Breastfeeding help please!

[Claire123]

Eilidh is 11 days old now. Up until 2 days ago she was getting expressed milk along with top ups of formula as she wouldnt latch on. Anyway....2 days ago we cracked the latching on and since then has been totally breast fed. I am struggling a bit as when she was getting bottles we were in a nice wee routine of feeding every 3/4 hours whereas now she seems to be alot hungrier and I am having to feed as and when she wants fed.

Through the night she wakens for a feed, has a good feed, falls asleep on the breast and lets go of my nipple. I go to put her down and after about 5 mins she is stirring and her mouth open, sucking fingers etc looking to be fed again. With the formula it was feed, wind, change and straight back down to sleep.

Just looking for any reassurance/advice from mummys who have been through this! I have wondered if a dummy would be aby use to settle her after a feed? Or I am tempted to try formula through the night just to get some sleep? but dont know if its a good idea!

 

[knopk@]

If you used formula top ups before, its very likely she is trying to "order" more milk for herself by feeding more often. Your prolactin levels are at highest at night unfortunately.
Do you change her nappy before or after the feed? Might be worth changing as she is about to fall asleep to see if she will feed more after that?

How often does she feed during the day and at night? How long for? Do you switch breasts at one feed?

 

[twinkles]

Well done on preserving! Fair play!!

Lo is building your supply, it won't go on forever but your body needs to know how much milk to make and lo is working on it! Very clever! It calms down around 4/6 weeks, there is a growth spurt around 4 weeks so you may find lo is constantly feeding hours on end but it does get better!

Rather than formula, can you still express and get oh to feed to give u a little break?

I let B feed until she's nearly fallen asleep then tickle her hand ur foot to get her to take as much as possible before putting her down, is it possible lo is waking up because if wind?

Keep going your doing fab! X

 

[mrswoody]

Well done for keeping at the bf it isn't easy in the beginning!
Like the other ladies have said LO will be establishing your supply so that your body knows what she wants how much she wants and when. It will settle down.

Keep it up xx

 

[dyscochick]

Well done for getting this far. Unfortunately this is one of the down sides of bf. I always change LO between boobs to wake him up, that helps. I also found my LO likes sucking and using the boob for comfort. We resorted to a dummy and actually it works to calm him down if he isn't genuinely hungry. I went through a phase of constant feeding and let it happen for a while but found he was 'napping and snacking' rather than eating and sleeping. I forced him to go 3 hours between feeds ( hard work but you could start with 2h) with a friend here for support and lots of walking, distraction, and with that he went back into proper eating and sleeping every 3h. Evenings it is sometimes feeding at 2h intervals. I found the hand sucking a complete red herring for feeding cues unless now he spits his dummy out or it's 3h x

 

[Mrs Wibbily]

Just what everyone else has said.. I just wanted to say well done, you're doing a fantastic job. not easy to do but you seem like you're getting the hang of it. If you expressed a bottle before bed oh could give her that and then it would be change bottle and straight to sleep?xx

 

[Claire123]

Thanks for all the replies things are alot better now! I think I was a bit premature in writing up the thread....it was all a shock to the system after the bottles lol. Now I know just to go with Eilidh, when she is hungry I feed....i can feel in the past week my supply has deffinatley increased. She is putting on weight and having plenty nappys so Im confident we are doing well! I am so glad I persivered with the boob, It would have been so easy to say 'she cant latch on, so I cant breast feed' but once we got the knack of it its no problem now. This post is a bit of a ramble lol, but anyway thanks for the advice and encouragment! Xx

 

[Karate Kid]

Well done Hun it's tough at the beginning but so worth it and so convenient! Xx

 

[dyscochick]

Well done Hun! Been there and it's stressful but worth it when you get the other side xxx