Hey guys, welcome back to my channel!
In this video, I'm going to be physically
showing you how to use a silicone breast pump
and the nipple shield.
For a little more information on the products
that I show in this video today and why I
used them, I've gone ahead and linked my breastfeeding
essentials video down in the description box
below for you and be sure to stick around
for the entire video because at the end, I'm
going to go ahead and explain to you guys
a little bit how I weaned my son off the nipple
shield at about 2 - 2.5 months.
If you haven't seen my breastfeeding essentials
video, I actually used the Nature Bond silicone
pump, but this method works with the Haakaa
or any of those other silicone pumps out there.
It's the same technique.
What you're going to do, is you just flip
it completely inside out.
You want your nipple to be in the center,
but a little bit higher because you kind of
want it to be pointing up and you don't want
your nipple to touch the walls at all because
it'll prevent those milk ducts from releasing
milk.
Now, it's really important that if you have
any nursing cream (like lanolin cream) on
your breast, that you go ahead and grab a
burping cloth and wipe it all off, so that
this doesn't slide off of your breast.
So, I'm going to go ahead and flip this inside
out, squeeze as much out as I possibly can,
set that on there, make sure that it's centered,
flip it and right now that is the perfect
latch.
It's not really touching the sides at all,
but if I needed to, I could just turn this
like that, or like that and if I really wanted
to, I could just take it off and re-latch
it again.
No big deal at all.
Just make sure that you've got a nice latch
because it's important that all of the milk
comes out of all of those milk ducts.
You can actually use this in two ways.
First of all, you can just throw it on one
of your breasts while your baby is breastfeeding,
so that you're catching milk and building
up your storage supply while you're breastfeeding
and you don't have to take the extra time
to pump.
Even though I had originally planned to put
this on my breast and just do it all together,
it was easier for me to take the time separately
once he went to sleep.
I would put this on one breast and then I
grabbed my Medela Harmony handheld manual
pump and I would pump on this side and then
let this get all of my letdown.
So, I only had to pump one breast.
This usually would take me about 5-10 minutes.
I would just sit there and watch a show or
something and then this would get all of the
letdown on the other side and then I would
move this over and I would just get any of
the remainder.
Most of the time, there was really nothing
left.
This would get everything out and then I would
have everything out on this side and I would
just combine this into my storage bottle and
put that in the refrigerator and both of these
are so easy to clean.
This is the Medela nipple shield and there's
a little opening right here, so that baby's
nose can touch your skin and inspire a faster
letdown.
You're just going to push it in and I would
do more than halfway, to where there's a little
bit of a nub still there and then you're going
to put that on your nipple and it's going
to pop on.
I always used my lanolin nipple cream to kind
of glue it on there because this would just
fall right off.
Even though it was suctioned onto my nipple
and it would draw it in, it would always just
fall off when the baby would pull off.
Milk will get everywhere: always have a breastfeeding
rag available because these things are a little
bit messy.
You have it in like that, set it right there
on your nipple and then I wouldn't put in
on straight where that little curve it right
there, I would put it to the side because
that's where I would hold him in a cross cradle
and that's where I wanted his nose to be:
right here, the way I would hold him.
It depends on the position you have your baby
in.
If you're doing a football hold, you'd want
it to be like right here, but I would do the
opening a little bit tilted.
Set it on your nipple, push and pop on just
like that and like I said, if there's no cream,
it's just going to peel right off and if you're
in excruciating pain, it actually hurts to
pop it on like that.
So when I was in a lot of pain, I just put
on the cream and I would literally just set
it on there.
Now, that's obviously not going to draw your
nipple in for baby, but as your baby sucks,
it's going to pull your nipple in.
It'll just make the letdown happen a little
bit slower because your nipple's not already
in there, but obviously if you're in pain,
you don't want to force yourself to be in
agony.
Another tip: I actually would use my pump
directly on the shield like that.
Even though it's not going to get as much
milk out and it's probably going to take longer
for you to get a letdown, it's not going to
be yanking your whole entire nipple into that
pump because the pump is pulling, pulling,
pulling on your nipple and this has a barrier,
to where it's not pulling it in that much.
Don't put a lot of pressure on yourself to
get off the shield and rush your baby.
If the shield is working, yes it's a little
bit inconvenient when you're out... okay,
let’s be real: it's really inconvenient
because you don't want to be having people
looking at you with the nipple shield, but
if your baby is getting breast milk and it
works and you're not dealing with those blistered
nipples, just coast through it.
Let your baby grow a little bit more, let
their mouth grow a little bit more because
if you have flat or inverted nipples, the
shield really helps them to get that latch
and if you're in pain, you don't want yourself
to get defeated and just quit breastfeeding.
For those couple months, it was my rule that
I would have him latch on my actual nipple
(even though he'd fight it and he'd cry and
I'd just put the shield right back on).
My rule was that I would have him exposed
to the nipple once a day.
During the day when he woke up and he was
hungry , I would latch him onto the shield,
make sure that he was really into it (settled
and getting what he wanted) and then I'd pull
him off, rip off the shield really fast and
put him right back on.
Don't make it a tedious process, just make
it really fast and put him right back on,
so you barely interrupt that sucking.
The first time that I really saw him actually
suck, he sucked for like a full minute before
complaining: that was when I knew that he
was ready.
I just started out a few feedings a day and
then throughout the course of several days,
I upped it to every single feeding.
This included the night feedings.
Once I saw that he was able to start latching
every single feeding and he was actually being
able to stay on without getting upset, after about
a week and a half he was completely weaned
off of the shield: for I believe it was about
a day and a half total.
He had not used the shield and I was cracked.
I was sore, I was suffering just like in the
beginning.
It was all over again.
Every time he latched, I would look up to
the heavens like, "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh
my God..."
Just agonizing pain, the worst pain.
So, I went back to just not using the shield
during all of his night feedings.
So, half of the day I was getting a break
and then the other half of the day, I was
continuing to expose him during a full feed
of not using the shield.
So he was learning that we don't use the shield
at night, but we do during the day and then
as my nipples healed, I was able to finally
wean him off.
Not every baby's the same.
It may take your baby a day, or a couple days.
For me, because of my letdown issue because
of my implants, it definitely took longer
and I wasn't ready.
He was ready, he actually was ready, I couldn't
believe it.
He was doing fantastic, but I had to take
a step back and give myself a break.
If your baby starts to whine, I always would
put the shield back on.
I never wanted it to be a place of torment.
I want my breast, I want my chest...
Mommy's arms, to always be a home base for
my son.
I don't want it to be a place of torture,
where he's like, "I want my milk, I want my
milk and you're not giving it to me."
Don't make it a stressful experience and your
baby is going to feed off of your energy.
If you're in excruciating pain, just use the
shield because your baby's going to feel you
tensing and that's also not good for your
milk letdown.
So, just stay relaxed and if your baby is
frustrated and not latching onto you, just
try it the next feeding.
Don't push him too hard.
I mean, he's just a little baby.
If you're new here, this is the second video
of my breastfeeding series.
Like I mentioned before, my breastfeeding
essentials video is linked down below if you
want to catch up and if you liked this video,
please give it a big thumbs up and subscribe
to my channel and turn on your bell notification
for those future breastfeeding videos and
I will see you next time!
