Planning for a birth that makes breastfeeding easier? Check out my FREE guide on setting yourself up for breastfeeding success:https://bit.ly/los-birthpractice-workbook
---------------------------------
In this episode of Lo’s Lactation Lab, host Lo Nigrosh is joined by a new mom, Sharon Funk. Despite taking all the right classes and preparing thoroughly, she was unprepared for the intense physical and emotional hurdles of early motherhood. This episode sheds light on her honest journey, from unexpected complications with latching, nipple pain, and clogs to learning about tongue ties and navigating oversupply. It’s a must-listen for new and expectant parents seeking an authentic perspective on feeding a newborn.
Sharon Funk is a first-time mother of a 17-month-old daughter. With a background in proactive parenting, attending numerous baby prep classes, and infant safety training, Sharon believed she was ready for motherhood. However, she found that no class truly prepared her for the complexities of breastfeeding. Sharon’s story offers heartfelt insights, practical lessons, and a testament to resilience that many new parents will resonate with.
Expect to Learn
#lactationjourney #breastfeedingmoms #maternalhealth #postpartumtruths #momtough #nursinggoals #ibclcjourney #exclusivebreastfeeding #resilientmothers #supportmoms #hiddenpain
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lo-s-lactation-lab--5834691/support.
Follow Lo Nigrosh:
---------------------------------
In this episode of Lo’s Lactation Lab, host Lo Nigrosh is joined by a new mom, Sharon Funk. Despite taking all the right classes and preparing thoroughly, she was unprepared for the intense physical and emotional hurdles of early motherhood. This episode sheds light on her honest journey, from unexpected complications with latching, nipple pain, and clogs to learning about tongue ties and navigating oversupply. It’s a must-listen for new and expectant parents seeking an authentic perspective on feeding a newborn.
Sharon Funk is a first-time mother of a 17-month-old daughter. With a background in proactive parenting, attending numerous baby prep classes, and infant safety training, Sharon believed she was ready for motherhood. However, she found that no class truly prepared her for the complexities of breastfeeding. Sharon’s story offers heartfelt insights, practical lessons, and a testament to resilience that many new parents will resonate with.
Expect to Learn
- Why formal breastfeeding classes often don’t prepare you for real-world challenges.
- The impact of gestational diabetes on newborn feeding protocols in hospitals.
- How to navigate tongue ties and why early diagnosis matters.
- Managing oversupply, clogged ducts, and dealing with inflammation and wrist injuries.
- The importance of bodywork, partner support, and listening to your instincts in the feeding journey.
- [00:00] - Introduction
- [01:03] - Meet Sharon: Background and First-Time Mom Experience
- [02:43] - Childhood Exposure and Pre-Birth Preparation
- [06:04] - Hospital Experience Post-Birth
- [10:20] - First Attempts at Latching and Pumping Challenges
- [14:13] - Discovery of Baby’s Tongue Tie
- [20:21] - Incremental Feeding Progress and Single Pumping Strategy
- [25:45] - Clogs, Pain, and Seeking IBCLC Support
- [31:30] - Diet, Inflammation, and Pain Management
- [39:57] - Tongue Tie and Final Breakthroughs
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lo-nigrosh-16371495/
- Website: https://www.quabbinbirthservices.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quabbinbirthservices/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2F54fe1szmemB9n7YUJgWv
- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/los-lactation-lab/id1614255223
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@loslactationlab3967
#lactationjourney #breastfeedingmoms #maternalhealth #postpartumtruths #momtough #nursinggoals #ibclcjourney #exclusivebreastfeeding #resilientmothers #supportmoms #hiddenpain
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lo-s-lactation-lab--5834691/support.
Follow Lo Nigrosh:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lo-nigrosh-16371495/
- Website: https://www.quabbinbirthservices.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quabbinbirthservices/
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2F54fe
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some people described it as oh, you'll feel a tingling,
and I was like, tingling, it feels like burning or stinging.
The first three months of my baby's life, every time
I heard her or saw her, my nipples would just sting.
And that feeling's down now at least not so bad.
But yeah, when I had the cupcakes, it wasn't just
(00:21):
the pain through the nipple. When she fed, it was
like through the whole breast tissue. It felt like not
just the stabbing, but like razor blades or thumbtacks were
being sucked through my entire breast tissue every time she fed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Before we began, I want to share something special with
all of you expecting parents out there. As an internationally bored,
certified lactation consultant, I've seen first hand how a little
planning can go a long way to helping you achieve
your baby feeding goals. That's why I'm offering you my
free ebook. It's called Birth Practices to Support Breastfeeding, and
(00:58):
it's a workbook.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Check out the link in the description below. Hi, Sharon, welcome,
Thank you for having me. I'm so glad you're here.
So why don't you take a minute to introduce yourself
and your family.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
My name is Sharon. I am a first time mom
and on the older side, and I have a seventeen
month old little girl.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Awesome. And I know you both because you come to
a social gathering I host monthly and I met you
there and you were telling me a little bit about
all the things that you've experienced while feeding your little one,
and I thought it would be great to get to
share those on the podcast. So I'm really excited to
(01:41):
hear your whole story. I've heard bits and pieces, but
definitely not the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, I'd love to share my story because I'll definitely
say the hardest part of parenting for me has been breastfeeding.
It was a really steep learning curve. I had no
idea what to expect. I just like we took all
the parenting classes, were like, it's going to be you know,
the baby is going to latch in that first golden hour.
(02:06):
As long as you do skin to skin, it's innate,
it's natural. They'll just crawl right up, they'll find the breast.
You know, it's gonna be easy. So I was like, okay, great.
I planned a breastfeed because I you know, why not.
Formula is expensive. I'm made to do this, so that
was the goal, and I mean, now we're at the goal.
(02:29):
It's great. I'm exclusive breastfeeding. It's it's awesome. I pump
once a week when I go to work, and but
back getting started, Oh my gosh, the uh. I'll start
from the beginning, I guess.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, Well, before you start with your actual story, I
love to take people way back into their childhood and
I'd like to ask about what exposure you had to
baby feeding throughout your childhood and teenage.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I guess none. I don't know. My brother was born
when I was like four, but I don't remember anything.
I think my mom did breastfeed, but I don't think
I ever saw it. And then growing up as a kid,
I never saw it. I've never was taught anything about it,
like in school, and I wasn't around people who had babies.
(03:23):
I never saw it. And actually, like the only breastfeeding
I ever saw was actually at my baby shower. I
had a friend who had a baby. She had like
a three month old, and she came to my baby
shower and she was breastfeeding her baby. And that is
literally the only time I've ever seen someone breastfeed before
(03:46):
I then gave birth, and.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I was like, good luck, isn't that wild that that's
most of our experiences. We're lucky if we have a
close friend or family member who felt comfortable enough breastfeed
openly in front of us.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And when you saw that friend breastfeeding at your baby shower,
did you have any feelings of like, wow, I'm going
to be doing that soon, or I wonder what that's like.
Did you take a minute to stop and think about
her experience or was it just something you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Didn't think about out till I just thought like, cool,
she's here and she's feeding her baby. That's what you
do when you're a parent. And I don't know, I
just was like, I was just also glad that everybody
at my baby shower was super just okay with her
just feeding her baby there, because you know, some people aren't.
(04:39):
But I was really glad that everyone who was there
was just you know, like like I would hope that
everyone would be, but you never know with some of
the older people like grandma's age.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah. And then did you take any classes or anything
or read any books to try to help?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, we prepare both took the classes, the baby prep class,
the breastfeeding class, the infant care class, infant CPR and
safety class. We took the call. We were like non
stop taking classes since ore, like you know, week fourteen
of pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah. And did you find the classes, the breastfeeding classes
specifically to be helpful? Not really.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I didn't learn enough. I mean all the things, I
didn't learn enough.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah. And did you think at the time that it
was helpful or only I'm looking back, where did you think, Wow,
there wasn't enough there.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
At the time, I think I just thought, Okay, this
is what we're going to do, and I took notes.
I was like, Okay, this how it works. Okay, got it? Okay, great, Okay,
So that's what's gonna happen, okay, right.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Right, A textbook experience you'll have.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, And the actual experience was like whoa, No one
can prepare you for this. You can take every class
on the planet, and you're just like.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Oh, okay, yeah, so let's go into it now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So at the hospital after I delivered, I thought that
the baby would latch right if they did the skin
to skin. She didn't right away. It took a really
long time. I don't think she latched it all. For
the first twenty four hours, I was worried. It was
tough because in all the classes they tell you to
(06:25):
watch for those early feeding cues, like when they're rooting,
turning their head, you know, before they start to get
to the second level cue with the fussing and crying
or starting to suck on their hand, or and certainly
catching before the third level where they're just really crying
and screaming. And then it's gonna be harder to get
them onto the rest because they're just they need to
be calmed down before they can even latch. And because
(06:50):
I had gestational diabetes again, they didn't tell me anything
about this. They just said, once the baby comes out,
you won't have gestational diabetes anymore. And they didn't tell
me anything about what would happened to the baby. And
they just said, oh, yeah, you'll have You can stop
pricking your finger to take your blood readings once the
baby comes out. That's when this ends for you. What
they didn't tell me is because I had just acial diabetes,
(07:11):
in order for them to check my baby, they would
have to prick her heel and get a blood reading
her before and after every feed attempt, and so that
meant every time that we saw a feeding cue, we
had to press the button to call for the nurse
(07:32):
and wait for the nurse to come in and prick.
So first few times like, of course you're getting pricked,
and that's not comfortable.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It probably hurts.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I don't know if the babies have nerves or if
they're understanding those sensations yet when they're brand new in
the world, but they were very comfy in the womb
and nothing was jabbing them. And then they get jabbed
before they can eat. Of course, she's come into the
breast screaming and crying. And then sometimes I would call
the nurse and no one would come right away, and
(08:01):
we were waiting and waiting, like fifteen minutes, twenty minutes.
I'd call again. They said, yeah, we'll get to you.
When we get to you, and like and I'm just like,
I need to feed my baby. I'm just gonna try.
And you know, they'd come an hour later and be like,
what do you mean you fetter without us taking the
blood reading and I was like, well, sorry, my baby
wanted food. I was gonna try still, and you know,
(08:23):
all these people, you know, the shifts kept changing, they
kept different. People would give me different advice, like hold
it this way, sandwich it this way, do this, and
they weren't clear about like they were saying, sandwich it
this way, like a sandwich actually horizontal when you're holding
the baby horizontal. And then I'm imagining, how does that
(08:46):
work because the breast is now like long ways going
into their tiny mouth. And then eventually I learned that
you want a sandwich is the way that makes it
flat going into their tiny mouth, the flat way, And
they just they weren't clear. They didn't show me correctly too.
They were trying to help me. Eventually, by the second day,
(09:07):
they gave me a nipple shield and they were telling
me to express a little into the nipple shield to
get it going. I could not figure out hand express thing,
which actually even now, like some of my friends have said,
oh yeah, hand expressing is the only way I can
get milk out. The pump doesn't do anything for me,
and I can't hand express at all, but the pump
does work wonders for me like so, and at the hospital,
I asked, you know that there was nothing coming out.
(09:30):
I asked if I could pump and they said, no,
you just have to try harder. So they wouldn't let
me have a pump until the third day, about an
hour before we checked out. They at least taught me
how to use a pump before I left, and that's,
I guess something that I wish I did learn a
little bit more about. No one taught me. None of
the classes taught you how to use a pump. It
(09:50):
was just this is how you get a pump from insurance,
and then you just have to figure out how it works.
So luckily, my husband read the instructions and set it
up for me, sterilized all the parts, and he showed
me and he watched the video on the website of
the pump and he's like, Okay, this is how it works.
(10:11):
Because your brain afterwards, you're just like, you can't anything.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Right. It's so hard to you're in such a haze. Yeah,
it is great that you had a partner who was
willing to put so much time and energy to that
one part that he could do. I know often partners
feel a little bit helpless. They want to be involved,
they want to help with baby feeding, and sometimes they
(10:38):
don't know what to do. And because you're in that
time of feeling so kind of brain foggy. It's hard
to assign people things to do. So when a partner
is able to take initiative and say I will take
over this, I will learn this and help you do it,
that does take a lot of mental load off the
feeding parent.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it was great in the beginning with pumping. That
first week, he was washing pump parts around the clock,
and we were running them through the sterilizer after every
wash because you know, we didn't know. Eventually an IVCLC
told me, you don't have to sterilize it every time.
You can wash it and sterilize it once a day
and then eventually once a week, and I was like, oh, well,
(11:20):
we were just pumping and washing around the clock.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But yeah at the hospital too, like when I finally
did get her on, you know, like I was thinking
in my head that one of my friends was warning
me about breastfeeding there, like it is physically painful but
emotionally rewarding. And when she finally like was on, I
didn't realize that she was just kind of chomping down
with her little gums and it was very it was
very painful, but I was just so grateful that she
(11:48):
actually was on and I didn't realize that she had
so basically flattened my nipple to this very thin, flat
pink like it was.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It was rough.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And I asked the nurses about a tongue tie because
my husband has a tongue tie and it's a dominant
gene and so of course we expected her to have
a tongue tae. But they're all like, no, no tongue tie.
You just have to try harder. And then on her
very first pediatrician appointment, and you know, the day after
we got home and we brought her back in to
(12:21):
see the pediatrician, she was asking how things are going.
I explained that the breastfeeding was still hard, but we
were pumping. We were doing the where we pumped and
then syringed up the little bit of colostrum that came
out and did the syringe. And they had taught us
at the hospital about the little trick where you stick
your pinky in and you at the roof of their
mouth and if you feel them lick on the back
(12:43):
of your finger, you can release a little from the syringe,
which is essentially training them to get the milk. And
if they're not licking. If they're just biting down, then
don't squeeze the syringe to let any milk out. So
we were doing a lot of training a good latch.
We were doing.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
With the bottle.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
My husband was doing like when her mouth hush like
lips over her teeth like this, he was slowly pulling
the bottle out a little bit to get her lips,
just very little, like if you pulled two hard or
too fast, it would pop right out. But he was
just very little bit until it brought her pulled out
(13:22):
her lips essentially a little bit because we tried to
grab her lip and lift it up and grab the
bottom one and flip it down, but she was just
so limy and slippery between drool and just milk drooling everywhere.
And of course bottles right we were we didn't know
(13:42):
like the lance and no bottle looks like a good
nipple shape, but there is no low flow. Their lowest
flow is like equivalent to a three on other bottle nipples,
and so we didn't know that one was just pouring
milk out everywhere, and took us a while trying to
figure out the best bottle nipples. And anyway, the pediatrician
(14:04):
was like, oh, let me see what's so difficult about
it for you? And she was like, well, you're doing
everything right. Let's take a look in her mouth and
she said, oh, she has a tongue tie.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
We're like, we thought so.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And so the pediatrician was like, I'm gonna get you
into Massy and T this afternoon. I'm going to call
a colleague over there and have them free up a
spot for you to go right now. And so we
just sat in the pediatrician's office while they called and
found a spot for us. And of course I didn't
expect two doctor's appointments in one day, and we had
to go straight there. There was no time to go
(14:36):
home first. So I didn't bring a pump with me.
I didn't bring a hand pump with me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Boy, I cannot feed my child directly. I'm gonna need
to pump at this time. I think I needed to
pump at least every three hours. And you know, to
the pediatricians office in our appointment and it was I
was like, oh boy, this is yikes.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I happened to have the Hakka milk collector in my
diaper bag. I was like, I'm gonna try to use
this as a hand pump, squeezed down a little bit
and used the syringe and gave her some of that
because right after they did the snip, they said, well,
right after we snip, feed her and I'm like, ah,
I had not been able to directly feed her eye.
(15:21):
She cannot latch. I don't know what to do. So
right afterwards she was crying. We took that syringe we
had like one milliliter and we gave it to her
and pediatrician did tell us, you know, she's like, your
milk hasn't come in yet. It's day five. I want
you to pump every hour and a half. And at
this time I was only pumping one side at a time.
(15:41):
I had tried pumping two sides at a time, but
then you're washing double parts and double bottles and I'm like, uh,
let's just do one at a time and collect with
the hoco on the other side. And so it took
me longer to pump, but it was less washing parts.
Peators would tell me every hour and a half, which
(16:02):
was exhausting, especially at night. I definitely did not wake
up every hour and a half in pump. I think
I probably did the every three overnight back to what
I was doing during the day, and I don't think
I ever hit the goal really to every hour and
a half because it took me like an hour to pump,
because I was doing almost half an hour each side,
but between getting your pump parts, connecting them all, getting
(16:23):
seated at your pump station, and then you know, my
husband would then take the parts and wash and do
the rest. But still it took me like an hour
to pump. So to be pumping every hour and a half,
you have half an hour in between every like to eat,
go to the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It was nuts. So in the beginning, yeah, and explain
why you were single pumping again.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I just didn't want to have more parts to wash
because that took time too, And it was also hard
for me to hold the two because then I couldn't
do anything else with the free hand, and the nursing
bras that have the pump holder, they just didn't hold
it on to you strong enough because the ones it
just starts flopping and you're just leaking all over the place.
So like I still needed my arms to kind of
(17:06):
support it, holding it against me. So I was just
like with one, I can hold it, and with I
can use my other hand to scull my phone or
keep reading more about breastfeeding, which I was essentially doing
the whole time. I was every time I was pumping,
is reading more about breastfeeding. So I was really determined
and watching more videos. And yeah, but what I didn't
(17:26):
know is that that excess pumping would send me into oversupply.
And that was I mean it it worked out because
eventually when I did not have enough milk, especially when
my period did eventually come back, we really hit the
freezer bags hard, and it was good that we had them.
(17:47):
In the beginning, I was just collecting a freezer full
of milk and I was like, what do I do?
I ended up giving some away and just to make
room in the freezer.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, and when you went to the pediatrician and discovered
the tongue tie, did she ever refer you to an
IBCLC or to do any body work or anything or
it was it was just the advice that she was giving.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
You just went to She just had us go to
mass Antea to get the tie snipped. And then eventually
I ended up finding an IBCLC because the lactation consultant
through the hospital, like I think she's just a lactation consultant.
