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Saturday, August 2, 2008

about nursing adopted babies...

ninnies ninnies ninnies! LOL
a few mommies have asked me about it, some who have done it as well, some who are like "you can do that?"
i started pumping in may, double electric pump every 2 hours no matter what. i added domperidone(not reglan but close, ordered it from a canadian online pharmacy) in june, baby was born july 21st and my supply wasn't bad! i got to the baby on his 4th day of life, put him to the breast and he was like YAH! he had been sucking down 3 oz. bottles while in cradle care, so i wondered how he would do. i nursed and supplemented lightly with formula(in a bottle) for the first 10 weeks, then we didn't need the formula anymore. at 14 weeks, he refused any bottle altogether. when he was 5.5 months old though, my supply definately dipped, so i bought the Lactaid supplementer, spent the 63$ with shipping and after a week, he still completely refused it, so i sold it cheap to a fellow adoptive nursing mom i met online. so... the lesson? get one and use it from DAY ONE, so that when you need to use it, they will take it. so.. at that point i had to really push solids, which i hated to do, but he was tiny as it was.. so i had no choice. i added cows milk at 10 mos. again-no choice, but he did real well with it. (12 mos. is just a general guideline.) he is STILL nursing 6-7 times a day and waking once at night, most nights. sometimes as late as 430 am, but usually up once regardless. ( we are so close, almost there lol) he is 12 mos. 12 days. i am SO proud of myself that we have stuck with it this long. 3 mos. was our initial goal for this tiny baby, my husband and me. none of my 3 bio kids nursed this long or this successfully(latch issues, soreness, nursing strikes, duct problems....)he was my easiest one lol. am i ready to give it up? yes. but he aint. and hes more important, so too bad for me lol. the all day all night milk bar is closed, we have structure now, but we still have ninnies :) if i can do this, ANYONE CAN. don't be afraid to try it. feel free to ask me anything. i can help you get started.

3 comments:

Brenda said...

Very cool.

Justju said...

I said it before and I'll say it again, Ali, YOU ROCK. So freaking awesome. Shawn is one lucky little kid....as are all your beautiful "babies". :)

Mike and Katie said...

Thanks!

I tried the Reglan for a while, but it caused too many stomach issues. We've been using the Lact-Aid and will continue...I'm not sure how long. We're switching over to whole milk this week. Yeah, no more powdered formula! Amanda loves it, too. She'll only drink a few ounces out of a cup or bottle but she'll nurse 6 ozs.

I guess that's a reasonable excuse to keep nursing, besides that fact I love having her snuggle quietly for 20 minutes with me. After that, she's always on the go!

Katie