The Breast Feeding Support Thread

red fraggle

dublinlady wrote: »

Typically now it's available she's over it.......

Ah well!!

Started weaning today..... Took me ages to decide but happy enough now, I kinda have to go in and out of work (as self employed) and was finding it too tricky while feeding. Anyway - dropped lunchtime feed... 20 nins after feed was due my boobs were burning.... Nature is mad... Anyway she's used to a bottle at night so she's like a duck to water! Thinking of keeping up the two morning feeds indefinitely and dropping the rest - will be interested to see how my body deals with it!!

have you weaned onto food or onto formula? hope it goes well.

dublinlady

red fraggle wrote: »

dublinlady wrote: »

Typically now it's available she's over it.......

Ah well!!

Started weaning today..... Took me ages to decide but happy enough now, I kinda have to go in and out of work (as self employed) and was finding it too tricky while feeding. Anyway - dropped lunchtime feed... 20 nins after feed was due my boobs were burning.... Nature is mad... Anyway she's used to a bottle at night so she's like a duck to water! Thinking of keeping up the two morning feeds indefinitely and dropping the rest - will be interested to see how my body deals with it!!

have you weaned onto food or onto formula? hope it goes well.

Formula!
Thanks - its going well for her so far - but I swear I'm making more milk than ever!!! Haha! Def won't be rushing to drop next feed... Feel like I'll burst in the afternoons now! Still only 3 days after dropping lunch one tho so hopefully milk will reduce soon! In the meanwhile still expressing and freezing milk at 11pm... Ginna give her one defrosted bottle a day when I give up fully - that way hopefully she'll have breast milk for extra month or so! Have about 2 weeks worth saved from before so hopefully it'll keep up!
Think will drop the dinner time feed next... Whenever I think my boobs can cope!! At mo doin 8 am, 10.30 am, 4/5 pm and 7 pm breast feeds, expressing at 10pm and then formula for 1pn and night feeds.
Will have to see how goes!

red fraggle

dublinlady wrote: »

Formula!
Thanks - its going well for her so far - but I swear I'm making more milk than ever!!! Haha! Def won't be rushing to drop next feed... Feel like I'll burst in the afternoons now! Still only 3 days after dropping lunch one tho so hopefully milk will reduce soon! In the meanwhile still expressing and freezing milk at 11pm... Ginna give her one defrosted bottle a day when I give up fully - that way hopefully she'll have breast milk for extra month or so! Have about 2 weeks worth saved from before so hopefully it'll keep up!
Think will drop the dinner time feed next... Whenever I think my boobs can cope!! At mo doin 8 am, 10.30 am, 4/5 pm and 7 pm breast feeds, expressing at 10pm and then formula for 1pn and night feeds.
Will have to see how goes!

wow. cool!! say ur happy now that you made the choice to start formula. im still in the no im not yes i am stage!!:rolleyes: soo not looking forward to the full boobs when i do decide. if i miss one feed i have to express or i will regret it in the mornin! im the same stocking up my feezer! so i always have some and then can always give it to her when im finished breastfeeding.

E is 4 months old today!:eek::D where as the time gone. she is just getting cuter and cuter!;)

wmpdd3

At mo doin 8 am, 10.30 am, 4/5 pm and 7 pm breast feeds, expressing at 10pm and then formula for 1pn and night feeds.

I still dont even know what time i feed him everyday. It just happens at different times of the day every day. He has really bad collic, its a nightmare.

I feed him, he lasts 5 mins, he starts to pull away when he has wind, i try wind him, none comes up, he screams and screams and then finally stops and i feed him and we start all over again. nothing works, colief, gripe water, camomile tea etc.

Tomorrow he's going for Cranial osteopathy, I'll try anything.

The mad thing is, he's fine in the night, he just gets into bed and sleeps.

How Strange

wmpdd3, that sounds very extreme for a breastfed baby. Have you had him checked for tongue tie? Perhaps he has silent reflux? That really doesn't sound normal to me.

My son had problems with wind which were because of my oversupply but he was only that bad twice; once when I ate hummus and the other when I ate asparagus. Gripe water sorted it out both times. He also was windy in the evenings which were tough but he never pulled off the breast like that.

Do you have a la Leche league or Cuidiu inD your area? It might be good to speak to one of the counsellors for their opinion.

ck83

wmpdd3 wrote: »

At mo doin 8 am, 10.30 am, 4/5 pm and 7 pm breast feeds, expressing at 10pm and then formula for 1pn and night feeds.

