The Breast Feeding Support Thread

cyning

iguana wrote: »

You're pregnant? Congratulations!!!!!:D Hope you have an easier 9 months this time around.

Definitely easier! Still quite sick but not even comparable to how sick I was last time no vomiting 20+ times in the day or all that goes with it and no hospital stays!

I just keep trying to remind myself that C had colic, constipation and reflux and was very bad for the first 12 weeks and baby no 2 is not likely to be that bad, and that should help feeding go easier

Oral Slang

icescreamqueen wrote: »

My baby had another weigh in with the PHN this morning. She has only put on 3ozs in 3 weeks from BFing exclusively. I'm so disheartened. It's time to wean her on to the bottle I think. I just don't have enough milk for her I think and she also has bad reflux. Although the nurse wants her to have a more comprehensive check up with the doctor to rule out anything more serious

If I were you, I'd try and get to see a lactation consultant before trying to introduce formula, as that can sometimes lead to more problems rather than alleviate them.
Has your baby been checked by a LC for tongue or lip tie? PHN's, doctors, paediatricians etc. quite often can miss this. An incorrect latch can lead to baby not taking emptying the breast enough.
As How Strange mentioned, feed on demand, not on schedule, do as much skin to skin as you can manage, take to the bed together when you can. My daughter used to feed for hours in the evening, so we'd just sit down with a dvd & let her feed away as much as she wanted.

Das Kitty

Day three and milk is in.

I gave a little formula as supplement as his blood sugar went low and my nips were already in bits. Using shields at the moment and he's feeding like a boss.

I'm so much more relaxed this time.

lang

So after the 6 week check-up with Doc, a visit to A+E and two PHN visits, we have been advised to start supplementing the feeds with formula. OH was very upset the other day. Very natural and normal feelings of "Not being able to give to my Baby", "Not providing for her"... etc. In fact I'd have been more worried if she didn't have those feelings.

So we started supplementing the feeds from about 4pm yesterday (not the night-time feeds though). And, what a difference!! Little one is sleeping during the day!!! I think she has had more daytime sleeps in the last 24hrs or so than she had in the first 7 weeks of her short little life. She is far more content and my OH is able to have her off the boob for a prolonged time. We are only topping up with about 2oz each feed. We think that when breastfeeding alone there wasn't enough milk for her and she wasn't satisfied, so wasn't sleeping properly and therefore not gaining enough weight.

Been a mad few days but hopefully we've got things under control now. One thing I have noticed with formula is that the wind is very painful for the baby. Haven't heard her cry in such pain, but at least we know that she is getting all the food she needs now.

dublinlady

Agghh my faithful medela swing has died! I know I've been using it alot lately but not that much! I can't work my manual - I actually will have to hand express Tom at work for relief my supply will go I'm stressed where will I get a new one - cant afford it really - ESP at 5 months in... I only plan to feed her exclusively til 6 months, but I'm not ready yet - I need a pump! Credit card on amazon tonight I think:..

dublinlady

Agghh my faithful medela swing has died! I know I've been using it alot lately but not that much! I can't work my manual - I actually will have to hand express Tom at work for relief my supply will go :(I'm stressed where will I get a new one - cant afford it really - ESP at 5 months in... I only plan to feed her exclusively til 6 months, but I'm not ready yet - I need a pump! Credit card on amazon tonight I think:..

SaceyFlynn13

dublinlady wrote: »

Agghh my faithful medela swing has died! I know I've been using it alot lately but not that much! I can't work my manual - I actually will have to hand express Tom at work for relief my supply will go I'm stressed where will I get a new one - cant afford it really - ESP at 5 months in... I only plan to feed her exclusively til 6 months, but I'm not ready yet - I need a pump! Credit card on amazon tonight I think:..

I got a manual pump in boots it was reduced down from €22 to €17 hope this helps as I know it helped for me as I don't have a big budget and I had to buy the min I seen the price

Nead21

Oh no Dublinlady :-(

Try boots online...it was the cheapest price i could find.

