My first daughter was born after
a med-free labor of 22+ hours of labor which ended in an epidural and emergency
c section and some fetal distress. She was born at 41 weeks gestation. Immediately
after delivery she was whisked away to NBICU and put under an oxygen tent and
an iv was inserted, and countless cords. I did not get to see her for the first
8 hours of life, except for a brief visit after I was wheeled out of the recovery
room. I touched her and she stopped crying, I couldn't stay because of all of
the emotion and birth that had gone sour. I told the hospital I planned on breastfeeding
, and a "I'm a breastfed girl" sign was placed in her isolette. When she was
brought to me the next morning, to my horror, a pacifier was in with her. I
am not anti pacifier, its just that I was convinced this was going to sabotoge
my nursing efforts. I got her for the first time, and I was a nervous wreck,
and no LC's were on duty to help me with first latch on. Some nurses came in
a stupidly told me, "you have to put your finger there so she doesn't suffocate,
while you feed her" DUMB! What did I know, I had my finger there for the first
week of her life. She grew at an alarming rate for a little girl! By 2 weeks
she had not only regained her birth weight (7.6) but was at 8.8. At 6 weeks
she had almost doubled her birthweight. At 6 months, she weighed a hefty 20
pounds and measured 28 inches. That put her in 95% for height, weight and head
size. So many comments were made by strangers, "what a FAT baby", "What are
you feeding her, Crisco?" I felt like I had given birth to a freak. It hurt
my feelings, but I kept on nursing knowing my milk was best for her, and most
of all it didn't cost me a dime! At around 12 months she started to slim down.
She is ideal weight at 4.5 years old and still a little taller than most but
not much. My second baby was born by induced labor due to low fluid levels.
She came out 6 pounds and 14 ounces. VBAC. I nursed her for the first time when
she was about 45 minutes old, that was one of the best and most treasured moments
in my whole life! She started getting fussy when she was 2 weeks old. I kept
wondering what I was doing/had done wrong! The anti breastfeeders kept saying,
"its your milk!" "She is allergic to your milk" (*this one was especially hard
for me to believe) "give her some formula!" I tried formula ONCE around six
weeks only to have her vomit up something that looked like cottage cheese and
gave her a rash. At six months her iron level was low due to her alpha thalasemia
(lower than average for *her*) more comments, "she needs an iron rich formula"
she is a little smaller than average but thriving wonderfully, physically and
coginitively! She is 10 months old and I still get comments from family, "where
is her bottle?" I say, "she doesn't need one". She is still fussy at home sometimes
but amazingly she is so good natured when out in public, very social and in
generally good spirits!
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