~Breastfeeding Update~

So as of 7 days ago we are now exclusively breast feeding! YAY! I have to say I really had my doubts about a positive outcome due to the overwhelming process of the whole thing. I ditched my old lactation consultant and got in touch with a IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) in my area. Best $80 I've ever spent! She really helped me with improving our latch as well as giving me tons of references for everything you could think of in terms of bf support. I had like no breast milk left to the point that I could maybe get a drop out of each boob and that was it. We had a long way to go and I knew it would be a long process. I became members for the mom-to-mom and la leche league groups on facebook which was a great help as well. I also go to the mom-to-mom meetings every Wednesday which is kind of silly but it surrounded me with other bf moms. I have to say though that even when I decided to proceed with bf again I still thought of giving up about 10 more times along the way. Formula feeding does have its benefits as well which I was not going to admit at the time. But seriously just looking back at the process that I had to go through at EVERY SINGLE FEEDING just makes me wonder how I actually succeeded. Here was what I did at every feeding:

1. Make a bottle of formula

2. Put formula into SNS (supplemental nursing system)

3. Set up the SNS on me (clip to my shirt and then tape tube above my boob)

4. Nurse her for about 30-45 min. without any formula

5. Nurse her with the SNS until it was empty or she was full

6. Pump for 5-10 min after every feeding to empty my milk ( didn't do every time because I didn't like it)

Crazy huh. Eventually I would start weaning her off the formula by taking away 0.5oz every week. It took us about 3 weeks to finally get to where I felt comfortable with her not having any formula. After a while I also started just nursing her and gave no formula only like twice a day making her total intake of formula to about 6oz total. After doing this for about 3 weeks I can finally say we are exclusively breastfeeding! Looking back I am almost glad it happened the way it did because now I know I can do anything I set my mind to and if anyone ever says they "cant do it" I can say "yes you can and this is how!"