How Strange

Dublinlady I bought a second hand swing on adverts. It's generally not recommended but the owner had just used it a couple of times.

wolfpawnat

Same as HS, I got mine in the post yesterday. 55e inc p&p. Some great offers.

I have used it twice, both after feeds, 5oz!!!!! I was getting about 1.5-2 with the manual. 3oz if before a feed. I cried. The OH thinks I am mad, but is happy for me in my madness

How Strange

That's great wolfpawnat. It just reassures you that there's nothing wrong with your supply. You've got loads of milk.

iguana

Anyone going to a Challenge event tomorrow? I'll be at the Limerick one and am really looking forward to it. Made the mistake of posting a thread about in on the Limerick forum and have gotten nothing but idiocy in reply.

liliq

iguana wrote: »

Anyone going to a Challenge event tomorrow? I'll be at the Limerick one and am really looking forward to it. Made the mistake of posting a thread about in on the Limerick forum and have gotten nothing but idiocy in reply.

I'll be at the dundrum one

holding

I'm going to the Swords one!

holding

I'm going back to work 3 mornings a week, 9am til 2pm. I just want to check that there isn't anything to watch out for in terms of supply etc. I feed the little guy at 7am for an hour. He would normally eat again at 10am and at 1pm (that's verrrry roughly in terms of times!), so he is now having an expressed bottle at those times instead (or at any other time that he wants food between 9am and 2pm). I then offer both breasts at 2pm, and he feeds from them, regardless of whether he's had some from the bottle before then. Is there anything I need to watch out for? Should I try and express between 9 and 2 (I haven't been)? Thanks for any advice

Edit: I should point out that I work from home and the childminder minds him in our home - am I mad to be given him expressed milk at all so, rather than nip downstairs from the office to feed him myself? The thing is is that he can easily feed for an hour each time, and childminding is expensive so I try to work at 200% during those hours!

dublinlady

Hi holding!
When I'm working I try to ensure I express what she takes - so I feed her both sides at 6.30 - she then has expressed 5-6 oz at 10 and 1.30z I usually express at roughly ten - 10.30 and 1.30 - I express 4-5 oz each time usually I get 3 or 3&1/2 from one side and the rest from the other. I am still finding even with all the expressing my supply can be lower now - but usually just at 8-9 pm. It's like the expressing has used up all of my supply and I run out! And even tho I've been doing this a month it's still happening - so I make sure not to miss an expressing session - which is extremely difficult where I work... It's actually humiliating...
But I really want to get to six months before I drop a feed and that's only 3 - 4 weeks away. Then ill stop expressing at ten am cos that's the one that's most difficult to do for me with my particular set up! So basically - if u have to work u have to work! But could u take a break ur even do one handed work whilst feeding the baby? Otherwise I'd def pump or ur supply may decrease. Well that's me anyway!

How Strange

holding if you're at home I'd be inclined just to feed her yourself.

aknitter

lang wrote: »

So after the 6 week check-up with Doc, a visit to A+E and two PHN visits, we have been advised to start supplementing the feeds with formula. OH was very upset the other day. Very natural and normal feelings of "Not being able to give to my Baby", "Not providing for her"... etc. In fact I'd have been more worried if she didn't have those feelings.

So we started supplementing the feeds from about 4pm yesterday (not the night-time feeds though). And, what a difference!! Little one is sleeping during the day!!! I think she has had more daytime sleeps in the last 24hrs or so than she had in the first 7 weeks of her short little life. She is far more content and my OH is able to have her off the boob for a prolonged time. We are only topping up with about 2oz each feed. We think that when breastfeeding alone there wasn't enough milk for her and she wasn't satisfied, so wasn't sleeping properly and therefore not gaining enough weight.

Been a mad few days but hopefully we've got things under control now. One thing I have noticed with formula is that the wind is very painful for the baby. Haven't heard her cry in such pain, but at least we know that she is getting all the food she needs now.

That is such a relief, apart from the wind. The trick does appear to be enough sleep so they can feed.
How is she doing now?

holding

Hmm thanks Dublin Lady, I really really don't want to cause any problems down the line. I can definitely feed him for a small while in the middle of the day, not as much as he would like, but for half an hour anyway. Anything is better than nothing right? I would feed him myself but honestly he can feed for so long at each session that I really couldn't lose an hour plus.

