Nurse the Baby

I decided I wanted to nurse Naja as soon as I knew I was expecting. Naturally, I thought nursing would be easy. I thought my child would latch on to my breast like it was second nature, and the milk would flow like a faucet...while some of my assumptions were accurate (ex. faucet flow), others weren't. Below are some speed bumps I ran into with nursing my baby.

1. WTH - my child is slightly jaundice, won't wake up, and I'm having problems with her latching! When Naja was firstborn, the nurse tested her for jaundice, but found her to be negative for it. Naja was EXTREMELY sleepy during the first week. The child would not wake up! One week later her doctor informed me that she probably was slightly jaundice. One way to tell if a newborn is jaundice, is to observe the skin and check if it's slightly yellow. While the nurse did check her for it, I guess she missed the yellow on my baby's brown skin. Anyway, because she was jaundice, she was sleepy and didn't wake up often. Since she didn't wake up, she didn't eat much. Therefore, she lost a lot of weight in the hospital (more than normal). Finally, since she barely had any food in her system, she didn't have the energy to latch on (take my breast). Thus, I was waking a sleepy, but hungry baby every two hours,  feeding her my milk through a syringe with my finger, and pumping afterwards to make sure I had some milk for the next feeding AND to protect my milk supply. I was a VERY TIRED mommy the first week! Thankfully, Naja took a liking to my breast when she was 4 days old, and all of the above issues resolved themselves shortly after!
2. So nursing hurts, and Lanolin will be your BFF. My nipples were very sore the first 2-3 weeks of nursing. The best analogy I can provide is one of musicians who play string instruments. When I started playing the guitar, my fingers would become very sore and start to callous because my fingertips weren't accustomed to the strain applied from the strings. However, after some time, my fingers toughened up, and I no longer had calluses. Well, the same ideology applies with nursing. I apply Lanolin after every feeding session, and it helps a lot!
3. I'm a working mom, but I still want to give my baby my milk. As a working mom, choosing to nurse my child puts a couple more tasks on my list of things to do. For starters, I need a pump, and pumps are expensive. The good portable ones cost about $250. Thankfully, a family friend gave me her pump, so I simply purchased new accessories. Second, you're going to need some time out of the work day to pump. My lactation specialist suggested pumping when baby would normally eat - for me that's every three hours. I'll let you know how this goes when I return to work.

Those were my nursing speed bumps. I hope this helps gives inquiring minds a heads up. All in all, I can say that nursing is very rewarding. I feel like it has strengthened the bond between Naja and me, and I know it's best for her health.