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So my girl (5 mos) is having her parental rights terminated this Thursday. SW is still trying to find out when I can legally start breastfeeding.
WIC doesn't know what it needs to be able to give me the use of a breast pump. Not sure how to get one at the hospital, since I'm not a recent birth mom....
I'm ordering the lact-aid device.
I am currently taking fennel/fenugreek supplements and drinking tea nonstop. My inverted nipple has popped out now and my breasts feel different, but who knows what that means... LOL! Pumping half-heartedly. I'm just not so sure it will be helpful. It hurts and my pump is a lame silly pump that doesn't work well.
I am ordering domperidone, but worry about if something happens to baby while taking it and I lose her.... Since it's not prescribed and the FDA is so anal about it... despite their specious reasoning, the county is not known for reasonableness. WHat the FDA says would be the bottom line....
My girl is very boob-averse. We are doing skin to skin a lot to get some prolactin going. But she actually gets mad when the breast is out. Any suggestions? I plan to keep up the skin to skin and as soon as is legal, I HOPE adding the lactaid nurser will make the breast more acceptible? I also started doing infant massage with her to get her used to sweet touches.
I am going to LLL Tuesday, so I'll get some help there.
Mom and my friend are pro-nursing and friend is currently nursing her 1 1/2 mos son, so I get lots of help from her.
But this adoptive thing is so HARD! I know no Dr. will want to go public and support it in view of the sparsity of adoptive nursing where I live.
and the legals are really tough to work around while trying to do what's best for my baby. I've had her since I picked her up from the hospital.
Oh, I changed her over from Dr. Browns to Breastflow bottles by first years. She works so hard to eat now! But she's a champ and just takes breaks. She can afford a little less food, but I keep offering more often so she doesn't lose weight from the changes I'm imposing....
Any success stories or help? Thank you!
And just reading your posts has really helped me. The one with the 7 1/2 mos baby made me tear up. : )
It sounds like you are doing some good things, like the skin to skin and infant massage. My first daughter came at six months, with a lot of problems. I had nursed our adopted sons, so I really wanted Julia to have that, too. She was quite antisocial and really needed the nurturing. My first attempts to nurse her were terrible and set us back. She would be upset before I even got her in a position where I could try to offer the breast. One day, I was thinking about how to get around the problem and decided to try to thread the tube of the Lact-Aid or SNS through a bottle nipple. I was hoping that I could get her started sucking and settled down, and then try to turn her gradually facing toward me. I got a yarn needle and threaded the tube through it and the passed it through the hole in the nipple. I positioned it so that the tube was sticking out about an eighth inch through, so that she wouldn't notice it. It worked very well! After a few days, I could turn her toward me and even lift my shirt and position it around her face, like I would if she was latched onto my breast. I did everything like I would have for breastfeeding, except that there was a bottle nipple position over mine. I fed her that way for a week or two (she will be 20 years old next month, so my memory isn't as good as it once was!) and then started trying to move the bottle nipple and see if she would take my breast. It took a few tries, but she finally tried the breast with just a Lact-Aid tube and decided she liked it. She nursed until she was 25 months old. We always used the Lact-Aid, but I could see that she was getting about two ounces of milk from me each time she nursed.
I am not familiar with the type of bottle nipple you are using. For threading the Lact-Aid tube through, it needs to be a nipple that will not collapse when the baby sucks, when not attached to a bottle. A fairly wide based one is preferable. Also, it can only have one hole in it and the hole has to be tight around the tube. Otherwise, the baby will suck air along with the milk from the LA. The one I used the most was a wide based, latex, ortho nipple. I felt like the latex was good because it gripped the tube a little better than silicone would. I rarely had a tube pull out of the nipple hole. I just washed them put together, too. If you use a silicone nipple, you need to be especially careful not to tear the hole while you are threading the tube through.
Anyway, that is a suggestion for getting her to accept your breast. I have been in touch with lots of other moms who have done the same things and been successful. It does tend to take a while, though.
I have to go, but I hope that helps some. Feel free ask questions. I will check the board every day.
Noelani
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It sounds like you are doing some good things, like the skin to skin and infant massage. My first daughter came at six months, with a lot of problems. I had nursed our adopted sons, so I really wanted Julia to have that, too. She was quite antisocial and really needed the nurturing. My first attempts to nurse her were terrible and set us back. She would be upset before I even got her in a position where I could try to offer the breast. One day, I was thinking about how to get around the problem and decided to try to thread the tube of the Lact-Aid or SNS through a bottle nipple. I was hoping that I could get her started sucking and settled down, and then try to turn her gradually facing toward me. I got a yarn needle and threaded the tube through it and the passed it through the hole in the nipple. I positioned it so that the tube was sticking out about an eighth inch through, so that she wouldn't notice it. It worked very well! After a few days, I could turn her toward me and even lift my shirt and position it around her face, like I would if she was latched onto my breast. I did everything like I would have for breastfeeding, except that there was a bottle nipple position over mine. I fed her that way for a week or two (she will be 20 years old next month, so my memory isn't as good as it once was!) and then started trying to move the bottle nipple and see if she would take my breast. It took a few tries, but she finally tried the breast with just a Lact-Aid tube and decided she liked it. She nursed until she was 25 months old. We always used the Lact-Aid, but I could see that she was getting about two ounces of milk from me each time she nursed.
I am not familiar with the type of bottle nipple you are using. For threading the Lact-Aid tube through, it needs to be a nipple that will not collapse when the baby sucks, when not attached to a bottle. A fairly wide based one is preferable. Also, it can only have one hole in it and the hole has to be tight around the tube. Otherwise, the baby will suck air along with the milk from the LA. The one I used the most was a wide based, latex, ortho nipple. I felt like the latex was good because it gripped the tube a little better than silicone would. I rarely had a tube pull out of the nipple hole. I just washed them put together, too. If you use a silicone nipple, you need to be especially careful not to tear the hole while you are threading the tube through.
Anyway, that is a suggestion for getting her to accept your breast. I have been in touch with lots of other moms who have done the same things and been successful. It does tend to take a while, though.
I have to go, but I hope that helps some. Feel free ask questions. I will check the board every day.
Noelani
Oh, Thank you!!!! I was going to go pick up a breast shield, but your method will allow me to use the bottles she is used to--the Dr. Browns she was on since birth before I switched her bottles. PERFECT!!!
Thank you so much!!! SO encouraging!
I've been having some trouble with my computer and tried to post something to you a few days ago. I didn't realize that it hadn't posted until just now. How are things going? If you have any more questions I might be able to help with, you can email me at noelani54@hotmail.com
How is the baby doing? Julia has been taking some of the old pictures of herself, from back when we first got her. She was such a beautiful baby and I miss those days. She is a wonderful young lady, now, though!