Originally Posted by
Green22
OP here, checking back and saying thank you for all the responses.
It turns out that the person who did the hospital tour for us must have really been pushing her own agenda, because the hospital was very accommodating. I got zero push back on not nursing (at all, not even immediately after birth), and they did have a nursery that the nurses regularly asked if we wanted to use.
Just in case anyone is in the same boat, when we went to the hospital, we tried the regular milk based formula. The hospital provided it. She was spitting up a ton, and before we left the hospital pediatrian put her on soy. We stayed on that for a good week, but still had really bad reflux symptoms. Our ped moved her to Elimentum and she has been a dream since then.
Not nursing was the right choice for me and her. I would have spent so much time trying to determine if/what foods I should eliminated, and I would have chalked a lot of the issues up to nursing or latching issues. I imagine I would have seen the lactation consultant and generally worried myself sick over it (as I did with the other 2). Right now I have a happy 7 week old who drinks every last but of her bottles, smiles constantly and sleeps for 5-6 hour stretches at night. A lot of this is just dumb luck and her personality, and I think a lot of it is her feeding off my happiness. Just adding this because I did feel like in some of the responses were nicely pushing for just trying to nurse, which I understand and was struggling with (having been an exclusive nursing mamma before). I pumped for the first 5 days and froze the milk, second guessing myself, and sobbed each time. The day I decided to stop, things changed for me and we're totally happy. So just a different perspective for those who might be in a similar situation.