My Struggle With Supplementing & Milk Supply
/By: Tuesday Gray
Photo credit- Ashley Lynn Photography - San Diego Photographer
Madelyn will be 4 months in 9 days and has been exclusively breastfed for about a month now, but it was a rocky road getting here; these pictures mean so much to me I wrote this when she turned 3 months but never publicly shared it; 3 months old means 3 months of breastfeeding. 3 months that wasn't easy, 3 months of thinking many times we were going to fail. Our journey started off on the wrong foot with Madelyn wanting to sleep too much and my supply taking too long to come in. We had to supplement and that tore me up inside. After that first day of supplementing she started to get some nipple confusion, which broke me again, I know some people might not understand but my whole pregnancy all I thought about was just being able to nurse her and I *thought* it was going to be easier this time around, wrong.
We got into this whirlwind of supplementing and me not producing enough. She would nurse forever and then cry and cry inconsolably after I was dry and she wasn't done so I would give her 2 ounces of formula and she would be happy. I started to try all the things we are told will help our supply, nothing worked or if it did it upset her tummy too much. Again, I thought we were failing, but I wasn't about to give up. I finally found a breastfeeding supplement that I found from Fairhaven Health called, Nursing Blend, that actually worked and with pumping, feeding on demand, waking her up every 2 hours even when she didn't want to, my supply finally adjusted to her needs. I am so grateful to have finally found a product that not only boosted my milk supply, but also didn't upset her tummy like the others did.
Madelyn is now exclusively breastfed because I, We, fought for it. I'm so proud of myself for working my butt off to achieve my goal and it was so worth it. It's been an emotional ride already and our next challenge will be me going back to work. We are now passed the "hard" part- I hope!
Photo credit- Ashley Lynn Photography - San Diego Photographer
