Thinking about ff but feel bad

[DW1978]

I've been exclusively breast feeding Jax for 4 weeks but he still.isn't falling into a pattern or routine. Sometimes he can sleep for 4/5 hours and sometimes I will be constantly feeding him for 3 hours. As you know, on Sunday night, I got mastitis so had a really bad nights sleep and last night Jax was awake from 2.30 till 4.30am so I am exhausted. I didn't feed Jax on my poorly boob since the early hours of the morning and expressed at 12pm and only got 1 ounce from it. In the night, Jax will fall asleep with my boob but often wakes as soon or shortly after I take it out. I'm now wondering if I'm not supplying him with enough milk. I bought him down into the lounge at 3.30am and gave him some formula and after that he seemed much easier to settle. Now I'm toying with the idea of giving up bf altogether but I feel so guilty about giving up. I fed Lennon for 4 months till I went back to work and I feel bad for not doing the same with Jax. My boobs are also still really sore as I still can't get him to latch on properly.

Don't know what to do :S

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Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

 

[tinks77]

I think you just do what is good for you & jax. Do not feel guilty about any of it, either way if your happy and he's happy then there is nothing to feel guilty about.
Maybe try combine feeding until boobs feel abit better?

 

[SunnyGirl]

WSS ^^ regarding don't feel guilty. I had to FF straight away. Eliot is a happy wee soul & gaining weight. It's fine and dandy here. Breast is best, while true, is put across rather militantly by healthcare peeps. My HIV was awesome and gave me the more measured response, which was do what makes everyone happy and don't feel guilty xxx

 

[Smithy1980]

Hey hun I'm bf at the mo and totally understand your feeling of guilt, as I've been toying with the idea too! My LO just won't take a bottle though so she's kind of taken the decision out of my hands anyway!

Do what's best for you and LO....my hv said to me 'you should never feel guilty about feeding your baby' xxx


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[frankie707]

He's still pretty little to be in any kind of regular pattern of feeding. I used to wake G up when he fell asleep on the boob and offer it again to make sure he had had his fill before putting him down for the night. For me I didnt feel totally in control/like I had any idea when G would need feeding until he was between 5-6weeks old. And it took me until about 5 months until I was entirely convinced I was making enough milk - worried about it until then.
G used to cluster feed in the evenings and I found that giving him a small bottle of expressed milk before last feed gave me a break and made sure he had lots of milk on board. I did this from 6 weeks to 7 months old.

 

[SunnyGirl]

...my hv said to me 'you should never feel guilty about feeding your baby' xxx


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hear hear!

 

[knopk@]

I top upnow but thats because A. wasnt gaining that much as was hungry and could literally feed all day long. How is the weight gain hun? First 6-8 weeks are the hardest but do what you think is right. I think FF is harder as you have to make up bottles

 

[Geminiblue]

I agree with the others but I would like to add, when you walk down the road or go shopping can you tell what adults and or children were/are breastfed? No? Because I cant..I breastfed my first and my second is on formula please make your choice to do with whats right for you not because of guilt honey, believe you me, I understand xxx

 

[Sarah13]

It's so hard isn't it? Kynon was really bad a couple of weeks ago and I had blocked ducts and thought he wasn't getting anything but he must have been. Its so demanding and we still have no pattern or routine really so don't worry about that. When my duct was blocked I couldn't express a thing, it was just too sore, try feeding him on the sore side see if he can help clear it. I sat in tears doing this cos of pain but remembered the labour breathing to get through the pain! Things have been much better the last 2 weeks, they are still demanding but the soreness has gone. Don't feel guilty though, it's much harder when you have two LOs to look after, just do what makes you feel better lots of people give one ff to top up and give the boobs a rest!

 

[Maria1977]

BFing is hard work. They don't really form a proper routine until around 3 months old. It's very all or nothing in those first few months. TBH though my friend FF her baby and he didn't get into a proper routine until he was around the same age, they want to eat when they are hungry and that hunger will strike usually within 4 hours in those first few months as their tummies are so tiny. Breast milk is digested very easily so BF babies might go shorter times between feeds than FF babies, but it really depends on the baby and their level of hunger.

Whatever you do though, you should not feel gulity about offering formula! Happy mummy = happy baby xxxxx

 

[hopefulmummy]

My baby is almost 5 months and exclusively bf and we have no routine! He just feeds when he wants. Mine won't take a bottle though, so perhaps what you could do is offer a bottle of expressed milk at some
Point in evening / night? Your oh - If you have one?- could do it to give you a break? X

 

[hopefulmummy]

The other thing u could try is dragging out the times between the feeds - use a dummy or am
Sthing - so that when he feeds he gets a proper big feed and not just a snack...