Amanda and Zane: A Rocky Start

My son was born three weeks early, for no particular reason. When he was born, all he wanted to do was sleep and sleep. He’d try to latch on, but he never seemed to nurse. I told the doctor, and she said maybe it was just an unfamiliar feeling for me. He was born on Friday, and we all went home on Monday. He still hadn’t really nursed. No one believed me. He’s put his mouth on my breast and look like he was eating, but I knew he wasn’t. I worried that he wasn’t eating right because he was a little premature.

He lost more than ten percent of his birth weight, and he turned yellow. The doctor brought me a hand pump and told me to start expressing milk and feeding it to him with a teaspoon. She told me to have him sleep in the sun. I did that, and my arms would get so tired pumping. No one knew why he wouldn’t latch on to me. He would nuzzle and nuzzle at my breast and never get any milk.

I started to really worry. I asked the doctor if we should start giving him formula, but she said we didn’t need to do that yet. I had a lactation consultant come, and she just yelled at me to keep trying to nurse. She squeezed him against my breast and he latched on for the first time. I was thrilled. I could tell milk was coming down. I was so happy. Then we noticed that he was turning a scary purple color, and realized the LC was pushing him so hard against my breast that he couldn’t breathe. I pulled her hands off me and the baby stopped nursing and began to wail.

On Tuesday my best friend came over and watched me try to nurse. She asked me if she could try him on her breast. I said yes. She held him to her breast and he opened his mouth wide and snapped on like a snapping turtle. My friend started to laugh and told me she could feel her milk let down, and she’d weaned her own baby a year ago.
So then we knew that the problem wasn’t with my son, but with me. My friend and I started my breasts, accusingly, and then we noticed – my nipples were much smaller than hers. Hers were the size of the top of her pinky finger. Mine were more like pencil erasers.

I reported that to my doctor, and she gave me a nipple shield. The first time I used it, my son grabbed right on and had a full feed. After that, everything was easy.