to Wal Mart to get a couple of different kinds of binky's to see if we can get her to take it better. Her binky makes her SOOOO mad. She hasn't figured out how to suck on it right. She just tries to suck on it like she's nursing and when nothing comes out she gets MAD. Hopefully she grows out of that too because I need her to like a binky...

Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood.