After that, at each feed I would try to latch the baby on and get her to nurse, but she would not latch on. It was an endless fight. I'd try, she'd scream, the nurses would ram her poor little face into my breast, which would just make her scream more. I started to pump to get my milk supply going. We would try for 15 minutes to get her feeding at breast, and then we would give her a bottle. I finally saw a lactation consultant in the hospital on the Tuesday morning, 2 days after the baby's birth. She tried to help, and she would succeed at getting the baby to latch on, but then the baby would suck for 5 seconds and let go screaming, because now she was used to how easy it was to get milk from the bottle. The vicious circle had begun with that 1^st bottle.

On the Wednesday, I went home. That morning my milk came in. I was sent home pumping every 3 hours. Within 2 days I was pumping 8 to 10 ounces each time I pumped! I had enough milk to feed the neighbourhood! The latching on was not working, so I had given up. I was so disappointed because my whole pregnancy I had looked forward to nursing my baby. I had come to the conclusion that I would just pump my milk, and feed it to my baby via a bottle. When the baby turned 3½  weeks old, I could no longer take the pressure of the demands of pumping. We switched the baby over to formula. I stopped pumping.

On the fourth day of formula only, the problems began. First the baby developed severe diarrhea, and she would scream all the time. We took her to see our paediatrician at the time (we NO longer see her). She recommended we put the baby on soy formula, so we did that. The poor baby then became constipated, and would scream every time she tried to have a bowel movement. She also started projectile vomiting. After that we tried every kind of formula on the market, but nothing made her better.

After 3 weeks of this, I looked into relactation. I decided that I was NOT going to give up until my baby was getting nothing but breastmilk, and I wanted her to be breastfeeding at the breasts, not with a bottle. I had been pumping again for about a week and I was lucky to get 1 ounce a day! And I was pumping every 2 hours! That is when I came in contact with Joan Fisher, my wonderful lactation consultant. She truly was the one who got me through my relactation period. I truly had no more milk. She suggested I get a prescription for domperidone in order to reinduce lactation. I did that, and then purchased a Lact-Aid Nursing Trainer which would allow the baby to latch on to my breast, and get formula through a tiny capillary tube. It worked! The baby would latch on, and actually nurse! I was SO thrilled!

Within 1 week of using the Lact-Aid at every feeding, and taking domperidone, I had a full milk supply, and was able to discontinue using the Lact-Aid. My baby was now exclusively breastfed! I could not have been happier, and my wonderful little baby was now happy again, and thriving. She started gaining weight again, and hasn't stopped since. I had one consultation with Joan for positioning at the breast, as I was not doing it properly in the beginning, and the baby was pinching me. It only took 2 hours, and we were a happy nursing couple, and have been ever since.