Booby Traps - MoMs edition

Here's the first installment in a blog set about booby traps experienced by moms of multiples. Did anyone here experience any of these? If you were able to overcome them, how did you do it?

I experienced pretty much all of these booby traps when I was nursing the girls. I was able to overcome them with the support of my friends & family, a stubborn streak a mile wide and, of course, finding this forum! If I hadn't found you ladies I wouldn't have gone on to breastfeed my girls for almost 2 years. Knowing that all the difficulty, hard times & exhaustion were normal was a relief & gave me the determination to see it through. :grouphug:

 

I think that stubborn streak is what got me through, too. I actually had a heck of a time with my first DD, for the first few weeks (mastitis at 5 days old, she wouldn't stay latched, etc). But it never even occurred to me to quit nursing. It was just what I was going to do. And I think one of the things that helped me get through the crazy stress of nursing Sabrina (as part of twins) was that I'd already nursed 3 and I just wasn't going to take no for an answer. But it wasn't easy. I was nursing her, and pumping for her (because she wasn't getting enough on her own) and then even supplement that with formula (which we mixed into the EBM) because she just wasn't gaining weight. I didn't actually get a failure to thrive diagnosis on her until she was 4, but I'm sure we were dealing with it as a newborn. That made nursing twins hard, even though it was no big deal to feed Sydney who figured it out right away. Sabrina's still super tiny... except for height, she's actually smaller in every way than Spencer who'll be 3 this month. The lactation consultants were heaven sent, too. It was really helpful to have someone both tell me I wasn't failing, and help me figure out ways to make things work.

 

Every last one, right down to the letter! I remember being told during a birthing class that a lactation consultant would come to our rooms after the baby was born, then the woman looked at me and said "except you, you can't breastfeed twins" and just went on. I had a lot of people tell me I couldn't do it. I did try but I was so overwhelmed, tired, young, and unsupported that I didn't last long. But hey, they are perfectly healthy and happy so no harm done.

 

I'm very lucky to say that I experienced none of these and even got slightly frowned upon by the hospital lactation consultant and the public health nurse for letting the babies have 10 ml of formula each night in the nursery so I could sleep for a few hours (my husband had to be home every night with our son and I was alone for 14 hours a day and over night for the 4 days I was in hospital). The public health nurse (also an LC) scolded me for giving my daughter formula one night after we were home because she wouldn't latch and I couldn't pump anything for her--apparently, I was supposed to let her scream and starve? She had latching problems for the first week we were home--I had to stagger their feedings and spend an hour working patiently with her to latch her for each feed until she was about 10 days old and finally "got it" (and it involved giving her pumped milk or formula when I didn't pump enough).

I think many of the hospitals in my area are baby friendly. They were willing to let me nurse in recovery after my c-section (their goal is to get all babies regardless of how they are born onto the breast within an hour of birth) and I had initially planned to do that but I was so sick during my surgery (vomiting from the spinal) and they gave me so much anti-nausea medication that I couldn't stay awake. I didn't see my babies again for two more hours, then was able to finally nurse and do skin-to-skin. So even my best laid plans didn't pan out... I chose to send the babies to the nursery with my husband while I recovered.

However, they are nursing strong and have since birth, but maybe that's because I knew the booby traps going in and had already EBF one child? (these two are not EBF for my sanity but get minimal formula)

It does make me sad that there are still so many hospitals that are not supportive of breastfeeding and so many people who simply do not understand what breastfeeding entails and give ill-informed advice to new mothers (e.g., feeding schedules instead of cue feeding, etc).