Sister Shakura Muhammad: mother of two
CEO of @mommytreasures_
My first breastfeeding experience was ROUGH.
My daughter had tongue tie and lip tie and I had no idea. She was nursing, I thought she was drinking, but I later found out she was barely pulling any milk at all!
Her first doctor appointment was at ten days old and she lost two pounds from birth. [The pediatrician] sent us to the hospital and my daughter was admitted to NICU for dehydration and dangerously high sodium levels (that they said could cause brain damage if it stayed there and also could cause brain damage if the level were brought down too quick so they had to be very strategic), due to the dehydration. I was devastated.
After starving at my breast for ten days then receiving a bottle my child wanted nothing to do with breastfeeding. She would scream when I even tried. She was safely released from the hospital after five days in the NICU. I was determined for her to receive my breast milk, so I pumped my milk for every single feed.
About one month later she got a minor surgery to fix her tongue tie and lip tie. At that point she still wanted nothing to do with feeding directly from the source. For five months I offered the breast, pumped all day everyday, struggled, she made progress, then regressed a few times, visited lactation consultants, tried everything in the world to make it work. Special shout out to my sis @lightbriite. When I was working to get my milk supply up with the complications with Mizana she pumped breast milk for me to supplement for a few days while I didn’t have enough. That meant so much and was such a huge help. THANK YOU again sis!
When she was five months she latched fully, had a full feeding directly from my breast and she never looked back. I still remember the excitement and relief of this moment. Pumping for every feed is GHETTO! Those five months were some of the most stressful, emotionally and physically draining times of my life. Even until this day I don’t even want to look at a pump 😂. But after five months of struggle she drank directly from the breast all the way up until right before she turned two. She was worth every bit of that struggle.
Fast forward to my son Faheem at two months nursing freely at mommy en blanc 2018 by @districtmotherhued . Something so simple meant so much to me. Being out and being able to throw him under my shirt or throw a cover on him and just nurse was soooo rewarding.
Faheem had a strong latch from day one and nursed until about three months past two years old.
Through the struggle I grew so much, through the struggle I learned so much. If it were not for that struggle, the smooth parts of my nursing journey with both children could not have been as rewarding as they were!
