To refer to an e-mail from my friend Sue - you'd think that since women have been nursing for thousands of years that it would be more instinctual and easier! I really did think that nursing was going to be easier. Not that I thought that it would be a complete walk in the park, but I did think it would be slightly easier than it has been. I guess that I had only ever seen people nursing their 4-5 month olds with no trouble and figuring that it was always like that. How wrong I was! I absolutely love nursing when it works...but it has been frustrating sometimes and I can see how some people can't handle the frustration. Luckily I'm determined and have Steve for support and my family for support too. We had a lactation consultant come to visit us yesterday to help us along this path. She was fantastic!!! It was great to have someone else's opinion, especially someone who specializes in breastfeeding. She explained and showed proper latching and also showed me how you don't have to hold the baby in a perfect position - the baby will find their comfortable leg/body position. So right now I'm not using my nursing pillow, but probably will down the road, especially for some elbow support since I'm still a little awkward.
I consider us very lucky to be living in a city since I've been having these issues surrounding nursing. First, our midwife was able to help us when all my milk came in and we're lucky to have access to midwifery care here in Ottawa. Second, we were able to rent a pump from Shoppers Home Health Care for a great price and it's hospital grade. Third, we were able to have a lactation consultant come and do a home visit. Fourth, there are breastfeeding drop-ins all around the city from Monday-Saturday that are free of charge, you just have to get there early. We're thinking about going to one tomorrow morning because I feel like the more support and encouragement that we can get in this process, the better!
Today we went to CHEO for an ortho consult about Quinn's left foot. From 18 weeks along in the pregnancy we were told that the ultrasound showed a clubfoot appearance. Actually, they originally thought that both feet were affected so we had a follow-up at 21 weeks and this ultrasound showed that it was only the left foot that was affected. We actually had 7 ultrasounds total throughout the pregnancy - 4 extra ones after the 18 week ultrasound - to evaluate her foot...that's a whole other story! Anyway, there is no way to determine severity on ultrasound - we just had to wait until she was born for this assessment. So when she was born, she was assessed by our midwife and also by a pediatrician at the Montfort. The pediatrician said that she believed that it was only mild and would refer us to CHEO (the children's hospital in Ottawa) for ortho. Today was this appointment and the ortho doctor confirmed that it was only a mild case of clubfoot - her foot is actually quite flexible and can be maneuvered almost back to the proper position. Because of this, the doctor recommended a soft fiberglass cast to start since it's easier to deal with than plaster. The method of treatment is called the Ponsetti method - it's a series of serial casts to correct the foot. We're going to be taking Quinn every week for up to 8 weeks to CHEO to get a new cast put on. I'm hoping that they'll let us keep the casts so we can see the progression! Quinn handled the cast a lot better than I did watching her get it put on!
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