So a couple of months ago I talked about my first eight months of breastfeeding the daughter I gave birth to, Happy Baby. I’m happy to report we are at 14 months and still going strong! She has become a wiggly little toddler, doing ‘nursing gymnastics’ and loves her boobie milk. I do wish she would eat a little bit more food and nurse a bit less, but we are working on it. I plan on allowing her to self wean, something I never imagined when I was pregnant.
My wife on the other hand has been struggling feeding our son, who she gave birth too, Lil Bub. I think we all go through different struggles with breastfeeding, painful nipples, clogged ducts, oversupply, etc. but we have had a hard time figuring out what was going on with Lil Bub. I also have found that I know more about breastfeeding than the nurses we have asked for help for my wife from. We tried contacting a lactation consultant but the website has inaccurate information about a couple of them and the others want money for ‘training’ sessions. We don’t need training, we need someone to figure out what is wrong, and we also cannot afford it.
First of all we discovered that Wifey has flat nipples and had to ‘bring them out’ so that Lil Bub could nurse. I am happy to report that one month in and Wifey’s nipples are doing MUCH better! From my research I also believe Lil Bub has a lip tie. He has a very very weak latch and seems to chew on her nipple. He is also feeding almost non-stop which is very stressful on Wifey. If anything a lot of the problems with Lil Bub have gotten worse not better in the past month. He is very colicy unless he is attached to Wifey. A mom from one of my mommy boards suggested a Facebook group about lip and tongue ties where I got information on a dental surgeon who can take a look at Lil Bub in two weeks. So we have a bit of a wait but hopefully they will see the problem and be able to fix it!
I have had the unique experience of breastfeeding my son a handful of times as well as tandem feeding my son and daughter. I have to say it is kind of strange feeding a child I did not give birth to. It is also unique in the fact that I can experience the poor latch and chewing he does to my nipple. I have only done it a handful of times because we want Wifey’s supply to stay up and she cannot feed Happy Baby as Happy Baby is gluten free and Wifey is not. We are hoping that in the next couple of months we can afford for Wifey to go gluten free and then when I am at work she can feed both children. It is kind of cool that our children will get to nurse together on either of us. It is a way that they can bond with both of their mothers as well as each other.
As soon as I realized that both Wifey and I would be lactating at the same time I wanted a picture of the two of us feeding the babies together. So I asked our photographer to get a picture of us nursing together at Lil Bub’s newborn photo shoot, something the photographer (sn photography) said she had never done before but was happy to do. I don’t usually share pictures here but I want to share this one with you. I am planning on sharing it on a bunch of mommy boards and breastfeeding boards on Facebook too though I kind of wonder if I will get ‘banned’ since Facebook can’t seem to get it’s breastfeeding photo policy straight, lol. Here is my beautiful family!! (Don’t forget to like Gay Mom Straight World on Facebook)
I want to thank SN Photography for the beautiful picture!