And she every time we called with some difficulties, she
(18:35):
didn't get back to us right away, and she, you know,
sometimes in her messages it was well, there's another baby
who is failure to thrive. They're not getting weight at all,
and yours is. So I got to take care of
this other family. And there she was like, you're fine,
and I was like whatever, we're pumping and we're getting
the milk into her. So and I just had this
(18:56):
goal of I don't want to wash pump parts.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
My entire life.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So I was like every day in that first week,
I was trying to get her to latch at least
once a day. That was the goal, and of course
it didn't work, but we had bottles, so I was like,
it's okay. We tried give her the bottle. Okay, we
tried give her the bottle. Eventually I got the one
and I was like, hey, I'm doing one a day
pretty consistently. Let me go up to let's try three,
and then three quickly pretty easily turned to five times
(19:24):
a day. But I was still pumping because it was
still a challenge to get her on and to keep
her on, and everything was slippery, and she I mean,
it's really hard because in the beginning, I feel like
to breastfeed you need to be an octopus with at
least eight arms or at least six hands. Right, Like
at the hospital, it was like my two hands, my
husband's two hands, and the nurse's two hands. That's kind
of how we could even attempt at the hospital, and
(19:48):
then at home it was just my husband and I
hands and we're just like, well, someone's hand has to
sandwich the breast. Someone's hand has to hold the baby's body.
Someone's hand has to hold the baby's head. Someone's hand
has to keep the shirt from falling in her face.
And you know, like nursing shirts, there are a lot
of the open you know, up and down. I now
(20:09):
have switched things that only open just down so you
don't have the extra layer that's try to come in like.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Right, yeah, pop the baby off it. Yeah. And how
many weeks of age were you finally at those three
to five body feeding sessions a day. How long did
it take to get there?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Probably by the end of that week and a half,
maybe like that first week I tried maybe like day
five of life rage. She came home that first I
guess that first week home because she was already five
days old, you know, when we were like, you know,
we're gonna hit this hard and trying to get the
milk to come in because it was still just syringing
little bits of colostrum like one mili liter and then
(20:48):
five mililater then we went once we went into the
twenty mil of liter syringes, were like, hey, we have
enough to fill a bottle. And then I was just
really determined, and I think by the end of the
second week, I probably was like feeding her seven times
a day and like pumping every other or you know,
bottle every other which was a nice break because my
husband could do every other feed. And at night it
(21:10):
was really nice because we could take the shifts, like
I would have a four hour stretch of sleep. And
then by then I probably was pumping in the nighttime
every four hours instead of three, which so I was
during three hours during the day four at night, So.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
You were pumping for every feeding, even the feedings that
she was feeding.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
At the body with I just pumped out what was
because it was still so in gorge and she wasn't finishing,
and so I just pumped to I mean, in the beginning,
I don't know if everyone has his experience, but I
would toggle from like gigantic double d's and I'm naturally
like a flat or basically double a's like smaller than
(21:47):
an A. And I would toggle between gigantic double d's
only down to like a B or so. And nowadays
it's just toggles from I don't know in A to
a double A, like it doesn't have that huge fluctuation.
If it's really a long time, like six or seven hours,
maybe it's up to like a bee or a double bee.
(22:09):
But this was like it was almost the size of
my head, like yeah, you got a lot of tha, yes,
And I learned so much. I learned, like it was
one time I fell asleep and I didn't pump or
like because between pumping and giving the bottle, because my
husband gave her the bottle in the middle one I
think it was ten hours between and I was just like,
(22:31):
oh my gosh. And of course then I pumped out
it like I felt like three bottles worth. And I
learned about different people have different milk storage capacity, and
like some people who have a small milk storage capacity,
they have to empty more often. Some who have a
larger milk storage capacity you don't have to empty as often,
and you could pump more, just less frequently. And I
(22:51):
was like, oh, I'm I lucked out. I have a
high milk storage capacity. That's lucky. It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, so you were able to was she when you
eventually contacted an IBCLC. Did you ever do any weighted
feeds to see what she was taking in a sitting?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yes, we did, and of course, you know, my baby
performs well under under watch, but it a'll be like, oh,
we have showing none of these problems here in front
of the person who's watching to help us with these problems.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Right, So it was funny and like taking your car
to the mechanic.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, and you know, the lactation consultant at the hospital,
we did come in for an appointment, and you know,
she would say if she doesn't get a good latch,
then just unlatch her and try again. But anytime we
would unlatch her, it would be all over. There was
no getting her back on. She was screaming and crying,
and so I just about this on little thing for
myself that once she's on with a very tight bity
(23:50):
chomping latch, I would just start singing to her until
she relaxed a little bit, and we never could flip
up her lips. So what I started doing was taking
my breast tissue and kind of shoving it into her
mouth and then as you know, the suction and then
I'd let go and then the breast tssue kind of
flopped back out and that would kind of bring her
lips out, sort of like what my husband was doing
(24:12):
with a bottle to try to get her lips to
fly out. So I sort of like figured out my
own little ways to achieve the same thing. And I
was in there the appointment singing to her and she's like,
you know, I would never normally recommend if they come
on with a bad latch that you don't unlatch them,
but when you're doing, seems to work for you, and
(24:35):
it's like, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, were you in pain whilst she was breastby And
they taught.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Me how to look for if she was biting versus sucking,
mainly the flattened nipples, and she did prove quite a
bit of damage to that one at the hospital when
she you know, we were still in the hospital there.
That took a long time to heal. Pumping helped. And
then I noticed now like with teeth, whenever she's super
(25:01):
teeny and just chewing, I take a break from feeding
for like a day up to three days and just pumping.
Of course, now she's older, she knows when she wants
mama and when she'll accept a bottle. She'll only accept
a bottle to go down at night because my husband
does the bedtime routine. So otherwise she's awake enough and
(25:22):
fully realizing what's going on, she will take that bottle
and like hit him in the head with it. They're like, no,
I want mama right now.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah. So, as you were breastfeeding and trying to help
her to open wide or to get more breast tissue
into her mouth, were you receiving any help? So when
you got the tongue tie, was there any follow up care?
Did they ask you to do any body work, any
oral motor work to help improve her the mobility and
(25:55):
strength of her tongue or was it a snip and
then on your way to fit gear everything out on
your own.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It was just a snip, and that's it. There was
no follow up. We didn't start doing body work until
we did see the IBCLC because I had clogs and
the I had so many clogs and so many recurring clogs,
and lactation consultant in the hospital was giving a lot
of the old protocol advice, like warmth compression, like it
(26:23):
would clear the current clog. But then I felt like
I was were recurring clogs and it was so painful
and like one of the in the first week, I
remember having like a giant egg sized protrusion in my
armpit and I was very concerned. I called my ob
June right away, and I was like, Oh my gosh,
(26:43):
what's going on. And they're like, we'll just monitor it.
They didn't tell me what it was. I eventually found
out on the internet that milk ducks begin in your
armpit and go all the way down to your belly button.
And I was like, Oh, I wonder if that's just
the beginning of a milk duck. And it's very, very large,
and because when my baby fed, I could feel it
pulling and drawing from that egg in my armpit, it
(27:08):
could I could feel like it felt like when I
had clogs. It felt like there was a copper wire
from my armpit through my nipple and every time she fed,
that wire was like lit up on fire and it
eventually went down like after I pumped and stuff. So
I was like, okay, I think that's a milk duct.
So when the clothes, I just kept coming and I
(27:32):
was looking for an IBCLC and I finally found one.
Shed wasn't on our in shirt, didn't take our insurance,
so was out of pocket and it was worth it though, like,
oh my gosh, the much better advice like anti inflammatories
ice because clogs are because of inflammation. I just thought
(27:53):
it was like thick milk. Well, I mean it could be,
some people's could be. And then you know, I also
was taking the sunflower lesson thin and you know, because
when I went to the OBI about the clogs, they
wondered if I had mestitis. But since I didn't have
any redness on the breast and I wasn't I didn't
have a fever, they said, no, you don't have mestitis.
And you know, the OBI was just like, well, what
(28:13):
do you want to do? Do you want to give up
quit best reading? I'm like, no, I'd like to keep going.
