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Meet the Momma: Katie
“In retrospect, I wish I would’ve thought and prepared way more about breastfeeding than I did,” shared Katie, a recent new momma to son Will. Though she planned to breastfeed from the get-go, she found herself focused more on the birth side of things than the feeding to follow.
“I remember in birthing class talking about what a latch is, but I wasn’t too concerned. ‘It’ll be natural, it’ll be fine.’ That was my mindset.” She was confident she’d breastfeed for a year, no question. “I didn’t consider the possibility that it could be hard,” she confided.
Things seemed to go according to that plan in the golden hour after her son Will’s arrival. He latched and ate, though Katie noticed a bit of discomfort with it all. Her midwife asked her if there was pain. “I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to feel? Was what we were doing right? Was it not?”
Through the haze of the magic first day, Katie and Will continued with breastfeeding. As the edges of reality began to seep back in, the pain remained Katie was certain that something was off.
Coming Home’s own Katie S. was on call as her nurse and employed her lactation consultant skills to determine that little Will had a tongue-tie and that a revision was likely the best bet. Katie and her husband Aaron opted to have the procedure done at the hospital and hoped that that would be the fix.
While that first revision was somewhat helpful, hurdles still remained. “We experienced every breastfeeding issue in the book,” Katie revealed.
Back at home, they sought out lactation guidance from the consultant at their pediatrician. “I knew his latch was shallow, and that I was still experiencing pain,” she recalled. Even with those concerns, she felt a bit dismissed as Will was still getting milk and his weight was trending positively.
She wasn’t discouraged though; she knew something had to give. Another week went by, and she next sought out care from a lactation consultant (LC) at the hospital where she delivered. It may have been a new LC, but it was the same story. They worked on different positions, but still not much concern was given to Katie’s pain as Will was gaining weight and thriving.
Things only got more complicated from there. “Will was suddenly fussier after feeds and had green poos,” revealed Katie. “I started to realize I may be dealing with an oversupply.”
Her mind went back to something her midwife had said when she learned Katie S. had been on rotation as Katie’s nurse. Something about an at-home LC service. She immediately reached out to Coming Home.
“Kelsey came over and stayed with me well beyond the hour appointment,” Katie recalled. “She was the first person to stick her hands in Will’s mouth and assess his tongue tie and latch.” Kelsey deduced that the little guy was using his jaw, and not his tongue, to drink and swallow and that this was likely the culprit of the discomfort and other issues. She left Katie and Aaron with exercises to help Will start to use his tongue more.
While Katie hoped for smooth sailing from there, a surprise second visit was needed to help her overcome a bout of mastitis. With that battle overcome, there was still trouble ahead as Will suddenly began refusing the breast and bottle after having seen marked improvement in his feedings. “I remember asking ‘what am I doing wrong?!’,” she shared.
While Will had his tongue tie clipped in the hospital, it was a very conservative clip. At their third appointment, Kelsey deduced that more of a correction was likely needed and referred Will to a pediatric dentist as well to Hinde Haa, a speech and swallowing specialist.
“It was a lot. The end of June and beginning of July were REALLY hard for all of us,” Katie said. “At different points, I thought about throwing in the towel and giving up breast feeding.” Will wasn’t able to feed efficiently on the bottle, and Katie was still committed to her goal, so they stayed the course.
While progress initially felt slow with Hinde, they were seeing a marked improvement by their third visit. Coupled with a more precise and appropriate tongue-tie revision, their feeding journey was back on track. Eight and half months in and Will is now an amazing eater, Katie has no pain with latch and their little family is thriving on their breastfeeding journey.
“My proudest nursing moment came after those hard summer months. We’d been stuck at home, captive to our feeding routines and wanting to prioritize that need,” she shared. “Then, in late July, after our referral to Hinde and seeing so much progress with our feeds we took a leap of faith and went to the beach for a weekend. It felt like that natural experience I’d envisioned at the beginning.”
Reflecting on her experience, she’s still surprised how much she had to advocate for herself to get the right care. “It really shocked me. Aaron and I are educated people, and I really felt like the appropriate resources weren’t given to us,” she revealed. “We had to seek them out through Katie and Kelsey and really dig in. There’s so much more to a child’s wellbeing and a mother’s wellbeing than the child gaining weight.”
“I can’t say enough just how thankful we are for both Katie and Kelsey,” she gushed. “Katie was an incredible nurse who cared for us so well while we were in the hospital, and our family absolutely adores Kelsey. I honestly would not have made it past 1 month of nursing without Kelsey's care and help. I've recommended Coming Home to every new mom I know because I truly believe the work they’re doing is so important!”
Now back at work, Katie’s feeding experience involves a new element—pumping. Her advice? Take the time that you need. “At first, I wouldn’t take the full 15 minutes I needed, and my supply started to go down. Once I took the actual time, it went back up immediately,” she said. She now considers herself to be an advocate for women being provided the nursing accommodations that they need.
And while she finds the process a bit inconvenient–looking at you pump part cleaning–she also feels that it’s all so worth it. “Pumping breast milk for Will to have while I’m working is the most tangible way to love my child while I am not with him.”