I still dont even know what time i feed him everyday. It just happens at different times of the day every day. He has really bad collic, its a nightmare.

I feed him, he lasts 5 mins, he starts to pull away when he has wind, i try wind him, none comes up, he screams and screams and then finally stops and i feed him and we start all over again. nothing works, colief, gripe water, camomile tea etc.

Tomorrow he's going for Cranial osteopathy, I'll try anything.

The mad thing is, he's fine in the night, he just gets into bed and sleeps.

I've heard that craniosacral therapy works wonders. A friend of mine proclaimed that it was some sort of miracle cure! Hopefully it will sort your little darling out too.

wmpdd3

Well what ever the lady did, it did work. After she traced his cranial whatever, I fed him, even after 15 mins of really heavy feeding he didnt pull away. She asked me to stop if possible and she took him. She put him on her shoulder and he burped and farted after 3 seconds. She said he didnt display the usual head of a baby that is suffering from colic. Apparently his head looks like she'd expect it to be after treatment.

That was this morning, everytime I've fed him since he either had no wind or brought it as soon as I put him vertical.

Tonight, at 9pm he had a big 2 boob feed, 2 burps, played with his feet, then went to sleep.

I can't even quantify what the lady did, her hands were on his head and his lower back, then his tummy. She also was checking his head while I was feeding him.

I really hope it works, I'd rather stay in doors than endure another trip in the car with him roaring in the back.

Before I got ever got pregnant, I thought yoga and anything that happened in a room with just a bed and no drugs, was a placebo. So far, I've now been proved wrong.

@How strange, she did say it was unusual for a b/fed baby, as she b/fed her two. She went through his life from birth till now and his crankiness started a few days after the BCG and his colic started 3 days after his 2 month injections. I've been so busy, I never even thought of these. She also looked at my diet and I'm veggie, I eat a mountain of cheese every week! So we're going to try reducing cheese and re-introducing humus (yeh!!). I've to call her mid-week and give her an update so we'll see. He was checked for tongue-tied in the hospital and the lactation consultant and the PHN also checked him, he still doesn't open his mouth wide for a feed, not like the Jack Newman videos anyway.

LegacyUser

Hi All

I was reading through this thread and thought I'd write a few lines re my experience with bf..

My child is 5 1/2 months now and I breastfed her for the last time on Thursday.
She was fed exclusively on breastmilk until 4 months and then I very gradually dropped a feed at a time until last week...amazing how the body adapts. Some of the feeds were harder to drop than others e.g. I was very uncomfortable the last two days after finishing the last feed but fine again now. I think I'll have to head to the lingerie department this week though - I went up 2 cup sizes during pregnancy and think I'm back down to pre-pregnancy size now so need to get rid of these way too big nursing bras!!!

wmpdd3 - I was interested in your posts because your experience sounds kinda similar to mine...my little one seemed to struggle alot at times on the breast, she would latch on fine but then after a few minutes, struggle and cry. Sometimes I would manage to get her back on the breast and sometimes I wouldn't. Lying down and football hold helped me but I never really got to the root of the problem/resolved it. I do think it was related to strong letdown as it happened alot more on my right breast and sometimes when she pulled off I would spray the poor little lady in the face. I might have managed to stick with breastfeeding until 6 months if I didn't have this struggle - it was just getting harder to feed her, especially when out and above.
Funnily enough I never had this issue when feed her during the night or when she was very sleepy at the breast.....
Sometimes if she did fuss I would give her the dummy for a minute until she relaxed before removing it and putting her back on the breast. This definetely worked at times for me.

My LO was a snacker also, only ever fed from one breast per feed and usually for 5-10 minutes. She would rarely go more then 1.5 hrs between feeds during the day and I never had a predictable feeding schedule - although she was great at night. She slept through the night just before she turned 5 months so I never had to give a bottle feed at night. Breastfeeding is just so convenient during the night, I would change nappy first then bring baby into bed in her grow bag, feed to sleep and pop her back in her cot afterwards.

My LO was also quite fussy/colicy until she was about 13/14 weeks old, then things improved alot. I tried cranial oesteopth at about 11 weeks, I didn't see the immediate miracle cure that others found but it can't do any harm so absolutely worth a try.