How do I do this without these horrible clogs? And
she just printed off something about sunflower less than and
she said, well, get yourself this, so I mean I did,
and then the clogs just kept coming back. I was like,
I don't want to keep living like this and constant clogs,
clearing the clogs, clogs again, clearing the clogs. So with
(28:37):
the anti inflammatories that helped. It was and then ice
and then you know, like jiggle were jumping up and down,
and then things like eb some salt in the hakka
with some warm water. So when I had done that
back then, I guess I did have some really thick
milk because I saw coming out of the into the
hakka with EPs and salt like this thick you can
(29:00):
see string like a milk snake like being very slowly
sucked out of my nipple. And I was like, huh, okay,
well and then once that cleared, it was like then
they'll just flow right into the the hawk. Whoa, okay
cleared it cool.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Later on with the anti flammerss, because I was on
them all the time, I had so many clocks. I
was essentially taking four ibuprofen every six hours. Round the clock,
and I was doing that for a couple months, and
then my wrists I guess it's known as Mommy's wrist
tendonitis or also Decoryvan's tendonitis. They started to go And
(29:44):
when I went to see the IBCLC again just for
a follow up appointment, I mentioned about the wrist and
she was like, and you've been taking the ibuprofen. I'm
like yeah, and she goes, oh, that's not good. We
need to get you to see a hand doctor. So
she recommended me to a hand doctor because basically we're
still dealing with an unknown root cause of inflammation in
(30:06):
my body because I'm still getting clogs now, but it's
the wrists. Really like I'd cut out so many things
from my diet at the time, I was, you know,
hand doctor cortisone shots, I was seeing nutritionist, acupuncturists, osteopath,
the usual PCP, OBE and PT. I went for PT
because I didn't want to get the quarterzone shots right away,
So I was doing PET for a month. Then I
(30:26):
finally was like, it's healing too slowly. I just need
to function again. I need to be able to pick
up my baby. I need to be able to feed
my baby by myself. I like I always had to
have someone around when feeding my baby. I would just
sit on the couch. Someone would put a bobby on
my lap and put the baby on the bobby, and
I would just sit there, sometimes like hooking my elbow
around to keep her from rolling off.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
And yeah, so at what point did that pain start
to develop?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
She would so she was born in late October. It
really hurt definitely. I like I was getting massive clogs
like December, because I remember going to Christmas in New
Year's parties telling everyone how clogs are so awful. And
then by mid January I was in so much pain.
That's when it reached out to an IBCLC. And then
(31:14):
February one, I had my hand doctor appointment, and then
by March third, I got the cortisone shots, which didn't help.
They didn't, I mean, they didn't work for me. And
it was in cutting out a lot of things like
it was supposed to cut out. I cut out night
hued vegetables, processed meats, gluten and sugar, and the nutritious
(31:36):
also had me cutting out dairy for a few short
weeks because she was just saying anything that could be inflammatory.
Just completely cut it out of your diet. So I
could eat like salad for a while, and slowly, once
the wrist healed, I was given the okay to eat
build back in. Some of those food started back with
night chaed vegetables. We're not big processed meat eaters anyway,
so that wasn't a big deal. Didn't really notice. And
(31:58):
then eventually I could have gluten again, which is great
because I love my bread. And still no problems. Still
no problems, no problems. I did have a bite of
my husband's ice cream at one point and I had
some clogs again, and I was like, oh, ouch, that's
I'm not gonna, you know, have a full ice cream.
I'm not going to do that again. And then I
was at a friend's so like from mid April, my
(32:19):
wrists were okay again. And because I was suffering through
let's say February, March, half of April, by May, of
course I was back to nor May, June, July, great,
half of August. By mid August, I went to a
friend's housewarming party and I had half a cupcake. I
really wanted a cupcake. It looked great, and I was like,
I'm not gonna eat a whole cupcake. I'll just have
(32:40):
a couple of bites. And that very night massive clog
ducks so painful. Like before, you know, with the engorgement
or the clog spots, it felt like, you know, I
was being stabbed with pushpins or something, or sometimes it
felt like I had a skewer through my nipple all
(33:00):
the way through to my back. Like the pain, but
you know, like other things, like the let down. Some
people described it as oh, you'll feel it tingling, and
I was like tingling. It feels like burning or stinging.
And the first three months of my baby's life, every
time I heard her or saw her, my nipples would
just sting. And that feeling's down now at least that's
(33:24):
not so bad. But yeah, when I had the cupcakes,
it wasn't just the pain through the nipple. When she fed,
it was like through the whole breast tissue. It felt
like not just the stabbing, but like lazor blades or
thumbtacks were being sucked through my entire breast tissue every
time she fed. And then I did end up with clogs,
(33:45):
and then my wrists went.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
For the entirety of the feed or just at certain
like just during the milk release, were you able to
identify that.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Entirety of entirety of the feed. I mean, she pretty
much comes off when the milk stops flowing, so she
doesn't keep sucking when there's no more.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, there's always milk there, But the milk release is
when the alveolar glands open up and come into the
milk ducks. Because if you look at a dissection of
a breast, you see the things that look like grapes,
and those are the alveolar glands, and that's where the
(34:25):
milk is made. And then the milk release is also
referred to as the letdown, is when those alveolar glands
open up and that gets triggered by the release of
oxytocin from the pituitary gland, and that's when the milk
flows into the milk ducks. Now, there can still be
milk and the milk ducks in between that time if
(34:45):
it didn't. In fact, most of the time there is
because our breasts are never fully empty. But sometimes people
just feel that feeling at the moment of the milk release.
So that's why I was wondering which one it was.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, I guess it's just when it was all still
flowing because yeah, but basically, so like when I pump
and it starts to rather than pouring out, and then
it's like the little drops and then the drops get
much less like when it's pump when it's like it's
less when it's pump drip, pump drip, pump drip, and
(35:21):
then pump pump drip, pump pump drip, or then pump pump,
pump pump drip. That's when I'm just like, okay, it's time.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Mm hmmm. Yeah. The tingly feeling is for the entire
time that she was breastfeeding. Did you have it? Also
during pumping, it felt.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Like the so I thought she was biting me because
it was so painful. So I pumped for a bit
and it turns out she wasn't biting me. It was
something wrong with here because it felt like the pump
was biting me, and I was like, okay, so I
know the pump is not biting me because I know
what this normally feels like, and there it's it's not her,
it's me. And I felt bad because she it wasn't
(35:58):
her fault, but I, you know, pumped and gave her
bottles instead, thinking it was her. But something wrong with
my body.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Right, Okay, And so you've mentioned that you saw a
hand doctor, and you went to chiropractic care, and you
went to acupuncture. So what were all of these various
professionals trying to do to help with your symptoms?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And a lot of them mentioned about anti inflammatory diet,
and I guess that's what helped. Then as soon as
I had that bite a cupcake, I didn't have an
I haven't had a bite a sugar since mid August.
It is now April, so it's been like what eight months,
And I thought cutting out all that again would do it,
(36:43):
But I don't know. I think it's functional. I think
inflammation kicked it off, I'm sure, But also at the
ostropath officer saying that it's probably over use injury because
this time, the first time I wrote is both wrists
and basi of thumbs, so it was much much worse.
It was one that went first because the lactation consultant
(37:04):
in the hospital said, on the side of the you
of the clog, keep bringing the baby to that side
until the clog is cleared. But it took days to
clear and I kept bringing her to that side until
it cleared, and pumping the other side, and she ended
up developing a feeding a version because she I didn't
realize she was sucking getting no milk all this time.
And it turns out maybe I don't think it was
a feedinger version, but rather she injured her jaw trying
(37:26):
so hard getting nothing, and she just tired herself out
because then she wasn't even latching onto the bottle with
much strength. My husband's like, she has no suck strength.
I don't know what's going on, and so I think
she injured her jaw trying, and so that's what this
wrist went. And then I couldn't pick her up under
the head and shoulders and under the bumb like you're
(37:48):
supposed to do before they have head control. Well, I
was prioritizing one hand, and then this other wrist went,
and then so I had to switch to picking her
up under scooping up under the armpits even so she
didn't have the head controlia and then just making sure
my fingers were at the back of her head to
support her. And then the base of the thumbs went.
That was the first time around when she was two
and a half months old up to five months old,
(38:09):
and this time around after the sugar with the cupcake,
it was it's just the left side, so I'm right
hand dominant. When I was holding her a whole bunch
from when she was five months old up to eight
months old. She always wanted to be held all the time,
so I was holding her left arm and doing things
around the house with the right arm. And I did
try to put her in a baby carrier, but of
(38:30):
course takes a bit to get her in, and then
she wants in and out and up and down and
up and down constantly throughout the day, So it was
just more cumberts to get her in and then have
to get.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Her all out right. And so were they doing any
blood work or trying to figure out other root causes
for all this additional inflammation?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yes, that's actually yeah, so many doctors I saw, I'm
forgetting about all of them. Yes, we did have some.
I had all lots of blood work all day. Different
doctors are ordering various different things. Of course, they all
saying the results are only as good as what you
order to find out the information. Everything of mine was normal,
and they even referred me to rheumatologist. The rhutologists ran
(39:13):
the blood blood work for all the inflammation markers. He said, No,
it's not autoimmune, it's it's functional. You probably just have
to corvins tenanitis, which a lot of moms get from
holding their baby. It's probably just the overuse injury and
then the sugar probably kicked off the inflammation response and
it just hasn't come back down. Oh and you were
(39:35):
mentioning about bodywork earlier, you would ask I did have
my baby after we saw the ib CLC with the clogs.
She did have us go The PT that I went
to also works with infants with bodywork. So my baby
saw chiropractor, the PT, and the osteopath that I was
(39:55):
going to.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Did those people specialize in tongue tai? Were they able
to help improve her time function as a result of
having had a time tie in utero until her first
few days of life.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
The PET did work on the motor skills in the mouth,
but the chiropractor and the ostropath worked on the tightness
in her neck because we did notice she was how
she had a lean preference in one side when we
put her down, and we did all this, you know,
the things like in the bassinet, don't put her in
the same direction because maybe the baby wants to look
out the window, so we both, you know, we put
(40:29):
her different sides. And also the basinet we moved around
the house so she didn't always have one thing to
look at all the time.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, and did you see improvements in her latch after
the body work or did it pretty much stay the same.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
It's hard to tell. We did notice that she didn't
keep her head flopping only to the one side anymore,
so I guess that was the at that time. It's hard,
It's hard to remember when it all lined up, but
I do remember, like I think for me, the I
hit exclusive breastfeeding around the three month mark because we
were still domination of pumping and feeding directly at that time.
