We've had kind of a rough start. My milk took a few days to come in, and by the time it did, Rory was starting to get frantic. We now have a full blown case of breast distress (also known as breast aversion). Because of the way her head molded in the birth canal, her upper palette is shaped in a way that makes it difficult for her to suck. Basically, she wants the boob really badly, but is getting so frustrated from trying to eat, that she screams.
We're doing cranial sacral work (some info here and here) with First Choice Chiropractic to get her head bones shifted (right now she has a ridge where one is slightly on top of the other). I adore them, and strongly recommend them to anyone in the KC area. Yesterday we went in just to visit and get help with breast feeding. She's had one session and is going to need a few more, but we saw results almost immediately after the first session. The swelling in her left eye went down, and her forehead started to even out. We've also been letting her do lots of sucking on our fingers and telling her when she's 'chomping' and when she's actually sucking (which we get excited about so she knows in our voice).
Right now we're dealing with the breast feeding by hand expressing (very time consuming, especially as her appetite goes up) and feeding her with a syringe. When she's sleepy and comfortable and, most importantly, not hungry, we practice breast feeding and do lots of vocal reinforcement when she latches or sucks for even a second.
It's incredibly emotionally draining for me, because I want to feed her so much. Syringe feeding is good because she's getting fed, but she gets frustrated when it's emptied and needs to be refilled (she has her mommy's patience). The important thing is she's eating, and it's breast milk.
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