The one thing that I hope anyone reading this remembers is:
Breastfeeding is not always easy...especially in the beginning.
Maxwell and I were dealt a pretty crappy hand when it came to establishing breastfeeding. Since he was taken to the nursery pretty quickly after birth (due to breathing issues), we were not able to get him latched on before he was taken away. And then, because he was in the nursery getting poked and prodded, he was too tired to try again until the end of day 2. They did set me up with a pump so that we could work on getting my milk to come in. All of these things contributed to him not getting a good latch right away and me being very sore. I kept pumping and the nurses were giving him bottles of my breast milk...little did I know, the bottles were making it even more difficult for him to learn to latch properly. Eventually, one of the nurses suggested a nipple shield and he finally latched on and we were able to slowly wean him from the pumped milk. By the time we left the hospital (8 days after he was born) he was nursing the majority of the time, but I was in SO much pain I could hardly stand it. My toes would curl every time he latched on. A few days later, I asked to be seen by a lactation consultant because of the pain. It turned out that his latch was fine with the shield, but she wanted to get him off of the shield because we ended up having Thrush (the cause of my pain). Something that the hospital didn't mention...nipple shields are a huge breeding ground for Thrush. She gave me a plan to start weening him off of the shield, but I really felt like I needed it for the pain because my nipples were starting to crack and bleed! I should have listened to her though, because I then developed Mastitis due to the cracks in my nipple. That was a horrible, horrible experience. At that point, I really started considering the fact that we might have to exclusively pump in order for him to get my breast milk. I really didn't know how much more I could endure. And then, something crazy happened. He started latching without the shield! And breastfeeding started to hurt less and less! By 5 weeks he was latching like a pro and I was having minimal discomfort.
I tell you this not to scare you. I tell you because there was a point where I felt like it would not ever get better, but it did. Breastfeeding is not always easy in the beginning, but it usually gets better. So if you are determined, you can make it through. Everyone I talked to before having a baby always said that breastfeeding was so easy and natural and I was not mentally prepared for what I endured. But now that I've made it through the rough part, it was so worth it in the end. Also, if you're having issues, my biggest piece of advice is to see an IBCLC.
