Solitaire wrote to us to tell us about her difficult 4th pregnancy and how hiring the Spectra S2 breast pump helped her to feed her 4th child, who suffers from a tongue tie and latching problems. Her story starts by saying –
Spectra S2 where have you been all my life…..
Being sick during pregnancy isn’t new for me. I have suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum during each of my 4 pregnancies, and have had to take an arm full of medications every day to get me through each one. This pregnancy I wasn’t as sick and thought things were great.
Then, at 28 weeks I began to itch uncontrollably in my hands, the soles of my feet, my back, my scalp and inside my ears. Nothing much relieved the itch – I had Phenergan, but it didn’t help much, and I would walk around with a hairbrush to scratch my skin with. Living in Central Queensland, I found the heat just aggravated the itch too. I was diagnosed with cholestasis, and I didn’t realise how bad the outcome could be if left un-monitored.
I thought I was mentally a lot better prepared for this birth, until I was informed by my local hospital that this time, due to my health issues, I would need to give birth in Brisbane, 900km away from my family and friends. I was told I would need to relocate from 35 weeks (having never made it to 38 weeks with my previous pregnancies). The doctors didn’t want to take any chances.
So – I battled on with the itching, the Hyperemesis gravidarum, and being away from my family, and eventually gave birth to a healthy boy, Isaac, at 37 weeks, after a very fast 36 minute labour.
Being my fourth child I knew the importance of establishing my supply. I have never managed to successfully breast feed but had exclusively expressed for my previous two children until they were 6 months. The thought of being attached to either of my two Medela pumps for hours on end wasn’t all that inspiring, but I promised myself I could do it, even if it was just for 6 weeks. Isaac was born with tongue, upper lip and buccal ties. By the time Isaac was 4 weeks old I could no longer sustain his feeding needs just from breastfeeding, and with his tongue tie issues, it became extremely painful. It was clear that I needed to break out my loud, vibrating, and slow Medela again. No matter how much water I drank or how many lactation cookies I ate, or any of the other ways to boost your supply I tried, I could see I was starting to lose my supply so I started researching alternative pumps. That’s when I came across the Spectra S2.
I just had to try it, but hubby wasn’t sure I needed a third pump! That’s when I found Sweet Beats, the best day of my life. I could hire the pump without the guilt of buying another pump that wasn’t up to standard. Not only is the Spectra S2 above and beyond my expectations, I have managed to pump more volume then I ever have, in a quarter of the time. Its night light is such a handy feature, there isn’t the nipple vibration that the other pumps have and as a result my nipples are healing – before I found pumping made them just as irritated as breastfeeding did…
The other outstanding part of the Spectra S2 is the noise, or should I say the LACK of it. Recently I was at a seminar on tongue tie and the speaker had to stop part way through to ask what the sudden distracting noise she could hear was. It was a lady hiding behind a screen at the back of the room expressing with another brand of pump!! At the end of the day the speaker (along with a few midwives and other mums) came and asked me about the Spectra, as I had expressed within 10 meters of the speaker multiple times that day, and she hadn’t heard a thing. I can pump in the warmth of bed at night and I don’t wake my hubby or baby either!
My only regret is that I took two weeks trying to decided if I really wanted to try it and didn’t just jump in sooner…
Thank you Sweet Beats and Spectra!