Tuesday, April 12, 2011

nursing adventures


i've been having an interesting week and a half(ish). Jackson has been nursing like a champ, bless his little heart. he's also been cluster feeding. like every 30-45 minutes. all i have to say is OUCH. it started out as just a little soreness and then morphed into (how do i put this delicately?.....) cracked and bleeding issues. ohmygoodness excruciating pain. i started pumping every other feeding to give myself a break. (pumping doesn't hurt quite as much) between that and the ton of lanolin i've been using, i've started to heal. i was nursing him yesterday, and he grabbed me with his sharp little baby fingernails and tore a chunk out of me. (he gets wild when he's hungry) so that's that. i knew in the back of my mind that he was swallowing a little bit of blood when he was nursing, how could he not since i was bleeding?

all of that leads me to this: i nursed him today at our MOPS meeting, and when i was burping him he spit up a little bit of pink colored milk. i looked at him sympathetically and rubbed his back because he usually burps more than once. the next thing i know he vomits bloody breastmilk up all over himself and all over me. (it was even coming out his nose! my poor baby!)  he continued to spit up tiny amounts of bloody breastmilk the rest of the meeting. i called the lactation consultant at the hospital when i got home, and she advised me to use neosporin (instead of lanolin) and to just pump for the next 24 hours to give myself a chance to heal a little bit. being the dutiful mother i am, i pumped, and fed him a bottle the next time he got hungry. needless to say, bloody breastmilk vomit all over. again. i swear he vomited everything he ate up (not all at once, but over the course of about half an hour) i think that the blood he's swallowing is upsetting his little tummy.

so my dilemma is this: do i continue to pump and give him bottles of milk? (his last bottle was barely pink. if you weren't looking for it you wouldn't be able to tell) or do i buy a little bit of formula and give him that but still pump and pitch the milk? i don't want to quit nursing, but i want him to be able to keep his food down. i'm leaning towards the second choice.

your thoughts?



6 comments:

  1. I love the pictures of you and Jackson! Cute! I think that I would get the formula to have on hand if the pink should continue in the next 24-48 hours. It would be good to have just in case and then keep pumping and dumping as long as you have the blood present. I know this will work out because...I know...I am praying for you. Love you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeah, get some formula for on hand moments. We got some because sometimes I can not function at 4am to feed. As long as they are getting some breastmilk I think that is better then none!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh NOOO!! I pumped one time and the milk was just SOO bloody, OUCH!!! OUCH! I feel for you girl! I don't really have any advice but I'll be praying for you and jackson and your ahem....bloodiness. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had this exact same thing going on. I am SO SORRY. I think that breastfeeding is hard enough in the beginning without the excruciating pain. Yes, give yourself a break and feed him some formula. Let your body heal. Have you heard of nipple shields? You can get them at Target and your baby can nurse while you wear them. They definitely help. Hoping things get better quickly!

    ReplyDelete
  5. He's so precious! Nursing is hard, isn't it? I had a heck of a time with it the first few weeks, too. I was bleeding and cracking, also. It was so bad I would cry almost every time. My dr prescribed me some really great cream that helped SO much. I did what you did and pumped and occasionally supplemented to give my boobs a rest. Also, I avoided wearing a bra (for some reason it really irritated) and I wore a nursing tank instead. That helped some, too.

    I was ready to quit nursing because I was in SO much pain- but then I was better all the sudden. Anytime it would start to hurt bad again I would pump or supplement... And this week I have had no problem at all besides a tiny bit of discomfort. I actually am starting to enjoy breastfeeding... And I HATED it at first! :)

    Praying for quick healing for you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. i second the shields and see if your lactation consultants or Dr. can get you these gel wound patches for your nipples. They were created for wound healing - but can be used for breastfeeding too. I had 2 sets... one in the fridge ond one on. When I would feed I would switch them out - washing the old set. Where them between feeds. They were good for about 4-5 days.

    ReplyDelete