handbagqueen
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Hi all,
been a bit stressful over the last week here as my little princess hasn't taken to the breast at all.
After a very stressful 4 days of no sleep and constant contractions, when she was born i tried to have skin to skin and get her to latch on herself but there was a useless midwife who wouldn't listen to my request for skin to skin and dressed her up and then when i finally got her on me my nipples were flat and she came along and said 'ooohh, you have flat nipples, you won't be able to bf, you'll have to get nipple shields'!! I couldn't believe she actually said this to me- I have never had flat nipples in my life- i think it was just cos i ws so drained and stressed.
I went up to my room and tried to latch her on again but had to really pinch and pull my boob to get it in her- a few midwives came in to help and we managed to get enough in her.
Still had a few problems the next day but i just put it down to tiredness and constant interuptions from various visitors so went home to try in our own environment. My 2 sisters came home with us to try and help but she slept for most of the evening so they couldn't really do much.
That night- and the next were awful, she would not settle in her carry cot and my dh and i had to take turns to hold her all night- we were shattered and not sure what we were doing wrong. She would only feed for 7 minutes at a time and then fell asleep, then she just wasn't latching on again so we thought she just wanted comfort sucking- so gave her a dummy (something I really didn;t want to do). This meant she was finally going down so we could get a bit of sleep each. But she was so unsettled and would wake constantly in the night.
When she was first weighed by the midwife at home she had only lost a little bit of weight, but when she was a week old i noticed that she was looking really pale and gaunt, she used to have such chubby cheeks but they had gone completely. It scared the hell out of me and i kept saying to everyone that she was wasting away but they all said i was being silly. when the midwife came on monday she noticed too and was really concerned- turns out she had lost 850g! Mw said to go on aptamil straightaway and that if she hadn't put on weight by weds she would have to go to hospital and go on a drip.
I was devastated, i didn't realise that she wasn't getting enough from me to that much of an extent. everyone kept telling me it was alright. mw came again yesterday as she was so concerned but saw that she looked alot fuller already- she said she was relieved as she was going to admit her if there hadn't been an improvement. She came again just now and weighed her and shes put on 300g so the formula is working thank god.
I'm still pumping to try and get my milk supply up as I think she was just getting so frustrated at the lack of supply eventually that she was too tired and worked up to eat. Now part of me wants to just give up on the bf'ing in case it happens again and then part of me feels so guilty for thinking like this and it has only been 11 days since she was born so i feel like i shouldn't give up but the stress has just been lifted slightly using the bottles. she's so much more content now that shes finally getting fed- the poor thing- i feel like i've failed her already making her suffer like that i couldn't bear it if it happened again.
Just wanted to get this off my chest so don't expect replies.
been a bit stressful over the last week here as my little princess hasn't taken to the breast at all.
After a very stressful 4 days of no sleep and constant contractions, when she was born i tried to have skin to skin and get her to latch on herself but there was a useless midwife who wouldn't listen to my request for skin to skin and dressed her up and then when i finally got her on me my nipples were flat and she came along and said 'ooohh, you have flat nipples, you won't be able to bf, you'll have to get nipple shields'!! I couldn't believe she actually said this to me- I have never had flat nipples in my life- i think it was just cos i ws so drained and stressed.
I went up to my room and tried to latch her on again but had to really pinch and pull my boob to get it in her- a few midwives came in to help and we managed to get enough in her.
Still had a few problems the next day but i just put it down to tiredness and constant interuptions from various visitors so went home to try in our own environment. My 2 sisters came home with us to try and help but she slept for most of the evening so they couldn't really do much.
That night- and the next were awful, she would not settle in her carry cot and my dh and i had to take turns to hold her all night- we were shattered and not sure what we were doing wrong. She would only feed for 7 minutes at a time and then fell asleep, then she just wasn't latching on again so we thought she just wanted comfort sucking- so gave her a dummy (something I really didn;t want to do). This meant she was finally going down so we could get a bit of sleep each. But she was so unsettled and would wake constantly in the night.
When she was first weighed by the midwife at home she had only lost a little bit of weight, but when she was a week old i noticed that she was looking really pale and gaunt, she used to have such chubby cheeks but they had gone completely. It scared the hell out of me and i kept saying to everyone that she was wasting away but they all said i was being silly. when the midwife came on monday she noticed too and was really concerned- turns out she had lost 850g! Mw said to go on aptamil straightaway and that if she hadn't put on weight by weds she would have to go to hospital and go on a drip.
I was devastated, i didn't realise that she wasn't getting enough from me to that much of an extent. everyone kept telling me it was alright. mw came again yesterday as she was so concerned but saw that she looked alot fuller already- she said she was relieved as she was going to admit her if there hadn't been an improvement. She came again just now and weighed her and shes put on 300g so the formula is working thank god.
I'm still pumping to try and get my milk supply up as I think she was just getting so frustrated at the lack of supply eventually that she was too tired and worked up to eat. Now part of me wants to just give up on the bf'ing in case it happens again and then part of me feels so guilty for thinking like this and it has only been 11 days since she was born so i feel like i shouldn't give up but the stress has just been lifted slightly using the bottles. she's so much more content now that shes finally getting fed- the poor thing- i feel like i've failed her already making her suffer like that i couldn't bear it if it happened again.
Just wanted to get this off my chest so don't expect replies.