Katelyn's Story of Formula Feeding and Breastfeeding
Our story this week comes from Katelyn. She had two very different experiences with breastfeeding!
Hi I am Katelyn, I am a mama of two. I have a 3 year old daughter and a 11 month old son. When I found out I was pregnant with my daughter I knew I wanted to breastfeed her. It was something I thought was important and looked forward to very much.
When she was born she did not seem to get a good latch the first few feeds and I was new to breastfeeding and wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from her. About 8 hours after she was born they checked her blood sugar and the nurse said it was slightly low and that maybe I should offer her formula to make sure it didn’t drop anymore. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea but I didn’t want to hurt my baby either so we gave her the bottle and she ate it very well but we still continued having issues getting her to latch correctly for breastfeeding. We ended up doing supplement feeding for the first week but she always seemed to do better with the bottle and would sometimes cry when I tried to breastfeed.
A week after I gave birth to her I got really sick and ended up in the hospital for a few days completely dehydrated because I couldn’t eat or drink anything without it coming back up. With that happening my breastmilk just never came in well. I was so upset and felt like I was failing for a while but eventually that feeling went away. My daughter was fed and healthy and loved and that was the most important thing. When my daughter was about 18 months old we found out we were going to be having another baby. I immediately knew I wanted to try to make this breastfeeding experience better than what I had the first time.
When my son was born he immediately latched on perfectly and ate for like 3 hours straight. I was amazed. He cluster feed for about the first month and I felt like all I did was feed him. It was definitely harder than I ever thought it would be but I was happy that I was getting to breastfeed him. Things started to get easier as he got older and wasn’t eating quite so often. He never took a bottle and got frustrated when we would try to give it to him. When we introduced solid foods he started taking a sippy cup and then started to have his milk in them sometimes. This experience with him has been so sweet and I am so glad I got to experience breastfeeding. It’s a beautiful part of motherhood that I didn’t really get to experience fully the first time with my daughter.
I am glad that I got to experience having a formula feed baby as well because now I know that both are ok. Both keep the baby healthy. There are good things about both. My husband could help me a lot more with our daughter because she did take a bottle. I believe that was the hardest part at the beginning with my son when all he did was eat. Every time I had to wake up to feed him because he wouldn’t take the bottle. With my daughter he could feed her a bottle and give me a break.
My son is now 11 months old and I am planning to start to wean him at 12 months. It is bittersweet as I think about it. It will make things easier on me but at the same time I won't ever get to do it again and that makes me sad. I have learned a lot through this journey of breastfeeding but the biggest and most amazing thing I learned was that God created mothers to have everything they need to keep their baby healthy and alive at birth. Our bodies grow these sweet babies which is so amazing and then when they are born we have the ability to feed them and keep them alive with our bodies by breastfeeding. I find that amazing! Motherhood has been so life changing and my favorite part of life. I am blessed to be a mom.
What do you think of Katelyn’s story? We love how she was able to focus on the positives with each experience, even though things didn’t go exactly “as planned”. Thanks for sharing Katelyn!
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