The life of a cow - Part 1

Breastfeeding was my major concern in the first month.

Milk did not come until more than a week later. When I woke up from general anaesthesia, Dr. P warned me that milk may come late due to the complication (postpartum haemorrhage). Being optimist, I didn't think that will be a problem.

Big mistake.

E's first ever feed was right after she was born (when shit still hadn't hit the fan). It was a very strange, and painful (yes, you hear me, it was painful!) sensation. She latched pretty much spot on straight away, clever girl. But I wasn't producing much, after a while, she looked up at me with her curious big brown eyes (and was whisked away after that).

Then the second feed was after I came out of general anaesthesia - still the same strange, painful sensation.

Third feed, 4th feed, etc were the same. E was suckling harder but I only had that much. She was feeding every 1-2 hours, and needed some formula supplement too. I was applying Lansinoh like crazy, but my poor nipples were still sore. I tried to express, and what I got were the measly 25mls (less than 1oz!!!!) after an hour of expressing!! Totally drove me nuts!

I started dreading feeding time. Dr. P prescribed some metoclopramide for me to increase the supply. I also tried the old wives tales of drinking heaps of papaya soup (they are delicious by the way, so I don't mind drinking a lot) and fish soup.

As much as I want to breastfeed E, I was open to other options too. So we started supplementing E with a bit of formula, but because breastfeeding works on a demand-supply curve, I try to limit the formula only for night time (when I needed a rest and hubby could feed E). This kind of worked well for a week or so.

Then the second problem came - I started to feel engorgement. Yes, the milk finally came. One missed or late feed, can totally tip me to the other extreme end. My breasts were not forgiving - discomfort, lumps in the breasts, unable to raise my arms etc meant I needed to be up every 2 hours (at least) to feed/express to get comfortable. Sleep deprivation became the least of my concerns.

And there my journey of being a cow started.