Breast feeding and formula feeding???*long post*

[Lyndsey]

Hello everyone..

I am getting a little desperate and need some advice.

Logan has been defined as a hungry baby! lol he was born at 8lb 6 dropped to 8lb 2 and is now 9lb 6- 15 days after being born!
He constantly wants feeding and I have found myself permanantly attached to him for hours on end.( he seems to be a bit lazy and constantly fallas asleep so I wake him and he continues to suck) .... this evening he began to feed at 5 and stopped at 9... ( he would fall asleep on one breast and then wake and want more after about 5 minutes)

I am begining to get sore from the frequency of feeding -i do not have craked nipples or thrush anything and I am using Kamillosan. The health visitor has said that he is just a hungry baby and he will settle down in a few weeks but my trouble is I don't know if I can last a couple more weeks.

I am so tired and want to be able to have a break. I am not able to eat properley either as he always seems most hunggry when I am trying to have food!!

I have managed to express some breast milk ( to try and get hubby to feed him) but this is proving difficult as he is attached for most of the day so I cannot get to my boobs to express anything! ( I have about 6oz frozen at the min and this has been collected over 1 week.)

My question is - I have seen a few posts on here about people giving additional bottles of formula and I was wondering when could this be started and do people think it is a good idea. If its not a good idea does anyone have any suggestions about what I can do to persevere. I am dead keen to continue breast feeding and would love to keep it up for at least another couple of weeks but at this rate I won't be able to.

As always all responses gratefully recieved!

 

[skatty]

Hi, I can't give any advice on when to introduce formula but just wanted to say well done, its so challenging at the beginning. Also does your opposite boob leak while feeding from the other? If so avent have breast shells which collect the milk, in the beginning I could collect a few oz this way.

In the beginning I was also constantly hungry and thirsty so when I was on my own I would make up sandwiches and keep them in the fridge so I'd always have something on hand. I was eating dried fruit and nuts too as I could eat them while feeding.

I'm sure someone will be along soon to answer your questions, it really will settle down in the next few weeks but I know the days feel really long right now.

 

[Lyndsey]

Skatty yes the opposite boob leaks so thanks for suggesting the shells - I will look for these now!

yes the days are very long especially when you seem to get no break whatso ever........

 

[budge]

Hello everyone..

I am getting a little desperate and need some advice.

Logan has been defined as a hungry baby! lol he was born at 8lb 6 dropped to 8lb 2 and is now 9lb 6- 15 days after being born!
He constantly wants feeding and I have found myself permanantly attached to him for hours on end.( he seems to be a bit lazy and constantly fallas asleep so I wake him and he continues to suck) .... this evening he began to feed at 5 and stopped at 9... ( he would fall asleep on one breast and then wake and want more after about 5 minutes)

I am begining to get sore from the frequency of feeding -i do not have craked nipples or thrush anything and I am using Kamillosan. The health visitor has said that he is just a hungry baby and he will settle down in a few weeks but my trouble is I don't know if I can last a couple more weeks.

I am so tired and want to be able to have a break. I am not able to eat properley either as he always seems most hunggry when I am trying to have food!!

I have managed to express some breast milk ( to try and get hubby to feed him) but this is proving difficult as he is attached for most of the day so I cannot get to my boobs to express anything! ( I have about 6oz frozen at the min and this has been collected over 1 week.)

My question is - I have seen a few posts on here about people giving additional bottles of formula and I was wondering when could this be started and do people think it is a good idea. If its not a good idea does anyone have any suggestions about what I can do to persevere. I am dead keen to continue breast feeding and would love to keep it up for at least another couple of weeks but at this rate I won't be able to.

As always all responses gratefully recieved!

my advice as i am assuming you want to keep breastfeeding is it to continue feeding him. Its early days and he will feed frequently until your milk settles down. i wouldn't introduce a dummy or bottle yet.
can't you lay down on your bed with a dvd and some food around you and feed him. Get your mum or hubby or whoever to run around after you for a few days.
Fook the housework and anything else. Get someoneelse to do it.
Try and relax. If you are hett up baby will be too. Make sure you don't drink anything too high in caffiene and avoid chocolate too. Thiese things will make bubba grumpy.
Eat high calorie foods for a few days to boost your milk supply and do as little as possible.

 

[Urchin]

This is such a personal descision but I will try and give you some advice:

If you are keen to breastfeed long term, I would not introduce a bottle now BUT if it's a case of combining the 2 or switching totally to formula then obviously I would consider a top up bottle.

The problem you will have if you introduce a bottle is it WILL affect your breastmilk supply, and then you may struggle to bring your supply back up.
It is normal to feed a lot in the early weeks, Mason was a big baby too and it was very hard at first, it's true what you have been told, it will settle down.

Are you trying to keep him awake when he feeds, tickling his toes and not letting him get too cosy?

As budge says, settle down in bed or in front of a movie, get everything you need close to hand, and enjoy this precious time you have with your baby.