(41:03):
And I just remember like one day I was like,
you know, babies were supposed to have this ability. I
read somewhere if you just do skin to skin and
you lay down with them, do this like laying back,
relaxed feed, they should be able to do it. And
so I just took a day where I was like, Okay,
I'm just going to lay in this bed. I'm going
to have her on me when she's ready to feed,
We're just going to do this. And she had a
(41:23):
hard time because she was still like she couldn't stay on.
She was flopping all over trying to find it, very slippery,
slipping off, But I just stuck it out and then
she finally did and I was like, hey, it works,
and then we didn't have any problems after that. It
was like this moment where I don't know if like
maybe we were supporting her head and we were restricting
her movement like I did read later that you shouldn't
(41:46):
be holding their head when they're feeding because you're preventing
them from being able to get in the position that
they need to and so I was like, oh, I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
They said, you.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Know, like she's a baby, shouldn't.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Have I know, right, yeah, right, Yeah. It's so hard
and most of the time in the hospital you're being
taught to hold their head to bring them to the breast.
You know, almost every parent has their hands around the
back of the baby's head when they're trying to lapse them.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, and after that moment, I finally got the sideline feed,
which made nighttimes much easier because that was really hard
before like where she was, where it flopped and hit,
like as she gets bigger too, like it was it
got better, like her mouth got bigger too,
Some people described it as oh, you'll feel a tingling,
and I was like, tingling, it feels like burning or stinging.
The first three months of my baby's life, every time
I heard her or saw her, my nipples would just sting.
And that feeling's down now at least not so bad.
But yeah, when I had the cupcakes, it wasn't just
(00:21):
the pain through the nipple. When she fed, it was
like through the whole breast tissue. It felt like not
just the stabbing, but like razor blades or thumbtacks were
being sucked through my entire breast tissue every time she fed.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Before we began, I want to share something special with
all of you expecting parents out there. As an internationally bored,
certified lactation consultant, I've seen first hand how a little
planning can go a long way to helping you achieve
your baby feeding goals. That's why I'm offering you my
free ebook. It's called Birth Practices to Support Breastfeeding, and
(00:58):
it's a workbook.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Check out the link in the description below. Hi, Sharon, welcome,
Thank you for having me. I'm so glad you're here.
So why don't you take a minute to introduce yourself
and your family.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
My name is Sharon. I am a first time mom
and on the older side, and I have a seventeen
month old little girl.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Awesome. And I know you both because you come to
a social gathering I host monthly and I met you
there and you were telling me a little bit about
all the things that you've experienced while feeding your little one,
and I thought it would be great to get to
share those on the podcast. So I'm really excited to
(01:41):
hear your whole story. I've heard bits and pieces, but
definitely not the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah, I'd love to share my story because I'll definitely
say the hardest part of parenting for me has been breastfeeding.
It was a really steep learning curve. I had no
idea what to expect. I just like we took all
the parenting classes, were like, it's going to be you know,
the baby is going to latch in that first golden hour.
(02:06):
As long as you do skin to skin, it's innate,
it's natural. They'll just crawl right up, they'll find the breast.
You know, it's gonna be easy. So I was like, okay, great.
I planned a breastfeed because I you know, why not.
Formula is expensive. I'm made to do this, so that
was the goal, and I mean, now we're at the goal.
(02:29):
It's great. I'm exclusive breastfeeding. It's it's awesome. I pump
once a week when I go to work, and but
back getting started, Oh my gosh, the uh. I'll start
from the beginning, I guess.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, Well, before you start with your actual story, I
love to take people way back into their childhood and
I'd like to ask about what exposure you had to
baby feeding throughout your childhood and teenage.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I guess none. I don't know. My brother was born
when I was like four, but I don't remember anything.
I think my mom did breastfeed, but I don't think
I ever saw it. And then growing up as a kid,
I never saw it. I've never was taught anything about it,
like in school, and I wasn't around people who had babies.
(03:23):
I never saw it. And actually, like the only breastfeeding
I ever saw was actually at my baby shower. I
had a friend who had a baby. She had like
a three month old, and she came to my baby
shower and she was breastfeeding her baby. And that is
literally the only time I've ever seen someone breastfeed before
(03:46):
I then gave birth, and.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I was like, good luck, isn't that wild that that's
most of our experiences. We're lucky if we have a
close friend or family member who felt comfortable enough breastfeed
openly in front of us.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
And when you saw that friend breastfeeding at your baby shower,
did you have any feelings of like, wow, I'm going
to be doing that soon, or I wonder what that's like.
Did you take a minute to stop and think about
her experience or was it just something you.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Didn't think about out till I just thought like, cool,
she's here and she's feeding her baby. That's what you
do when you're a parent. And I don't know, I
just was like, I was just also glad that everybody
at my baby shower was super just okay with her
just feeding her baby there, because you know, some people aren't.
(04:39):
But I was really glad that everyone who was there
was just you know, like like I would hope that
everyone would be, but you never know with some of
the older people like grandma's age.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah. And then did you take any classes or anything
or read any books to try to help?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, we prepare both took the classes, the baby prep class,
the breastfeeding class, the infant care class, infant CPR and
safety class. We took the call. We were like non
stop taking classes since ore, like you know, week fourteen
of pregnancy.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah. And did you find the classes, the breastfeeding classes
specifically to be helpful? Not really.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I didn't learn enough. I mean all the things, I
didn't learn enough.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yeah. And did you think at the time that it
was helpful or only I'm looking back, where did you think, Wow,
there wasn't enough there.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
At the time, I think I just thought, Okay, this
is what we're going to do, and I took notes.
I was like, Okay, this how it works. Okay, got it? Okay, great, Okay,
So that's what's gonna happen, okay, right.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Right, A textbook experience you'll have.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, And the actual experience was like whoa, No one
can prepare you for this. You can take every class
on the planet, and you're just like.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Oh, okay, yeah, so let's go into it now. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So at the hospital after I delivered, I thought that
the baby would latch right if they did the skin
to skin. She didn't right away. It took a really
long time. I don't think she latched it all. For
the first twenty four hours, I was worried. It was
tough because in all the classes they tell you to
(06:25):
watch for those early feeding cues, like when they're rooting,
turning their head, you know, before they start to get
to the second level cue with the fussing and crying
or starting to suck on their hand, or and certainly
catching before the third level where they're just really crying
and screaming. And then it's gonna be harder to get
them onto the rest because they're just they need to
be calmed down before they can even latch. And because
(06:50):
I had gestational diabetes again, they didn't tell me anything
about this. They just said, once the baby comes out,
you won't have gestational diabetes anymore. And they didn't tell
me anything about what would happened to the baby. And
they just said, oh, yeah, you'll have You can stop
pricking your finger to take your blood readings once the
baby comes out. That's when this ends for you. What
they didn't tell me is because I had just acial diabetes,
(07:11):
in order for them to check my baby, they would
have to prick her heel and get a blood reading
her before and after every feed attempt, and so that
meant every time that we saw a feeding cue, we
had to press the button to call for the nurse
(07:32):
and wait for the nurse to come in and prick.
So first few times like, of course you're getting pricked,
and that's not comfortable.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
It probably hurts.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
I don't know if the babies have nerves or if
they're understanding those sensations yet when they're brand new in
the world, but they were very comfy in the womb
and nothing was jabbing them. And then they get jabbed
before they can eat. Of course, she's come into the
breast screaming and crying. And then sometimes I would call
the nurse and no one would come right away, and
(08:01):
we were waiting and waiting, like fifteen minutes, twenty minutes.
I'd call again. They said, yeah, we'll get to you.
When we get to you, and like and I'm just like,
I need to feed my baby. I'm just gonna try.
And you know, they'd come an hour later and be like,
what do you mean you fetter without us taking the
blood reading and I was like, well, sorry, my baby
wanted food. I was gonna try still, and you know,
(08:23):
all these people, you know, the shifts kept changing, they
kept different. People would give me different advice, like hold
it this way, sandwich it this way, do this, and
they weren't clear about like they were saying, sandwich it
this way, like a sandwich actually horizontal when you're holding
the baby horizontal. And then I'm imagining, how does that
(08:46):
work because the breast is now like long ways going
into their tiny mouth. And then eventually I learned that
you want a sandwich is the way that makes it
flat going into their tiny mouth, the flat way, And
they just they weren't clear. They didn't show me correctly too.
They were trying to help me. Eventually, by the second day,
(09:07):
they gave me a nipple shield and they were telling
me to express a little into the nipple shield to
get it going. I could not figure out hand express thing,
which actually even now, like some of my friends have said,
oh yeah, hand expressing is the only way I can
get milk out. The pump doesn't do anything for me,
and I can't hand express at all, but the pump
does work wonders for me like so, and at the hospital,
I asked, you know that there was nothing coming out.
