Breastfeeding to Pumping Exclusively

     Daphne was really good at breastfeeding.  She seemed to be perfect at it.  I just couldn’t figure out why it hurt so badly.  I mean it was a deep stabbing pain deep in my breast.  It seemed to travel under my arm pit to my back.  There were a few times when it wouldn’t hurt at all.  It was perfect! Just a slight tugging and she would get so much milk. J She was adorable.  But the pain and such got worse and worse. 

     My blood pressure started to rise.  I was having pains in my arms and losing feeling to my fingers (like my cubital tunnel syndrome).  My ankles were super swollen up to the size of softballs.  I was getting shortness of breath and dizzy.  Tyler later told me that he had checked me in the night to make sure I was breathing still.  My nerves were over reacting all over my body causing my whole body to shake in pain when she would nurse.   I knew the reason wasn’t her; I just couldn't figure it out until I started losing feeling in my hands. That was a symptom from my nerve problem before.

     So I started pumping and after a day my body was feeling a bit normal again. I immediately started producing a lot of milk. So pumping is going to be my way and freezing the milk she doesn’t need right now. This is just the beginning.

Birth Story

So there I was... 5 days overdue.  Of course, I was seriously discouraged!! I had been having contractions for a few weeks but they were not getting us anywhere.  We would go on walks all the time to help.  We tried everything to induce naturally.  Nothing worked.   So , at my appointment on day 5 overdue my doctor massaged my cervix in hopes that it’ll kick start things (which it did). 

I had contractions for hours and they increased over the night.  I woke up at 6am and decided to tell my hubs that it was time to go to the hospital.  The hubs, my mom and I got up there around 7.  I was only 4 cm, but the contractions were strong enough to make me have to pause and breathe through them.  At lunch time, the nurse suggested that I use the labor tub.  The hot water was nice but it didn’t take the pain away like everyone told me that it would.  The jets in the tub really started to tick me off tho.  We listened to Johnny Cash, the Jackson 5 and Craig Morgan.

My water broke in the tub at 1:24.  I almost passed out trying to get back to the room from the tub.  I went to the bathroom and got onto the bed.  It was getting super intense.  I decided that doing this all natural thing was silly and a little too painful for me.  I asked for the epidural.  As the doctor was prepping me, my body decided it as time to push Little Miss out.  I had gone from 5 cm to pushing in 20 minutes!!   

My body pushed so violently.  The doctor came in and stated that he’d let me do my own thing and basically just catch the baby.   I pushed a few times and the doctor told me to stop.  Little Miss was trying to come out with her hands up on her head.  So the doctor pushed her arms back in and after another push or two she was born.  She was born at 2:22pm, only 58 minutes from the time my water broke.  No wonder it hurt so bad!! Birth doesn’t normally happen that fast. Haha

She was placed on my chest immediately.  The doctor stitched me up.  My husband cut the cord after a few minutes.  Our sweet Little Miss was just soooo cute.  She was placed on the breast pretty much immediately.   She didn’t really cry.  She liked to just look around and snuggle.  She is very much like her brother in that way.

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