I'm coming out of retirement (2005) to answer Diane's questions and 
to thank Lactnet for all of the help my daughter and I found in the 
Archives last October. I've been reading daily posts since 
then.  Alison had numerous problems with feeding her baby--almost 
every problem that I had in my 38 years of working with breastfeeding mothers.

With my now 40 year old daughter I did everything wrong except for 
keeping on keeping on. I had seen my favorite Aunt feed her baby 
(without success thanks to her pediatrician) and a great friend in 
college nursed her baby in 1970 with the help of some kind of 
"nursing club." :-) No one in my family had breastfed except for my 
aunt so I was determined to do it.

I came home from the hospital after a 5-day stay (4-hour schedule) 
with a case of formula (husband was MD) and cracked, bleeding 
nipples. Lia had bottles when I was in too much pain to feed her but 
I kept on feeding her as much as I could.  I had found the phone 
number for that "club" and called the LLL leader every day for two 
weeks. What she "taught" me was not to give up and my baby would 
learn to feed properly from my breast.  Yep!  I began attending LLL 
meetings when Lia was about a month old.

I learned side-lying with my back against the back of the couch and 
baby beside me.  I was too sleep deprived to even consider that she 
might roll off.  Lia was colicky and I needed the bit of sleep that I 
got there. I also never considered sleeping with her in bed until she 
was about 5 months old.

I learned hand expression at a LLL meeting when Lia was 2 1/2 years 
old.  We lived in Maryland at the time and the NIH wanted human milk 
for organ transplant research.  I gave a saliva sample that qualified 
me to sell milk to them for $20 a pint!!  I discovered that I got 
more milk if Lia nursed on the other breast while I expressed.  One 
day she came off the breast and smiled as she said,  "I'm helping '...search'."

Determination goes a long way.

Thank you, Lactnet and thank you, Diane, for this delightful thread.

Pat Gima







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