(09:30):
I asked if I could pump and they said, no,
you just have to try harder. So they wouldn't let
me have a pump until the third day, about an
hour before we checked out. They at least taught me
how to use a pump before I left, and that's,
I guess something that I wish I did learn a
little bit more about. No one taught me. None of
the classes taught you how to use a pump. It
(09:50):
was just this is how you get a pump from insurance,
and then you just have to figure out how it works.
So luckily, my husband read the instructions and set it
up for me, sterilized all the parts, and he showed
me and he watched the video on the website of
the pump and he's like, Okay, this is how it works.
(10:11):
Because your brain afterwards, you're just like, you can't anything.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Right. It's so hard to you're in such a haze. Yeah,
it is great that you had a partner who was
willing to put so much time and energy to that
one part that he could do. I know often partners
feel a little bit helpless. They want to be involved,
they want to help with baby feeding, and sometimes they
(10:38):
don't know what to do. And because you're in that
time of feeling so kind of brain foggy. It's hard
to assign people things to do. So when a partner
is able to take initiative and say I will take
over this, I will learn this and help you do it,
that does take a lot of mental load off the
feeding parent.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it was great in the beginning with pumping. That
first week, he was washing pump parts around the clock,
and we were running them through the sterilizer after every
wash because you know, we didn't know. Eventually an IVCLC
told me, you don't have to sterilize it every time.
You can wash it and sterilize it once a day
and then eventually once a week, and I was like, oh, well,
(11:20):
we were just pumping and washing around the clock.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But yeah at the hospital too, like when I finally
did get her on, you know, like I was thinking
in my head that one of my friends was warning
me about breastfeeding there, like it is physically painful but
emotionally rewarding. And when she finally like was on, I
didn't realize that she was just kind of chomping down
with her little gums and it was very it was
very painful, but I was just so grateful that she
(11:48):
actually was on and I didn't realize that she had
so basically flattened my nipple to this very thin, flat
pink like it was.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It was rough.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
And I asked the nurses about a tongue tie because
my husband has a tongue tie and it's a dominant
gene and so of course we expected her to have
a tongue tae. But they're all like, no, no tongue tie.
You just have to try harder. And then on her
very first pediatrician appointment, and you know, the day after
we got home and we brought her back in to
(12:21):
see the pediatrician, she was asking how things are going.
I explained that the breastfeeding was still hard, but we
were pumping. We were doing the where we pumped and
then syringed up the little bit of colostrum that came
out and did the syringe. And they had taught us
at the hospital about the little trick where you stick
your pinky in and you at the roof of their
mouth and if you feel them lick on the back
(12:43):
of your finger, you can release a little from the syringe,
which is essentially training them to get the milk. And
if they're not licking. If they're just biting down, then
don't squeeze the syringe to let any milk out. So
we were doing a lot of training a good latch.
We were doing.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
With the bottle.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
My husband was doing like when her mouth hush like
lips over her teeth like this, he was slowly pulling
the bottle out a little bit to get her lips,
just very little, like if you pulled two hard or
too fast, it would pop right out. But he was
just very little bit until it brought her pulled out
(13:22):
her lips essentially a little bit because we tried to
grab her lip and lift it up and grab the
bottom one and flip it down, but she was just
so limy and slippery between drool and just milk drooling everywhere.
And of course bottles right we were we didn't know
(13:42):
like the lance and no bottle looks like a good
nipple shape, but there is no low flow. Their lowest
flow is like equivalent to a three on other bottle nipples,
and so we didn't know that one was just pouring
milk out everywhere, and took us a while trying to
figure out the best bottle nipples. And anyway, the pediatrician
(14:04):
was like, oh, let me see what's so difficult about
it for you? And she was like, well, you're doing
everything right. Let's take a look in her mouth and
she said, oh, she has a tongue tie.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
We're like, we thought so.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
And so the pediatrician was like, I'm gonna get you
into Massy and T this afternoon. I'm going to call
a colleague over there and have them free up a
spot for you to go right now. And so we
just sat in the pediatrician's office while they called and
found a spot for us. And of course I didn't
expect two doctor's appointments in one day, and we had
to go straight there. There was no time to go
(14:36):
home first. So I didn't bring a pump with me.
I didn't bring a hand pump with me.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
I was like, oh.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Boy, I cannot feed my child directly. I'm gonna need
to pump at this time. I think I needed to
pump at least every three hours. And you know, to
the pediatricians office in our appointment and it was I
was like, oh boy, this is yikes.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
What do I do?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I happened to have the Hakka milk collector in my
diaper bag. I was like, I'm gonna try to use
this as a hand pump, squeezed down a little bit
and used the syringe and gave her some of that
because right after they did the snip, they said, well,
right after we snip, feed her and I'm like, ah,
I had not been able to directly feed her eye.
(15:21):
She cannot latch. I don't know what to do. So
right afterwards she was crying. We took that syringe we
had like one milliliter and we gave it to her
and pediatrician did tell us, you know, she's like, your
milk hasn't come in yet. It's day five. I want
you to pump every hour and a half. And at
this time I was only pumping one side at a time.
(15:41):
I had tried pumping two sides at a time, but
then you're washing double parts and double bottles and I'm like, uh,
let's just do one at a time and collect with
the hoco on the other side. And so it took
me longer to pump, but it was less washing parts.
Peators would tell me every hour and a half, which
(16:02):
was exhausting, especially at night. I definitely did not wake
up every hour and a half in pump. I think
I probably did the every three overnight back to what
I was doing during the day, and I don't think
I ever hit the goal really to every hour and
a half because it took me like an hour to pump,
because I was doing almost half an hour each side,
but between getting your pump parts, connecting them all, getting
(16:23):
seated at your pump station, and then you know, my
husband would then take the parts and wash and do
the rest. But still it took me like an hour
to pump. So to be pumping every hour and a half,
you have half an hour in between every like to eat,
go to the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
It was nuts. So in the beginning, yeah, and explain
why you were single pumping again.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I just didn't want to have more parts to wash
because that took time too, And it was also hard
for me to hold the two because then I couldn't
do anything else with the free hand, and the nursing
bras that have the pump holder, they just didn't hold
it on to you strong enough because the ones it
just starts flopping and you're just leaking all over the place.
So like I still needed my arms to kind of
(17:06):
support it, holding it against me. So I was just
like with one, I can hold it, and with I
can use my other hand to scull my phone or
keep reading more about breastfeeding, which I was essentially doing
the whole time. I was every time I was pumping,
is reading more about breastfeeding. So I was really determined
and watching more videos. And yeah, but what I didn't
(17:26):
know is that that excess pumping would send me into oversupply.
And that was I mean it it worked out because
eventually when I did not have enough milk, especially when
my period did eventually come back, we really hit the
freezer bags hard, and it was good that we had them.
(17:47):
In the beginning, I was just collecting a freezer full
of milk and I was like, what do I do?
I ended up giving some away and just to make
room in the freezer.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, and when you went to the pediatrician and discovered
the tongue tie, did she ever refer you to an
IBCLC or to do any body work or anything or
it was it was just the advice that she was giving.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
You just went to She just had us go to
mass Antea to get the tie snipped. And then eventually
I ended up finding an IBCLC because the lactation consultant
through the hospital, like I think she's just a lactation consultant.
And she every time we called with some difficulties, she
(18:35):
didn't get back to us right away, and she, you know,
sometimes in her messages it was well, there's another baby
who is failure to thrive. They're not getting weight at all,
and yours is. So I got to take care of
this other family. And there she was like, you're fine,
and I was like whatever, we're pumping and we're getting
the milk into her. So and I just had this
(18:56):
goal of I don't want to wash pump parts.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
My entire life.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
So I was like every day in that first week,
I was trying to get her to latch at least
once a day. That was the goal, and of course
it didn't work, but we had bottles, so I was like,
it's okay. We tried give her the bottle. Okay, we
tried give her the bottle. Eventually I got the one
and I was like, hey, I'm doing one a day
pretty consistently. Let me go up to let's try three,
and then three quickly pretty easily turned to five times
(19:24):
a day. But I was still pumping because it was
still a challenge to get her on and to keep
her on, and everything was slippery, and she I mean,
it's really hard because in the beginning, I feel like
to breastfeed you need to be an octopus with at
least eight arms or at least six hands. Right, Like
at the hospital, it was like my two hands, my
husband's two hands, and the nurse's two hands. That's kind
of how we could even attempt at the hospital, and
(19:48):
then at home it was just my husband and I
hands and we're just like, well, someone's hand has to
sandwich the breast. Someone's hand has to hold the baby's body.
Someone's hand has to hold the baby's head. Someone's hand
has to keep the shirt from falling in her face.