Tonight is my last night expressing for donation purposes as well, as little guy is 6 months old tomorrow. Kind of sad to stop but it was a great experience

Can't believe six months have gone by so quickly.

wolfpawnat

As soon as I get a good supply in the freezer again and am starting to have spare I am hoping to donate. But I won't get ahead of myself. I'll just wait and see Congrats on such great work holding.

holding

Just wait and see how you go Wolfpawnpat. They do take milk that you have had in the freezer yourself - it doesn't have to be in their special bottles. And OMG I didn't do that much at all - I didn't figure out how to express until 4.5 months, and when I got in contact with them they only sent me 12 200ml bottles as I had so little time to go til the 6 month mark. There are other mamas out there who send them big boxes of milk regularly. But am happy I managed to send them this small bit (about 2 litres I think).

wolfpawnat

Every drop counts for those who need it! 2 litres, go to Tesco and pick up a 2L bottle of milk, that is a hell of a lot of boob juice!

aknitter

Holding, can you either put up the place you are dealing with for the donation or pm me the details - I have a lot frozen and was only yesterday worried about how I'd use it all. I'd like to donate if things work out.

Actually the 2 year old was at the doc with a chest infection so I am going to slip some boob milk into his usual milk! I have some breastmilk frozen in ice cubes!

holding

Yup aknitter.

Here's a thread on it with some sources: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056717138

I rang them on 0044 2868628333 and they answered straight away, were v helpful.

liliq

475 nurslings were counted for the Quintessence Breastfeeding challenge today, Ireland is coming second in the world so far!!

Nead21

Im back to work next monday and stressing about how im going to keep feeding É. Ive come this far and dont want to give up now, especially since we've just started solids last week.

Im also an emotional wreck at the thoughts for leaving him for 7hours a day :-(

How Strange

Oh Nead21, try enjoy this week as much as you can. O had water in a dippy cup at crèche and I fed on demand when we were together and I intend to do the same this time. It's the easiest option as I couldn't bear to start messing around with bottles and formula at 6 months.

Nead21

Thanks HS. Did O not miss the milk feeds during the day? Im going to feed in the morning and at night. Im not sure yet how the pumping will work out. I was thinking of leaving ebm for him during the day but not sure yet if i'll have the time to pump that much.

I guess i'm going to have to wait and how next week goes.

How Strange

No, he was fine and he wasn't distressed or anything like that. He'd practically rear the clothes off of me for a feed straight after crèche though.

I stopped pumping after a week as I wasnt getting a lot so it was too much effort.

nikpmup

Hello ladies,

I've been following this thread while I waited for my little man to be born. He arrived on Friday in a bit of a hurry - I had to have an emergency section under GA, and he had to spend the night in the NICU. Trauma all round, but he's here now and he's doing great.
I had hoped to be breastfeeding in the delivery room, but that wasn't to be. In the end, it took nearly three days before I even started to produce drops of colostrum; in the meantime he of course had to be given bottles. I started to feed very slowly, but between the fact that he's an early baby, a bit of a lazy sucker and the fact that I have big boobs and small flat/inverted nipples, we had a latching and sucking battle on our hands, and I was still having to top up with formula. So as of tonight, I decided to not even try to breastfeed, but to pump and feed him expressed milk. I got quite upset with myself yesterday with all the carry on, but I've come to the conclusion (after along chat with my lovely midwife) that the manner of delivery isn't what's important, it's that he gets the breast milk. The fact that it's in a bottle isn't really that important in the grand scheme. And he might get better at latching, which means that I xan feed after all.
Have any of ye done this - exclusively pumped? How did you find it? The difference between last night and tonight was amazing - last night, I spent from 2.30am until 4am trying to feed, and then giving him formula. Tonight, he woke up at 3.20, he's fed what I expressed earlier, changed, asleep, and I'm just pumping for the morning, should be done in ten minutes or so. Even had time for a little cuddle, no tears or crying, just cuddles! It's pretty fantastic.