more adventures in breastfeeding
2006-02-09 - 11:25 a.m.

It appears that I have thrush -- that would be a yeastie-beatie invader on the nipples. All this pain I've been experiencing while trying to breastfeed has been both latch and yeast-related. This boils down to excruciating pain this morning. So much so that I couldn't continue to keep Ryan latched on. I was forcing myself to, but was bawling from the pain. The hubby made me stop.

I'm trying to get in touch with a lactation consultant to come out and solve the latch problem -- he started clamping with his jaw this week (were he to have teeth, I might be one nipple down). This might be because of the thrush or because we started giving him a bottle on Friday, because he hates getting his supplements with the syringe and wails through it... and it's hard to feed a wailing baby. We tried to go back to the syringe this morning but it was just too hard, so I gave up and gave him a bottle again.

So this basically means that I have to pump my milk, then bottle it, then feed the baby. On the plus side, when I'm home this is faster than breastfeeding. And it's all well and good if I can beat him to hunger. But if I'm still pumping when he wakes and starts crying, I have to summon up everything inside me and ignore him. It's nearly impossible and shatters my nerves to pieces. I gave him some of the milk I was saving for when I have surgery next week just to try to get ahead of his hunger. We'll see how it goes.

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