And you know, like nursing shirts, there are a lot
of the open you know, up and down. I now
(20:09):
have switched things that only open just down so you
don't have the extra layer that's try to come in like.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Right, yeah, pop the baby off it. Yeah. And how
many weeks of age were you finally at those three
to five body feeding sessions a day. How long did
it take to get there?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Probably by the end of that week and a half,
maybe like that first week I tried maybe like day
five of life rage. She came home that first I
guess that first week home because she was already five
days old, you know, when we were like, you know,
we're gonna hit this hard and trying to get the
milk to come in because it was still just syringing
little bits of colostrum like one mili liter and then
(20:48):
five mililater then we went once we went into the
twenty mil of liter syringes, were like, hey, we have
enough to fill a bottle. And then I was just
really determined, and I think by the end of the
second week, I probably was like feeding her seven times
a day and like pumping every other or you know,
bottle every other which was a nice break because my
husband could do every other feed. And at night it
(21:10):
was really nice because we could take the shifts, like
I would have a four hour stretch of sleep. And
then by then I probably was pumping in the nighttime
every four hours instead of three, which so I was
during three hours during the day four at night, So.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
You were pumping for every feeding, even the feedings that
she was feeding.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
At the body with I just pumped out what was
because it was still so in gorge and she wasn't finishing,
and so I just pumped to I mean, in the beginning,
I don't know if everyone has his experience, but I
would toggle from like gigantic double d's and I'm naturally
like a flat or basically double a's like smaller than
(21:47):
an A. And I would toggle between gigantic double d's
only down to like a B or so. And nowadays
it's just toggles from I don't know in A to
a double A, like it doesn't have that huge fluctuation.
If it's really a long time, like six or seven hours,
maybe it's up to like a bee or a double bee.
(22:09):
But this was like it was almost the size of
my head, like yeah, you got a lot of tha, yes,
And I learned so much. I learned, like it was
one time I fell asleep and I didn't pump or
like because between pumping and giving the bottle, because my
husband gave her the bottle in the middle one I
think it was ten hours between and I was just like,
(22:31):
oh my gosh. And of course then I pumped out
it like I felt like three bottles worth. And I
learned about different people have different milk storage capacity, and
like some people who have a small milk storage capacity,
they have to empty more often. Some who have a
larger milk storage capacity you don't have to empty as often,
and you could pump more, just less frequently. And I
(22:51):
was like, oh, I'm I lucked out. I have a
high milk storage capacity. That's lucky. It was interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
Yeah, so you were able to was she when you
eventually contacted an IBCLC. Did you ever do any weighted
feeds to see what she was taking in a sitting?
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yes, we did, and of course, you know, my baby
performs well under under watch, but it a'll be like, oh,
we have showing none of these problems here in front
of the person who's watching to help us with these problems.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Right, So it was funny and like taking your car
to the mechanic.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah, and you know, the lactation consultant at the hospital,
we did come in for an appointment, and you know,
she would say if she doesn't get a good latch,
then just unlatch her and try again. But anytime we
would unlatch her, it would be all over. There was
no getting her back on. She was screaming and crying,
and so I just about this on little thing for
myself that once she's on with a very tight bity
(23:50):
chomping latch, I would just start singing to her until
she relaxed a little bit, and we never could flip
up her lips. So what I started doing was taking
my breast tissue and kind of shoving it into her
mouth and then as you know, the suction and then
I'd let go and then the breast tssue kind of
flopped back out and that would kind of bring her
lips out, sort of like what my husband was doing
(24:12):
with a bottle to try to get her lips to
fly out. So I sort of like figured out my
own little ways to achieve the same thing. And I
was in there the appointment singing to her and she's like,
you know, I would never normally recommend if they come
on with a bad latch that you don't unlatch them,
but when you're doing, seems to work for you, and
(24:35):
it's like, okay.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yeah, were you in pain whilst she was breastby And
they taught.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Me how to look for if she was biting versus sucking,
mainly the flattened nipples, and she did prove quite a
bit of damage to that one at the hospital when
she you know, we were still in the hospital there.
That took a long time to heal. Pumping helped. And
then I noticed now like with teeth, whenever she's super
(25:01):
teeny and just chewing, I take a break from feeding
for like a day up to three days and just pumping.
Of course, now she's older, she knows when she wants
mama and when she'll accept a bottle. She'll only accept
a bottle to go down at night because my husband
does the bedtime routine. So otherwise she's awake enough and
(25:22):
fully realizing what's going on, she will take that bottle
and like hit him in the head with it. They're like, no,
I want mama right now.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah. So, as you were breastfeeding and trying to help
her to open wide or to get more breast tissue
into her mouth, were you receiving any help? So when
you got the tongue tie, was there any follow up care?
Did they ask you to do any body work, any
oral motor work to help improve her the mobility and
(25:55):
strength of her tongue or was it a snip and
then on your way to fit gear everything out on
your own.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
It was just a snip, and that's it. There was
no follow up. We didn't start doing body work until
we did see the IBCLC because I had clogs and
the I had so many clogs and so many recurring clogs,
and lactation consultant in the hospital was giving a lot
of the old protocol advice, like warmth compression, like it
(26:23):
would clear the current clog. But then I felt like
I was were recurring clogs and it was so painful
and like one of the in the first week, I
remember having like a giant egg sized protrusion in my
armpit and I was very concerned. I called my ob
June right away, and I was like, Oh my gosh,
(26:43):
what's going on. And they're like, we'll just monitor it.
They didn't tell me what it was. I eventually found
out on the internet that milk ducks begin in your
armpit and go all the way down to your belly button.
And I was like, Oh, I wonder if that's just
the beginning of a milk duck. And it's very, very large,
and because when my baby fed, I could feel it
pulling and drawing from that egg in my armpit, it
(27:08):
could I could feel like it felt like when I
had clogs. It felt like there was a copper wire
from my armpit through my nipple and every time she fed,
that wire was like lit up on fire and it
eventually went down like after I pumped and stuff. So
I was like, okay, I think that's a milk duct.
So when the clothes, I just kept coming and I
(27:32):
was looking for an IBCLC and I finally found one.
Shed wasn't on our in shirt, didn't take our insurance,
so was out of pocket and it was worth it though, like,
oh my gosh, the much better advice like anti inflammatories
ice because clogs are because of inflammation. I just thought
(27:53):
it was like thick milk. Well, I mean it could be,
some people's could be. And then you know, I also
was taking the sunflower lesson thin and you know, because
when I went to the OBI about the clogs, they
wondered if I had mestitis. But since I didn't have
any redness on the breast and I wasn't I didn't
have a fever, they said, no, you don't have mestitis.
And you know, the OBI was just like, well, what
(28:13):
do you want to do? Do you want to give up
quit best reading? I'm like, no, I'd like to keep going.
How do I do this without these horrible clogs? And
she just printed off something about sunflower less than and
she said, well, get yourself this, so I mean I did,
and then the clogs just kept coming back. I was like,
I don't want to keep living like this and constant clogs,
clearing the clogs, clogs again, clearing the clogs. So with
(28:37):
the anti inflammatories that helped. It was and then ice
and then you know, like jiggle were jumping up and down,
and then things like eb some salt in the hakka
with some warm water. So when I had done that
back then, I guess I did have some really thick
milk because I saw coming out of the into the
hakka with EPs and salt like this thick you can
(29:00):
see string like a milk snake like being very slowly
sucked out of my nipple. And I was like, huh, okay,
well and then once that cleared, it was like then
they'll just flow right into the the hawk. Whoa, okay
cleared it cool.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Later on with the anti flammerss, because I was on
them all the time, I had so many clocks. I
was essentially taking four ibuprofen every six hours. Round the clock,
and I was doing that for a couple months, and
then my wrists I guess it's known as Mommy's wrist
tendonitis or also Decoryvan's tendonitis. They started to go And
(29:44):
when I went to see the IBCLC again just for
a follow up appointment, I mentioned about the wrist and
she was like, and you've been taking the ibuprofen. I'm
like yeah, and she goes, oh, that's not good. We
need to get you to see a hand doctor. So
she recommended me to a hand doctor because basically we're
still dealing with an unknown root cause of inflammation in
(30:06):
my body because I'm still getting clogs now, but it's
the wrists. Really like I'd cut out so many things
from my diet at the time, I was, you know,
hand doctor cortisone shots, I was seeing nutritionist, acupuncturists, osteopath,
the usual PCP, OBE and PT. I went for PT
because I didn't want to get the quarterzone shots right away,
So I was doing PET for a month. Then I
(30:26):
finally was like, it's healing too slowly. I just need
to function again. I need to be able to pick
up my baby. I need to be able to feed
my baby by myself. I like I always had to
have someone around when feeding my baby. I would just
sit on the couch. Someone would put a bobby on
my lap and put the baby on the bobby, and
I would just sit there, sometimes like hooking my elbow
around to keep her from rolling off.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
And yeah, so at what point did that pain start
to develop?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
She would so she was born in late October. It
really hurt definitely. I like I was getting massive clogs
like December, because I remember going to Christmas in New
Year's parties telling everyone how clogs are so awful. And
then by mid January I was in so much pain.
That's when it reached out to an IBCLC. And then
(31:14):
February one, I had my hand doctor appointment, and then
by March third, I got the cortisone shots, which didn't help.
They didn't, I mean, they didn't work for me. And
it was in cutting out a lot of things like
it was supposed to cut out. I cut out night
hued vegetables, processed meats, gluten and sugar, and the nutritious
(31:36):
also had me cutting out dairy for a few short
weeks because she was just saying anything that could be inflammatory.