I fed my LO to sleep each night until I dropped the before bed breastfeed a couple of weeks ago. She does use a dummy in the cot and I didn't have any problem getting her to sleep once we introduced the before bed bottle.

All in all I'm happy to have managed to 4 months before dropping any feeds. Now that we are on formula she is still absolutely flying and is a strong and active little baby girl, she didn't seem to miss the breastfeeds at all either which is great for her.

There are a couple of pointers/lessons learned though IMO, these might be useful for someone:
- Be determined. Try not to give up bf before 6 weeks as it gets alot easier after that and be aware of cluster feeding especially at 3 weeks, remember the feeding frenzy should only last for a couple of days.
- For the first few weeks take all offers of good food! I remember being so hungry and thirsty for the first fews weeks and I never seemed to find time to cook, we bought good ready meals from a local deli for a while until I got myself more organised. Worked a treat for us.
- Buy LANOLIN, altough expensive its worth its weight in gold for sore nipples.
- Find your local breastfeeding support group and start going once a week as soon as you can. I found the support great and whenever I had a bad week I would say "I'll keep going until the next support group meeting" - generally things were better by the next meeting. I definately would have given up earlier without the support group, its also very re-assuring to get baby's weight checked every week.
- Before baby is born, ask your family to support you and encourage you, explain why you want to breastfeed etc. Sometimes well meaning friends/family can be quick to suggest formula as they hate to see you struggle.
- Consider giving an bottle of expressed breastmilk once a day. Don't leave it too long to introduce it, if I was starting again I would introduce a bottle at 3 weeks and give it once a day or every other day maybe. I left it until 6 weeks and had a battle on my hands. Got there in the end but it took alot of time before she would take a decent feed from a bottle. I found the fact that she would take a bottle great as I could take a break for a couple of hours once a week and my husband would look after the feed. Good for him too to be able to give a bottle.

Breastfeeding is fantastic when is going well for Mum and baby and there is nothing better than when your baby looks up at you with a milky smile during a feed.....makes it all worth it.

How Strange

wmpdd3 that's great news. Fingers crossed it has solved the problem. I've heard such fantastic things about cranial ostheopathy for babies.

dublinlady

That all sounds fab!! I've heard of a good few ppl who describe it as a miracle cure!! Whatever works works! Look at the amount of people who swear by arnica for bruising and that's homeopathic! Nothing should be knocked until its tried!!!!
Your little fella sounds so much happier -it will make such a difference to you!!

red fraggle

ok so we are big time teething!! daytime not too bad. the last 2 nights she has been wakening earlier and screaming. only a feed soothes her! last night she woke at 4.3o screaming gave her teething gel and cuddles. settled a little but then screamed again. i gave in and fed her. fed for 20mins and she then slept til 7.3o and screamed again. another 20min feed settled her. she is wearing the amber bracelet which i think is helping her not wake more with pain!!

is this normal that feeding gives teething relief to a breastfed baby? shes had half her daily feeds today and its not even 11am!! any tips?

im thinking maybe a growth spurt too as she will be 18 weeks thur.

How Strange

red fraggle, apparently breastfeeding gives pain relief and the nursing helps calm them down especially at night when the teething pain seems to be at its worst. I swear by our amber necklace and I only give calpol or nurofen if I see he's really struggling. The less they get calpol means its very effective when they do get it.

Quins5

red fraggle wrote: »

ok so we are big time teething!! daytime not too bad. the last 2 nights she has been wakening earlier and screaming. only a feed soothes her! last night she woke at 4.3o screaming gave her teething gel and cuddles. settled a little but then screamed again. i gave in and fed her. fed for 20mins and she then slept til 7.3o and screamed again. another 20min feed settled her. she is wearing the amber bracelet which i think is helping her not wake more with pain!!

is this normal that feeding gives teething relief to a breastfed baby? shes had half her daily feeds today and its not even 11am!! any tips?

im thinking maybe a growth spurt too as she will be 18 weeks thur.

