Luisa's Story

by Luisa Lukaszewski

In March 1997, my 1st son Johnathan was born right on schedule. He seem to be catching on to nursing just fine in the hospital. At three days old we took him home. That night in my arms he stopped breathing. Daddy did CPR, paramedics came to our home and we went to the children's hospital.

There they did all sorts of tests on his little body to determine the cause. Nothing. They later told us that it was a SIDS episode. In the meantime he had stopped nursing. I pumped at the hospital and gave him bottles of my milk, but my dream of nursing my son seemed to be fading. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days and he still couldn't get the hang of it. We went home with a heart rate monitor on him.

Frustrated and disappointed I called my mom and the lactation consultant from our breastfeeding class. Bonnie was wonderful! We worked together all 4 of us for over and hour. We tried everything! John just couldn't get the hang of it. He finally took a little milk from the medicine cup and fell asleep exhausted. Bonnie encouraged me to keep trying and left. At his next feeding I tried the nipple shield again and he went to town. There was no stopping my little trooper. It was difficult to nurse in public with him I agree. I did nurse him often in the car too. We used it for three months and then I tried one day without it and he never used it again. He nursed for over a year.

When my second son Peter was born two years later his tongue was tied and Bonnie came to my rescue again. We tried all the tricks again and again I settled on the nipple shield. Peter caught on to the idea and we used until he was three months old too. Then it was gone and he nursed for more than a year also.

Next came Christopher, who is now 6 mos. old. They say the 3rd time is a charm. Well, Chris latched on that first day and nursed for 40 minutes. He had no problem at all. For all those mom's who want to nurse, I say don't give up. With help it can happen. I have also worked full time since Johnathan was 9 mos. old. My children have never had formula. I am so glad for that.