Just completely cut it out of your diet. So I
could eat like salad for a while, and slowly, once
the wrist healed, I was given the okay to eat
build back in. Some of those food started back with
night chaed vegetables. We're not big processed meat eaters anyway,
so that wasn't a big deal. Didn't really notice. And
(31:58):
then eventually I could have gluten again, which is great
because I love my bread. And still no problems. Still
no problems, no problems. I did have a bite of
my husband's ice cream at one point and I had
some clogs again, and I was like, oh, ouch, that's
I'm not gonna, you know, have a full ice cream.
I'm not going to do that again. And then I
was at a friend's so like from mid April, my
(32:19):
wrists were okay again. And because I was suffering through
let's say February, March, half of April, by May, of
course I was back to nor May, June, July, great,
half of August. By mid August, I went to a
friend's housewarming party and I had half a cupcake. I
really wanted a cupcake. It looked great, and I was like,
I'm not gonna eat a whole cupcake. I'll just have
(32:40):
a couple of bites. And that very night massive clog
ducks so painful. Like before, you know, with the engorgement
or the clog spots, it felt like, you know, I
was being stabbed with pushpins or something, or sometimes it
felt like I had a skewer through my nipple all
(33:00):
the way through to my back. Like the pain, but
you know, like other things, like the let down. Some
people described it as oh, you'll feel it tingling, and
I was like tingling. It feels like burning or stinging.
And the first three months of my baby's life, every
time I heard her or saw her, my nipples would
just sting. And that feeling's down now at least that's
(33:24):
not so bad. But yeah, when I had the cupcakes,
it wasn't just the pain through the nipple. When she fed,
it was like through the whole breast tissue. It felt
like not just the stabbing, but like lazor blades or
thumbtacks were being sucked through my entire breast tissue every
time she fed. And then I did end up with clogs,
(33:45):
and then my wrists went.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
For the entirety of the feed or just at certain
like just during the milk release, were you able to
identify that.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Entirety of entirety of the feed. I mean, she pretty
much comes off when the milk stops flowing, so she
doesn't keep sucking when there's no more.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Well, there's always milk there, But the milk release is
when the alveolar glands open up and come into the
milk ducks. Because if you look at a dissection of
a breast, you see the things that look like grapes,
and those are the alveolar glands, and that's where the
(34:25):
milk is made. And then the milk release is also
referred to as the letdown, is when those alveolar glands
open up and that gets triggered by the release of
oxytocin from the pituitary gland, and that's when the milk
flows into the milk ducks. Now, there can still be
milk and the milk ducks in between that time if
(34:45):
it didn't. In fact, most of the time there is
because our breasts are never fully empty. But sometimes people
just feel that feeling at the moment of the milk release.
So that's why I was wondering which one it was.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Yeah, I guess it's just when it was all still
flowing because yeah, but basically, so like when I pump
and it starts to rather than pouring out, and then
it's like the little drops and then the drops get
much less like when it's pump when it's like it's
less when it's pump drip, pump drip, pump drip, and
(35:21):
then pump pump drip, pump pump drip, or then pump pump,
pump pump drip. That's when I'm just like, okay, it's time.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Mm hmmm. Yeah. The tingly feeling is for the entire
time that she was breastfeeding. Did you have it? Also
during pumping, it felt.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Like the so I thought she was biting me because
it was so painful. So I pumped for a bit
and it turns out she wasn't biting me. It was
something wrong with here because it felt like the pump
was biting me, and I was like, okay, so I
know the pump is not biting me because I know
what this normally feels like, and there it's it's not her,
it's me. And I felt bad because she it wasn't
(35:58):
her fault, but I, you know, pumped and gave her
bottles instead, thinking it was her. But something wrong with
my body.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Right, Okay, And so you've mentioned that you saw a
hand doctor, and you went to chiropractic care, and you
went to acupuncture. So what were all of these various
professionals trying to do to help with your symptoms?
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And a lot of them mentioned about anti inflammatory diet,
and I guess that's what helped. Then as soon as
I had that bite a cupcake, I didn't have an
I haven't had a bite a sugar since mid August.
It is now April, so it's been like what eight months,
And I thought cutting out all that again would do it,
(36:43):
But I don't know. I think it's functional. I think
inflammation kicked it off, I'm sure, But also at the
ostropath officer saying that it's probably over use injury because
this time, the first time I wrote is both wrists
and basi of thumbs, so it was much much worse.
It was one that went first because the lactation consultant
(37:04):
in the hospital said, on the side of the you
of the clog, keep bringing the baby to that side
until the clog is cleared. But it took days to
clear and I kept bringing her to that side until
it cleared, and pumping the other side, and she ended
up developing a feeding a version because she I didn't
realize she was sucking getting no milk all this time.
And it turns out maybe I don't think it was
a feedinger version, but rather she injured her jaw trying
(37:26):
so hard getting nothing, and she just tired herself out
because then she wasn't even latching onto the bottle with
much strength. My husband's like, she has no suck strength.
I don't know what's going on, and so I think
she injured her jaw trying, and so that's what this
wrist went. And then I couldn't pick her up under
the head and shoulders and under the bumb like you're
(37:48):
supposed to do before they have head control. Well, I
was prioritizing one hand, and then this other wrist went,
and then so I had to switch to picking her
up under scooping up under the armpits even so she
didn't have the head controlia and then just making sure
my fingers were at the back of her head to
support her. And then the base of the thumbs went.
That was the first time around when she was two
and a half months old up to five months old,
(38:09):
and this time around after the sugar with the cupcake,
it was it's just the left side, so I'm right
hand dominant. When I was holding her a whole bunch
from when she was five months old up to eight
months old. She always wanted to be held all the time,
so I was holding her left arm and doing things
around the house with the right arm. And I did
try to put her in a baby carrier, but of
(38:30):
course takes a bit to get her in, and then
she wants in and out and up and down and
up and down constantly throughout the day, So it was
just more cumberts to get her in and then have
to get.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Her all out right. And so were they doing any
blood work or trying to figure out other root causes
for all this additional inflammation?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yes, that's actually yeah, so many doctors I saw, I'm
forgetting about all of them. Yes, we did have some.
I had all lots of blood work all day. Different
doctors are ordering various different things. Of course, they all
saying the results are only as good as what you
order to find out the information. Everything of mine was normal,
and they even referred me to rheumatologist. The rhutologists ran
(39:13):
the blood blood work for all the inflammation markers. He said, No,
it's not autoimmune, it's it's functional. You probably just have
to corvins tenanitis, which a lot of moms get from
holding their baby. It's probably just the overuse injury and
then the sugar probably kicked off the inflammation response and
it just hasn't come back down. Oh and you were
(39:35):
mentioning about bodywork earlier, you would ask I did have
my baby after we saw the ib CLC with the clogs.
She did have us go The PT that I went
to also works with infants with bodywork. So my baby
saw chiropractor, the PT, and the osteopath that I was
(39:55):
going to.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Did those people specialize in tongue tai? Were they able
to help improve her time function as a result of
having had a time tie in utero until her first
few days of life.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
The PET did work on the motor skills in the mouth,
but the chiropractor and the ostropath worked on the tightness
in her neck because we did notice she was how
she had a lean preference in one side when we
put her down, and we did all this, you know,
the things like in the bassinet, don't put her in
the same direction because maybe the baby wants to look
out the window, so we both, you know, we put
(40:29):
her different sides. And also the basinet we moved around
the house so she didn't always have one thing to
look at all the time.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, and did you see improvements in her latch after
the body work or did it pretty much stay the same.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
It's hard to tell. We did notice that she didn't
keep her head flopping only to the one side anymore,
so I guess that was the at that time. It's hard,
It's hard to remember when it all lined up, but
I do remember, like I think for me, the I
hit exclusive breastfeeding around the three month mark because we
were still domination of pumping and feeding directly at that time.
(41:03):
And I just remember like one day I was like,
you know, babies were supposed to have this ability. I
read somewhere if you just do skin to skin and
you lay down with them, do this like laying back,
relaxed feed, they should be able to do it. And
so I just took a day where I was like, Okay,
I'm just going to lay in this bed. I'm going
to have her on me when she's ready to feed,
We're just going to do this. And she had a
(41:23):
hard time because she was still like she couldn't stay on.
She was flopping all over trying to find it, very slippery,
slipping off, But I just stuck it out and then
she finally did and I was like, hey, it works,
and then we didn't have any problems after that. It
was like this moment where I don't know if like
maybe we were supporting her head and we were restricting
her movement like I did read later that you shouldn't
(41:46):
be holding their head when they're feeding because you're preventing
them from being able to get in the position that
they need to and so I was like, oh, I
didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
They said, you.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Know, like she's a baby, shouldn't.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
Have I know, right, yeah, right, Yeah. It's so hard
and most of the time in the hospital you're being
taught to hold their head to bring them to the breast.
You know, almost every parent has their hands around the
back of the baby's head when they're trying to lapse them.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, and after that moment, I finally got the sideline feed,
which made nighttimes much easier because that was really hard
before like where she was, where it flopped and hit,
like as she gets bigger too, like it was it
got better, like her mouth got bigger too,
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