Being a first time mom is very difficult even if you have a happy, healthy baby! My first pregnancy was filled with anticipation until the delivery, then I was hopeful everything would go smoothly with breastfeeding because it looked so easy for other women. It couldn’t have been farther from the truth for me.
I began breastfeeding in the hospital and went home with a pump as well. I remember my first doctors visit a week later and learning that my son was losing weight quickly. I was so frustrated; I thought he was breastfeeding okay. I was a wreck. Disappointed and hopeless, I wanted to find some answers and fast! That’s when I went to visit Suzanne for the first time.
She evaluated my little one and noticed he had a tongue tie and lip tie. This was the reason for the poor exchange of milk, for his weight loss and for most of the pain I was feeling when he would latch. My milk supply was extremely low because my son never emptied my breasts when feeding. After my son had the tongue and lip tie revisions done, she saw him very regularly to make sure it was healing properly and that I was doing the mouth exercises correctly. He latched much better and the pain was minimal. We did everything we could to address the milk supply but I still had to supplement some. The good news was I was still able to produce a little for him every day through pumping and breastfeeding. Without Suzanne’s help, I would have had no milk supply at all.
With my second son, my baby was admitted to NICU at birth, so I was unable to try breastfeeding at delivery. But literally 15 minutes after getting moved into the recovery room, my mom had phoned Suzanne and she was able to coach me through this difficult time. With her encouragement, I began hand expressing and pumping within the hour. I expressed milk every 2 to 3 hours every day until I got my regular milk supply in. The amazing thing was that I had plenty of milk this time!!
I was so excited and grateful that I had such an experienced and caring advocate in Suzanne. Without her encouragement to "Pump Pump Pump" until I can see my baby, then to pump after breastfeeding too, I would have lost my supply. Once I returned home from the hospital, I visited Suzanne for an evaluation of my second son. He too had tongue and lip ties and some difficulty with weight gain. We got those revised quickly and Suzanne helped us with the mouth exercises once again. She helped to make sure that he was gaining well, and I continued both pumping and breastfeeding and was even able to get a little stored for future use!
My second son is completely breastmilk fed thanks to Suzanne’s persistence and kindness. She always made me feel very comfortable talking about any subject and was a huge support for me. She also helped me work through an extremely painful episode of plugged milk ducts (ouch) and mastitis. She had the amazing ability of helping me believe in myself with breastfeeding, even though it was extremely difficult!
If only I had met Suzanne earlier!! She’s a true angel and one of the best resources a new mom could ever imagine.