I'm exactly the same red fraggle, 16wks n for d passed 2/3 nights she has been waking every 3hrs n only a feed will settle her, I feel empty today already n its only 11am! :-0 her hands r constantly in her mouth n pouring saliva poor thing

How Strange

You're also in the middle of a huge developmental leap (14.5-19.5 weeks according to the wonder weeks) plus the 4 month sleep regression so it's a tough time for your little one as well as you as mum of course!

red fraggle

Quins5 wrote: »

I'm exactly the same red fraggle, 16wks n for d passed 2/3 nights she has been waking every 3hrs n only a feed will settle her, I feel empty today already n its only 11am! :-0 her hands r constantly in her mouth n pouring saliva poor thing

yeah as soon as the feed is over the hands are straight back in her mouth!! and the drool is unreal. i usually express once in the mornin to have some in freezer but wont be doing that for a few days!! so good to know someone is experiencing the same thing!! do u think they will settle back again? i hope so:( it is awful not been able to help. she cant hold anything to chew on and if i hold it she only takes it for a few seconds. her poor little fingers go so red from chewing!!!

red fraggle

How Strange wrote: »

You're also in the middle of a huge developmental leap (14.5-19.5 weeks according to the wonder weeks) plus the 4 month sleep regression so it's a tough time for your little one as well as you as mum of course!

oh man.... tough few weeks ahead so for us all. any tips?
do you leave the amber necklace on all the time?

How Strange

Nap when you can! Forget about house work, dinner, washing, food shopping etc and sleep when she sleeps or at least rest. And keep repeating 'this is a phase and it will pass' because it does!

We have the necklace so we used to wrap it twice around his ankle at night.

How Strange

Someone said to me that putting a face cloth in the freezer and then letting then suck on it helps. I used to forget to do it but the once or twice I did I think it did help with the sore gums.

red fraggle

How Strange wrote: »

Nap when you can! Forget about house work, dinner, washing, food shopping etc and sleep when she sleeps or at least rest. And keep repeating 'this is a phase and it will pass' because it does!

We have the necklace so we used to wrap it twice around his ankle at night.

thanks for the tips. i use the necklace day and night. hope its still affective!!

any ideas on how to establish some sort of nap time with her? she doesnt nap at all and if she does its 20 mins mostly in my arms:rolleyes: she wil def be needing naps if shes going to be waking during the night and then i could rest when she naps too which would be great. i dont do well with little sleep:( oh the joys!!

How Strange

We used to have a loose routine of a morning and afternoon nap but sometimes he wouldn't sleep or only for 20 mins. Maybe putting her down at the same time every day or go for walks so she naps in the buggy but don't stress if she doesn't cooperate. My son only started napping properly around 7-8 months. Before that he was content with cat naps which was a killer if I was exhausted and wanted to sleep too.

I found he slept best if we both cuddled up in bed after lunch and he could feed when he wanted.

wmpdd3

@kk711, we seem to have the same babies, i thought i was the only personn in the world who's baby fed 'whenever'! Naps also jhappen whenever! Like above usually in bed with feeding on tap. Baby had a really good day today but he did have colic from 3-7. I was visiting so there were generations of my family trying to wind him for 3hrs. He's better now. Hope tomorrow is better

red fraggle

How Strange wrote: »

We used to have a loose routine of a morning and afternoon nap but sometimes he wouldn't sleep or only for 20 mins. Maybe putting her down at the same time every day or go for walks so she naps in the buggy but don't stress if she doesn't cooperate. My son only started napping properly around 7-8 months. Before that he was content with cat naps which was a killer if I was exhausted and wanted to sleep too.

I found he slept best if we both cuddled up in bed after lunch and he could feed when he wanted.

yeh if she naps its 20 mins usually in my arms! tried getting her to nap today, cot, in bed together nope. it resulted in her screaming me stressing and getting annoyed. had to go for a walk to settle us both but she still didnt sleep!! couldnt believe it and her little eyes were hanging out of her head. poor thing but then she was in grand form again. i was stil tired!!:rolleyes: but as long as shes happy thats all that matters.

found myself getting angry on the walk as the dog was pulling me and the pushchair was squeaking. then i looked at my daughter and she was holding her dummie while chewing it. this was a new skill, first time and it melted my heart!! babies have you experiencing so many emotion in the one day. love them

red fraggle

got e weighed today. she is 4 months and a week and weighs 11lb 15oz. i thought she should have been more. ive to bring her back next week again to be weighed. any one any ideas? she is tall and petite. and i she was feeding great. last day or two she has been having slightly shorter feeds i think due to teething and developmental leap.

dublinlady

red fraggle wrote: »

got e weighed today. she is 4 months and a week and weighs 11lb 15oz. i thought she should have been more. ive to bring her back next week again to be weighed. any one any ideas? she is tall and petite. and i she was feeding great. last day or two she has been having slightly shorter feeds i think due to teething and developmental leap.

