8 weeks today

[mumto2bubs]

My baby boy is 8 weeks today!

Breastfeeding!

For the first 5 weeks my lo (9lb 2oz at birth) fed constantly I was stuck on the couch nursing. Not easy as I have three daughters to look after, and although all independant, my youngest is still too small to get on and off the loo by herself, so difficult at times.

I am self employed business owner (florist) and Xmas is one of our busy spells. I had to ensure Blair would take a bottle as my mum. Would be looking after him for 4 days and nights. So had been expressing and storing for him. I also made sure he was ok with formula ( aptimil) incase my mum needed to top up feeds.

When I was working, I was so busy I was only managing to find time to express once every 24 hours as shifts were 17 hours long.

When I got my children back on Xmas eve, I found that my milk supply had diminished, and Blair is a very hungry boy ( 11lb 5 at 6 weeks) so was having to give a few more formula bottles than I would like.

I had to take a course of antibiotics, and as a result my poor wee man got oral thrush, and thrush on his bum. The pain caused when feeding, was horrific, as the oral thrush stream to my nipples. We got nystatin for him and canes ten cream for me, started to clear his wee mouth but the pain was still there.

I was near to giving up, but the guilt of not bf him when I had bf all of my girls made me continue. Although I knew in myself I wasn't filling him, I kept feeding then after he was bf, I topped up with 5 oz formula.

We are now back on track. Breastfeeding well, and after feeding I've been expressing to make sure I get my supply back up to what he needs.

I can express after a feed 7 /9 oz.

My big boy is thriving and when he does take a bottle he takes 9 oz easily.

JUST WANTED TO GIVE YOU A SUCCESS STORY, because I know how disheartening it can be suffering with pain, and also not having enough of a supply.

Just remember that any amount of breast milk you can give your baby is great for them, you can always feed with formula afterwards. Keep expressing whenever you can to improve supply. Putting some nipple cream on before expressing will help with any pain you experience.

KEEP GOING IF YOU CAN!!! Your doing a great job .

K x

 

[KellyC89]

Just wanted to say thankyou for this post! My LO is 6 1/2 weeks and I have been really struggling with bf recently. He was in an incubator for a week when he was born so I didn't get to grips with bf him in that week as I had to express for him so the nurses could feed him. I then continued bf and after a week or so my supply caught up to his demand - though I was in so much pain! Anyway about a week and a half ago he got bronchiolitis and wouldn't breastfeed as he was struggling to breathe. He was admitted to hospital for 5 days so for about a week we couldn't bf until he was better (they needed to monitor feeds etc). We've been bf since he's been home from hospital but it has been so hard. I've found he's never full from me and I've been having to give him a bit of a top up whether it's expressed milk or formula. He just wants to be feeding all the time. It's just nice to here a success story of someone who managed to get their supply back! I thought it was only a matter of time before my supply completely dwindled but this has given me hope to continue! Thanks x

P.S. your boy is just scrummy!

 

[purple_pianos]

Gorgeous baby and lovely story - thanks xxx

 

[Pixel]

Lovely story, congrats on doing so well! X

 

[BBaby]

Thanku for this! I am 2 weeks in and must admit it's been difficult!

Baby wouldn't latch on in hospital so I had to express the colostrum into 1 ml syringes!

Then the first night at home I was hand expressing into a tiny pot getting max 10ml in about 30mins .... I was close to cracking and had a major meltdown when I gave her a bottle of formula.

Since then I've been expressing a couple of times a day (100 ml out of one boob in 5 mins and 50 from the other ), giving one expressed bottle a day and the rest on the boob!

Our baby is still jaundice and again when constantly being told breast milk prolongs jaundice I've been close to giving up!

..... But our baby is now almost bk to her birth weight so I'm sticking with it xxx