We had a bumpy time getting started. Not too bad, I had lots of information and some help. Unfortunately I never found a book that addressed the specific "problem" I had.

My labor started at 4 am, went great as far as I was concerned, turned out to be an 8 hour first stage labor, not bad for the first one. But then I ended up pushing for 4 hours. "What does this have to do with breastfeeding?" you might ask. Well, because I used a sitting squat for the pushing I had to pull my knees back with my arms. After 4 hours of this my arms were like overcooked spaghetti and hurt worse than anything else. I found it very difficult to pick up my little girl who weighed less than 8 pounds. And I was terrified of dropping her because my arms were so tired. We managed to breastfeed a bit in that first hour and then again after a while. But I tried to nurse her lying down and ended up with very sore nipples because I just couldn't get her positioned correctly with my noodles-for-arms.

So now I had sore nipples. Once we got home, I did the no shirt, no bra nursing to let the both of us get the hand of it. This made it much easier to position Ellie at the breast. That is except for two things; her fists. She was absolutely determined that she should have at least one if not two fists in her mouth at all times.. Not just a thumb or finger but the whole fist.

So, here's how nursing went: Hold one of Ellie's hands under the arm you're holding her with the other. Try and fend off the other hands while guide the nipple into her mouth. Stop pull one fist out of her mouth, then the other, and start the whole process again. As you might guess we weren't doing so well at this. Luckily for us my husband was home for those first couple of weeks. He joined in the act. He would come and stand next to me; hold one of Ellie's hands under my arm and the other in front of us. Then, I could guide the nipple into Ellie's mouth with one finger pressing on her chin to get her to open her mouth nice and wide. It was great! She latched on without a problem in this manner. Now that we had a system to insure Ellie was latched on properly the initial soreness quickly faded. By my two week post partum appointment I had no soreness and was able to nurse Ellie without needing two extra hands.

We are now just starting to try out solids. Ellie is showing all the signs: snitching from mom and dad, sitting up, and everything she gets hold of goes into her mouth. It sure seems that you just get a system down and then you have to change....

Go back to the Breastfeeding page.