No idea - but I do know A is lean and long too! Can't imagine shes too much bigger than that although no idea as getting her weighed on fri! Try not to worry too much - if she's just going thru a leap she could just be on wrong side of growth spurt too!!

How Strange

red fraggle are you worried about her weight for a specific reason? Why are you getting her weighed again next week?

You say she's feeding great. Her shorter feeds may be an indication that she's just getting more efficient at getting her milk!

I was so so so lucky that my phn truly understood breastfeeding as she breastfed her own children do she never put emphasis on my sons weight. She always said to look to the baby; if they're feeding we'll, are generally content, have lots of wet nappies and the fontenelle isn't sunken then everything is ok.

Weight gain in breastfed babies is generally very quick in the first three months and then tapers off and slows down. Breastfed babies are generally leaner than formula fed babies because they feed on cue rather than to a schedule. Most phns and gps don't know this because the majority of babies they meet are formula fed so that's their benchmark.

Also babies come in all shapes and sizes so every 4 month old isn't going to be the same weight. In my opinion, I'd say you should look to your baby and don't get caught up on weight. Obviously if you notice she's not gaining weight over the course of a couple of months or she's losing weight then you should get advice but if she's gaining weight slowly but consistently and is otherwise happy out then things are fine.

The obsession with weight, percentile charts etc undermine successful breastfeeding. All you need as a mum is a phn or gp saying her weight is low or your milk isn't good enough and then the doubt is down in your mind and you'll then be looking out for every little sign that they're right.

Sorry this is turning into a far longer post than I intended. I'd recommend you read My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzalez, a Spanish paediatrician. Most of what I've said is what he says in his book.

Little My

red fraggle wrote: »

yeh if she naps its 20 mins usually in my arms! tried getting her to nap today, cot, in bed together nope. it resulted in her screaming me stressing and getting annoyed....

My now 9month boy was the worst at napping from about 3months till 6months. It just didn't happen, it was impossible to put him down and he would only sleep in my arms.

We started using the hairdryer or hairdryer noises on youtube, that kinda worked.

At just over 6 months something just clicked with him and from then on he would nap in his cot with no problems. That might not help you much right now but it might offer you some comfort that your baby might just 'grow into' his naps.

wmpdd3

^^^, my daughter was the same, up to 13 weeks, napping just didnt happen, she'd nod off in my arms and as soon as I'd move my bum to get up and put her somewhere she'd wake up.

I dont know how many books I read to try sort her. Most said just let her sleep what ever way she does, so I used to sit down with her at 10am is then 2 pm ish and 5pm ish and let her sleep in my arms. At 13 weeks if I put her in her crib with the mobile at 10 am, she just put herself asleep. But I had to keep to the same times every day, she's still the same at 18 months!

I'm trying to do this at the moment with no.2, its kinda working but I'm under presure to get him napped before I bring her to creche etc!

Red Fraggle, go back through here for a weight link for breast fed babies. I had little man weighted wed 2 weeks ago and he was 9 1/2 pounds at 13 weeks, same as his sister at the same time, but the phn had me getting her weighted every week as it was though she was under weight. I know he's fine so I think, no need to keep getting him weighed.

red fraggle

How Strange wrote: »

red fraggle are you worried about her weight for a specific reason? Why are you getting her weighed again next week?

i just thought she would be more, the clinic phn said get her weighed in a week just to see. rang my own phn earlier and she said after 3 months the weight gain slows down and not to be worried at all but that she would weigh her next week anyway. she was very good.

thanks all for the tips. as for the napping yesterday and today she napped at 10am for an hour with alot of my help. had radio on today. so im gona try that for a while. radio on and cuddle to sleep. then if that works for a while we might try the cot!! its all trial and error.:rolleyes:

injections were awful. its so mean:( shes not in too bad form at the moment.

How Strange

red fraggle make sure she's weighed on the same scales as this week because there are variances. It could a small margin but using the same scales means the weight recorded is accurate.

wmpdd3

Little man had another session of the head touching thing yesterdat and he's a new man, no colic! No whinging, he even sat in his chair for 20 whole mins while i made pancakes. He hasnt cried in the car since the first session.....We might even try a trip to town with the double buggy tomorrow. He is even going 2.5hrs between feeds. Hes back for another session the day before the 4mt injections.