Ask, Believe, and You Will Receive!

   My whole pregnancy i got all the information i could on breast-feeding. I'd read books, online, magazines, talked to lactation consultants, you name it! I was determined to breast-feed my little Janie until she wanted to self ween herself.  But when the doctor broke my water it wasn't clear. Janie had meconium aspiration. There's a number of reasons why this could have happened, but we'll never know why it happened to her. Personally i think she was stressed because she was two weeks late!! yes, two weeks!! i was 42 weeks pregnant when i delivered her! Now why would this effect breast-feeding you ask??? Well when my doctor intubated her to suction out her lungs he scraped the back of her throat which helps with swallowing. This made it very difficult for her to breast-feed. 

    Now we didn't find out that this had happened to her throat until when went to her one week check up appointment where her pediatrician discovered it. I had no idea what breast-feeding was supposed to feel like, if so i would have known that she wasn't sucking properly.  Janie was also sweating when she ate. I was still determined for her to be breast-fed and never thought that she wouldn't be. I worked with three different lactation consultants, we tried nipple shields, supplemental nursing system, different positions, basically if it could be tried, we tried it. 

    I started pumping at around one month and giving her breast-milk in a bottle. I was still giving her the breast as well. when I first stared pumping i was getting a half and ounce on each side! Janie's poor sucking had effected my milk supply.(Also i forgot to mention that it took eight days for my milk to come in and I never felt engorgement.)  I tried everything to get my milk up! I drank Mothers Milk Tea religiously, i tried fenugreek(only lowered my milk and still does to this day), i would pump every hour for twenty minutes with a hospital grade pump, drank tons of water and ate a ton of food, and i would pray and stay in the word (which i need to start doing again!), and also eat foods that had low sodium( i find a BIG difference in my milk supply when i eat a lot of salt)

    Now i think that drinking a ton of water and eating a lot, and lowering my sodium intake helped a lot., but the thing that i believe with my whole heart that increased my milk greatly would have to be; praying, staying in  the word, and believing what i was praying would come true. I tried EVERYTHING!!! literally everything. 

    I was reading my BIble one morning before janie had woke up and i got an answer. Now i don't remember the exact verse or the exact words but the moral of what I read was "ask in Jesus name and it will be done" I believe what i read was God speaking to me in the word.  I prayed, and prayed, and then prayed some more! i prayed that some how I could feed Janie breast-milk for a year and my milk would increase so she wouldn't have to have any supplements. 

    Now I believed what i prayed would come true and it did, just not in the way i though it would. I thought that i would be providing Janie with breast-milk via the breast. Instead i pump every 3-4 hours and give her my milk in a bottle! I beat myself up over it for a loooong time! I wanted her to be breast-fed via the breast. But then I had to stop and think about it. Everything i had asked for or prayed for had been given to me.My milk supply is up, and  I can now feed Janie breast-milk for a year,! It took some time to realize that it doesn't matter if she's getting the breast-milk out of the breast or out of the bottle! Either way she is getting the same thing!