Hi mamas! I am so excited to be on the other side of the 'bee, and be among the mamas! Sadie girl was born on Tuesday, and she is gorgeous.
We are having a rough go at BF'ing though, and it's draining me emotionally. I feel like a big fat failure, and cry all day. It started with a tongue tie (clipped on day 2), and now she just won't latch without an hour of work/soothing/forcing. We use a shield, but we still can't feed while awake - she just screams, which has caused my poor baby to go almost completely hoarse (this KILLS me, her hoarse cry breaks my heart). Once I get her to sleep, and pop it in, she'll suckle a little if I keep rubbing her cheeks/feet/chin/back & putting a cold wipe on her, but this is obviously not a long term feeding solution. We're supplementing per doc's orders (she's lost 11% of her birth weight), and I'm so, so tempted to just call it quits and do 100% formula/pumped milk. My milk came in yesterday, and while I hoped that would be the magic thing that made this easier... nope. Now we're just upset while covered in milk. Yesterday and last night were a sticky, emotional mess.
I know BF'ing isn't easy for most women, and I anticipated that, but it's WAY harder than I could've imagined. I need some encouragement.