Melanie Murphy is never one to shy away from sharing the highs and lows of motherhood.
Now, the Irish Youtuber is opening up about the struggles she felt when it came to breastfeeding her second child, after giving birth to her earlier this year.
Taking to Instagram to share her thoughts, Melanie said: “I CAN’T KEEP BREASTFEEDING HER!” – something I shouted through tears (twice!) during the last six weeks.”
“After breastfeeding my son for almost two years, I figured that breastfeeding my daughter would be a breeze.”
However, the mum of two quickly found out that was not the case this time around.
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“Her first latch in hospital took about five minutes. Almost every feed during the first two weeks was a battle, and the aftermath of every feed was incredibly overwhelming,” she added.
Melanie went out to explain how her “gorgeous little girl” began choking on her milk, crying from wind pain and spitting up which resulted in her having to feed her, even more, to replace what she had been losing.
It was after this that Melanie realised that had a bad oversupply. “Sometimes milk would just leak or spray everywhere, it was coming out way too fast for her the poor thing!”, she continued.
“But everyone I spoke to and everything I read said to stick with it, to try more positions/that my supply *would* level out … that she’d catch up. So I kept going!”
And that’s exactly what she did. After battling through many long evenings and tears, Melanie revealed that her little girl began “having the odd feed where she’d be calm afterwards.”
Six weeks postpartum, Melanie is finally enjoying breastfeeding her. “It’s been a big learning curve – for BOTH of us,” she wrote.
“I now fully see why so many people quit breastfeeding early on. If I hadn’t had a great experience once already, I 100% would have given up this time.”
Continuing: “But her little tummy and little mouth probably would have struggled just as much with bottles.”
Melanie soon came to the realisation that “she simply needed time” to learn how to eat.
“Every journey is different, even for the same pair of boobs,” she shared.
