Hello! Hey, it’s Me.

Colin’s Breastfeeding Story

Colin was unexpectedly born at home at 9 p.m. in the evening. He was ushered into this world at exactly 35 weeks gestation by two paramedics. He came into this world with a BANG!

After his birth, Colin was taken immediately to a waiting ambulance to check his vitals; since he was preterm, we weren’t sure of what to expect. But he was perfect! Shortly thereafter, I was taken to the ambulance and Colin and I were able to be together. Only a short time had passed - maybe 15 minutes. As soon as they settled me into the ambulance, the paramedics put Colin directly on his skin to keep him warm. The paramedic recommended that I immediately start nursing to help with bleeding and to help move the placenta. Colin was SLEEPY! And his suck was quite lazy! But he latched on in the ambulance and we nursed all the way to the hospital. Hurrah!

Colin nursed very well at first. He nursed often during our very short stint at the hospital. He roomed in with me and was by my side, in my bed during just about our entire stay in the hospital.

On day 2, we were released, but not before our local news station came by to do a story on unexpected births! (Delaney and I were on the news, too, when she was 8 months old to talk about breastfeeding; I forgot to put that in her story.) Colin’s biliruben also spiked, but our pediatrician never asked us to have it checked, thank goodness!

But Colin was a SLEEPY BABY! After we got home, he had a hard time staying awake for a full feeding. I spent a lot of time using all the tricks in the book to get this child to stay awake for at least 5 minutes at the breast. Colin also had (and still has) a hard time opening his mouth wide enough.

Colin, as well as Delaney, started screaming around 2 weeks and didn’t stop until around 3 months. But he nursed (and nursed and nursed and nursed). We balanced and balanced and balanced! It was a challenge!

Colin had a hard time gaining weight. He lost approximately 8 % of his birth weight before starting the upward trend. Simultaneously, my milk took forever to come in. I was expecting the same uncomfortable, torturous engorgement that had experienced the first time, but luckily I had none of that. However, because I was never engorged, I didn’t really know when my milk came in. But around day 5, Delaney seemed to be enjoying nursing more, and Colin seemed to spend more time nursing. I can’t believe it took so long! Because I was never engorged and because my bre@sts never really felt heavy, I spent a lot of time being unnecessarily paranoid about my production. But both of my children were thriving and gaining weight. I was falling into that same trap that so many moms fall into! Did you know that the #1 reason moms wean within the first few months is because they don’t feel like they are making enough milk? Ridiculous! But during that period, I could completely understand how someone could feel like that! Looking back, I realize how ridiculous that sounded.

Around 8 months, Colin finally decided that he’d like to try “real” food. He would have nothing to do with purees, period. If we spooned something on his tongue, he’d immediately gag like crazy and puke up everything in his stomach. After two tries, we scrapped that idea, and gave him some O’s cereal. He loved it!

Colin has continued nursing well until the present. He now only nurses in the early morning hours (from about 4:30 a.m. until 7 or so), a couple of times at naptime, and before bed. He stopped nursing to sleep at bedtime about a month ago, but instead nurses before his pajamas and teeth brushing. I don’t see us stopping anytime soon!

To read more about my own adventures in tandem nursing, check out Delaney’s Breastfeeding Story