As far as the cracked nipples go, try leaving a bit of breastmilk on them, lamisiloh is supposed to be a great nipple cream too. Your nipples WILL toughen up by the way, soon you will hardly feel a thing when he feeds.

What ever you decide, I'm sure it will be the right choice for YOU so go with your instincts, they can't be wrong.

Good luck


xx

 

[Tasha20]

Olivia is very demanding also and has put on 8oz in a week ( so chuffed ) and like you it means they are getting what they need.

The constant feeding is your bubba trying to up your milk supply which means by 6 weeks or so your bubba will start to settle into a routine as they milk is mature

Olivia mainly feeds at night so I feel like a zombie, the HV told me she feeds more at night because at night the milk has more nutriants ( she knows whats good for her this one )

But I know by 6 weeks it will stettle, I know its hard, but its soooo worth it in the end.

But do what you feel will be best for you and bubba hunny and only you both know that.

 

[Tasha20]

Also I highly reccomend lying down and feeding, bubba sleeps longer and you get abit of kip too.

 

[Lucy]

Congratulations on the birth of your Son.

Well done on your son's minimal weight loss. That really is fabulous as breastfed babies tend to lose a lot more in the early days and with him only loosing 4 oz and now being 1 lb more than birth weight at only 15 days old is really amazing. (My neice is 5 wks old and yesterday was 1lb more than her birthweight!).

You've been given lots of great advice on here. I'd also say that the early days are very tiring as your baby has been all cosy and snuggled up in your womb for 9 months and now is also probably suckling for comfort as well as feeding. Are you swaddling him? Have you tried him in a swing and a sling? These things helped to settle my baby Olivia when she was very young and I expressed some milk whilst she fed from one boob for my DH to give her in a bottle early evening so I could get to bed for a few hours.

It will settle down soon, if you want to persevere don't give formula top ups yet, you could also try giving him some expressed milk from a cup (something small like the lid of a bottle) to avoid nipple confusion.
Make sure you get lots of skin to skin contact as well, this will help boost your supply.

All the best,

Lucy

 

[Lyndsey]

Thank you All for your responses.

I am feeling much more positive now. We haven't given any formula but I have begun to express so that hubby is able to give an extra feed ( although we haven't actually used any of the expressed milk yet!) I had a chat with my health visitor and we will try the cup to avoid the nipple confusion if I feel I can't cope.

I am so keen to continue to breast feed and I am so glad that I am able to get support from this forum. It has been very difficult these past few weeks. I am trying to deal with a very traumatic birth as well as the demands of breast feeding and I think it all got to me. But like I said I feel more positive about it all now.

I love my time with Logan and feel that I am doing everything I can for him, it is not difficult to breast feed just hard work and tiring!

Budge theank you for your response re: chocolate! I hadn't thought about this and I had been eating the last of the christmas stash!

Skatty - Thank you for suggesting the shells they are now on order!

Tasha urchin and Lucy thanx for your support

 

[violet-glow]

I know im going to get on a few peoples nerves by saying this but I was the same as you. I was so enger to breastfeed, but Elora was always attatched to my boob and would only feed for a couple of mins at a time before falling asleep. My boobs were getting VERY sore and even started bleeding a couple of times.

How you feed your baby is your own personal choice and no matter anyones opinion how you feed your baby is up to you.

I found breastfeeding very hard and upsetting at times. As much as I wanted to breastfeed my baby all the time, I just couldnt do it so introduced formula aswell as breast. Elora was having formula at night and breast throughout the day. It was amazing the difference it made. My boobs would have a rest at night and have time to recover. It brought back my confidence again and slowly ive stopped giving Elora formula. She doesnt have it much at all now. If I hadnt have used formula I think I would have cracked up by now. I didnt want to use both, but it worked for me.

I didnt think that my boobs would stop hurting when Elora feeds, but they did and breastfeeding has become a happy bonding time between me and my baby... I dont dread her crying out for a feed anymore.

If your baby is will to take both breast and formula and thats what you want to do, then dont let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Hang in there hun ...it does get better xx

 

[Nicky_Jones]

We used a bottle from very early on with EBM and didn't get any nipple confusion. I had problems in the first fews days with flat nipples and then engorged breast and the only way I got around it until I could get to the breast feeding support clinich was to express of the milk. My mistake in the long run was to stop periodically giving her the bottle as she then didn't want to take it when I needed to go back to work. Do not be afraid to visit a breast feeding support group near you. They are very helpful and it often helps just to have somebody to talk to.

 

[Hypnorm]

Everything you have said, sounds completely normal.
I felt ewan was attached to me all the time and it was worse in the evenings, sometimes we would cup feed him, and i had to use nipple shields in the beginning as he couldnt latch on properly.
At times i would be in tears i was so tired and just wanted to give him forumla we tried but he would not accept it.

Then at 3 months hubby had hiim for the evening but her would not take a bottle so i had to come home early.

Next time i think i will bf for a month and then once my milk is stable stat giving a bottle at random times during the day and expressing what would have been a feed.

Good luck! its tough but well worth it if you persevere!