When I had Ro, she immediately breastfed, latched on perfectly, and I produced more than enough for her.
So why is it that I now find myself supplementing my 4 week old constantly?
Before I get into my personal reasons, I wanna address the constant hatred I see from breastfeeding mothers to formula feeding mothers. It seems that in the parenting world, the breastfeeding moms and all their bonding take upper rank over those formula buying, bottle feeding, unloving hussies. I’ve come across a few blogs and vlogs that pass such harsh judgement on people who choose formula for their babies over breast. Stating that ‘formula just barely sustains life, where breast milk lets it thrive.’
But that’s where you fucked up.
You used the word ‘choose’ when passing your prententious judgement. Just from the pool of parents I know personally who formula feed, there was no choice whatsoever about it. They are single dads, mothers who never made milk, mothers with terrible infections, babies who were born intolerant of breastmilk, etc etc. These were people who tried to breastfeed and could not or men who really had no choice.
I get the feeling these self righteous cows look at us as they might look at a family of four, standing in line at McDonalds. That we as parents could look at our sweet children and decide to feed them some artificial low class crap, that we all knew was second best to the real stuff. And that we are somehow less for it.
Well I resent this in its entirety. Ro suffers from a fairly mild case of breastmilk intolerance. Anytime she recieves a full feeding of breast milk, she passes multiple diarrheas, has a severe amount of abdominal pains, excessive gas, and sometimes even lack of appetite. I tried everything, from cutting our dairy in my diet, cutting out spicy food, garlic, seafood, peanuts, fruits, etc etc. Nothing helped her. She would throw herself into crying fits for upwards of 7 hours, and nothing I did could soothe her.
One night after being extremely dehydrated ( I was pumping because I suspected I wasn’t producing enough) I could only make 1.5 oz. She normally takes 2.5-3. So with a baby screaming out of hunger, I had to give her some formula. That night she slept for 5 hours straight. Usually she sleeps 2-2 and a half. When she poo’d again it was super smelly (boo formula poo) but not at all the diarrhea she had been having. She was awake an alert. For the first time in her short life, she was awake without crying. Normally if Ro is awake, she’s screaming in pain.
It was great. She’s now on a formula for sensitive tummies, but I’m slowly trying to re-introduce breastmilk to her. (I still pump everyday) Right now she’s getting 1oz of my milk and 2oz of formula.
And it works great
And she smiles more in her sleep
probably because she actually sleeps now
And she’s gaining weight wonderfully.
And I’m a happy momma, who although I do miss breastfeeding her, I’m hopeful in later months she’ll grow out of this as her system develops more and I can breastfeed her again.
But for now I’m a formula buying cow.
Who got more sleep than you did last night.
