How I ended our 42 day breastfeeding strike!

A nursing strike. Did you know this was a thing?  …like literally a baby that has been nursing perfectly fine for months with no problems what so ever all of a sudden refuses to breastfeed?!!? WHAT!? 

I had no idea this would even be a problem. You always hear about breastfeeding being sometimes difficult for mom and baby in the beginning….. but you never think months down the road you might run into problems. 

At 8 and a half months, in the middle of the night, my baby had stopped nursing. She was crying and crying but would not latch. I didn’t know what was going on, but thought maybe …teething….? The next day still she hated my boobs. And she woke up with a dry diaper! OH NO! We took her in to find out the dreaded ear infection! :( So it hurt her ears to suckle. 

I would go on and on with all the details on how to find out why baby might not be nursing…. But here is a link instead. But babies  18months and younger don’t just self wean out of no where. Weaning will be a gradual thing. 

Lets hop over to how we were able to go back to breast after 42 days. 42. FRICKIN. DAYS! I swear to you… I swearrrrrrrrrrrr, it was the longest breastfeeding strike in history. We started out if she even saw my bare skin she would cry, scream, and start to flop around like a fish. Seriously my boobs were what her nightmares were made of!! I am not sure what she thought my boobs did to her… but it wasn’t good. 

I talked with 3 or 4 lactation consultants… they all mention lots of skin to skin, cuddling, bath time together, and if she was upset about breastfeeding not to force it. Everything I read online said the nursing strike should end after 2-4days… HA! 

Slowing after days and days of skin to skin. Yep…we were a topless community. If you were coming over…tell us…because for a month or more… we didn’t wear shirts. Nope. Baby wearing for hours….skin to skin for the win. HAHA it wasn’t easy! As soon as I turned her torso to face into mine…the fish flopping came out. She would scream and flop around. It was like a seizure!  But after a week or so she was able to face me, without crying!! …. And then a few more weeks I could cradle her.  The cradle was a difficult step to master. And don’t even tuck her arm underneath like your going to make her breastfeeding because she will lose all her sanity.  I mean …it was one small step a day! When I am telling you it was a marathon. It WAS a mara! thon!! The day she let my nipple touch her lips….  Was like I just finished my first 20mile run!!  You should have been there the day…she decided giving rasberries to my nipple was fun. We made a game out of it! And when she would bite my nipple… I thought…so is this progress?! LOL!! 

OH did I forget to mentention to you ….that she would only take a syringe? A 5ml syringe…. A had a 10ml but she hated that one. Girl knows what she likes. Lol Can we say stubborn, at all????? Finally after a month she took a bottle. Which I read if you want her to go back to breast not to give a binkie or bottle because baby will want that suckling smoothingness. So believe me when she decided she only wanted a bottle, I thought it was the beginning of the end! :’( 
OH MY GOD! And talk about emotional train wreck…I am talking about me. I don’t know what it is but the oxytocin released during breastfeeding just makes me an overall happier person. I was a hot mess during this strike…I’m not sure you wanted to be my friend… not at all. It was a dark hole I was living in. 

Wait where was I??? Oh BOTTLE!! So one night I thought to myself…no baby you are not going to like bottles you are going to breastfeed. So I gave her a syringe again. She took it! She took one syringe and then latched on! SHE LATCHED ON!!!! SHE LATCHES ON!!!!!!!! And ATE! I switched sides…and she was grumpy with a bit of floppy. So again I gave her one syringe and she latched on right after! We did a couple feedings like this and then. BOOM! It happened! She nursed every time was like she never quit! 

In celebration of over coming our strike we got a lovely breastfeeding mini from the talented T.Marie Photography...photos below!!  (ok secretly I already had the session booked...and in my mind I kept telling myself the session date was the end of the race. And she would be breastfeeding again for our session! IT work! <3)