Individual breastfeeding consultation for greater ease

Breastfeeding for me. There he was all of a sudden, my little man. Suddenly I was a mom, a rather strange thought, yet wonderful at the same time. From one moment to the next, everything revolved around breastfeeding; nurses were constantly coming into the room to help him latch on. But I hadn't expected breastfeeding to be so painful. It hurt, sharp pains, bloody, inflamed nipples. "That's normal," they kept saying. So we left the hospital on the third day after the birth, carrying pain with us, completely different from what I had anticipated. The first few weeks passed, and the pain persisted. My little darling, however, wasn't gaining weight properly, and my feeling that something might not be right grew stronger and stronger. So I started talking to friends about my problem, and it was pure relief. More and more of them shared stories of the same issue and/or that this definitely wasn't normal. I was advised to contact a lactation consultant, which I did. Thank goodness! Because she was able to help me very quickly with latching and showed me what to pay attention to. A few tricks and it worked much better. Once my nipples had healed a bit, breastfeeding got better each time. But we also had to keep an eye on my little man's weight, because he urgently needed to gain weight. Supplementing with formula was now necessary. Honestly, it wasn't a very nice feeling, like I wasn't producing enough. But that feeling lessened too, because the extra milk, as I call it, took some of the pressure off our breastfeeding relationship. After each feeding, we supplemented with a syringe and feeding tube to ensure breastfeeding continued to work well and to prevent nipple confusion from becoming another problem. The syringe broke after a while and was also a bit too small. So we decided to simply feed him from a cup (a bottle without a nipple cap). It was a bit messy, but it worked quite well for us. Today we're on the right track; breastfeeding is (almost) painless, the pediatrician is very pleased with our little one, and we don't need supplemental milk as often anymore. Mostly only when he's going through a growth spurt and I just can't seem to satisfy him. An emotional rollercoaster between the greatest joy and the greatest pain of my life has finally come to an end, and I can finally continue on the happy track. :) Thanks to Diana Stabl, my lactation consultant and last-minute helper.