North Central Florida Breastfeeding Coalition 

When my daughter was born, we struggled to nurse. She had a tongue and lip tie that was undiagnosed by my midwife and pediatrician. She wasn't getting enough milk in the first few days and became too sleepy and stopped crying. We were terrified but our family sprang into action.

 

My sister nursed her which gave my daughter more strength and my sister noticed that she had the ties. Our midwife taught us how to feed her pumped milk through a tube taped to our pinkies. My husband and I stayed up all night feeding her through a tube. I triple fed her my milk for a few weeks and we had her ties revised. Then we went through the challenge of weaning off the nipple shield just as I developed thrush.

 

After making it through all that we finally began to nurse successfully and bonded. Later on, I gave up dairy and went to work and had to deal with all the struggles of pumping. It was the hardest thing I have gone through in my life and also the best thing I have ever done. I nursed my daughter till she was 2 1/2 years old and throughout our journey it empowered me, bonded us deeply, and introduced me to wonderful women who also strongly believe in breastfeeding in La Leche League.