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The dreaded nipple shield |
When we were discharged from the hospital we immediately made an appointment with an in home lactation consultation who helped my wife use the nipple shield successfully and confirmed for us that Jack was receiving adequate amounts of milk. This put us at ease for about a day until we had to take Jack to his first pediatrician appointment. Unfortunately, the doctor we interviewed and finally agreed upon was on vacation the week Jack was born and we had to see another doctor at the office. When we showed up, we were sleep deprived and at wits end with the breastfeeding (it was still not happening as well as it should and Reilly needed to sleep but had to keep feeding every couple hours.) The pediatrician told us two things - the first, our son had a tongue tie and it needed to be fixed (wonderful, something else is wrong now...) and that our son was starving. Oh, ok...wait, what?!?! Starving? This scared us so much that we gave in when she offered us formula, something we promised we would never do. But two sleep deprived first time parents being told their son was starving was just too much for us to take. Jack had two bottles of formula that day and the only plus side was that mom was able to sleep for four hours uninterrupted thanks to possibility of dad being the feeder for once. It wasn't until the lactation consultant came back for another visit a few days later when we found out that the pediatrician was throwing around words carelessly and that Jack was both gaining weight just fine and receiving adequate amounts of milk - something our regular pediatrician confirmed a few days later during a follow up visit.
If you're noticing a pattern so far it's that things can definitely go wrong and if you're unprepared for them or don't know enough it can cause quite the emotional toil. Being told our child was starving and a follow up call from the doctor to check and see if Jack was "safe over the weekend" was extremely nerve racking when all you and your wife are trying to do is feed your child and do the best for him. The in home consultations weren't cheap and certainly weren't being covered by insurance and over the three weeks after his birth the consultant had visited our house 3 times at $100 an hour. From my point of view, I felt helpless. There really wasn't anything I could do but offer support, take Jack to his appointments, hold him during the tongue tie procedure, and just stay positive. In the end, it all paid off when my wife was able to successfully nurse without the shield about 2 months into Jack's life. There were a couple times when Jack demanded the shield but after a week or so he was completely off the shield and we haven't had to use them since.
The nipple shield was probably the biggest hurdle that needed to be overcome in terms of Jack continuing on
breast milk but other issues did come up during this time. Reilly came down with a fever a couple days home from the hospital which eventually was diagnosed as mastitis. A midnight trip to a 24 hour Walgreens helped clear that up but the medicine she was prescribed also helped thrush to form on her breast and then subsequently in Jack's mouth. Just when it seemed it couldn't get worse, Jack would scream bloody murder after breastfeeding and my wife would complain about the sensation of "thousands of tiny knives stabbing her breast" during feeding. Some additional medication on both mom and sons part helped clear this up and (thankfully) it hasn't come back.
The nipple shield was probably the biggest hurdle that needed to be overcome in terms of Jack continuing on
Thrush on a baby tongue (not Jack) |
Jack is now 14 weeks old and he is still being exclusively breastfed. We don't know how long we will breastfeed but I know 2 years is recommended and we're going to aim for that. It started out extremely rough in the beginning and while switching exclusively to formula was never really an option in our eyes it did look more and more appealing from my point of view. I saw my wife go from a happy new mom to a sad and scared new mom who just wanted to feed her child the natural way she should be able to. I know at times she thought she felt less than a woman because "other women can do it, why can't I?" and as a loving husband, this is heartbreaking to see. As things got better, so did her mood until eventually she is where she is today, a breastfeeding guru. Through it all though, us dads just need to put on the supportive husband hat and help them through the emotional roller coaster being a new parent can be.

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