Although I BF'd DS (my first baby) to 8 months, we had a very complicated BF'ing journey. On my last day in hospital I told the MW that I wasn't engorged and should I be? A Motillium script was produced and I was sent on my merry way. I just assumed that you need to be engorged after giving birth, is this right or wrong? He had an 80gm weight increase in the last 24 hours in hospital so I must have been feeding sufficiently.
Anyhoo, I'm keen to get things off to a good start with this next bub and will attempt a breast crawl. After DS was born, the MW told me that babies can be very sleepy for a couple of days and don't worry too much if they don't feed but another friend was told not to let her baby go more than 6 hours in the first couple of days without having a feed.
So, in a convoluted way, what's the best way to feed baby for the first few days?
TIA.
BTW, I've made an appt to see the LC in hospital but she only visits on Tuesday's and Thursday's.
With DS, I was engorged on Day 4 when my milk came in. I had a lot of feeding problems with DS. With DD I didn't get engorged at all, I got really full but not engorged and feeding is going well so far.
In the early days, I never let them go longer than 4 hours between feeds, not that either of mine rarely lasted that long between feeds lol. As the weeks went on, I let them go as long as they liked overnight, and during the day still kept to 4 hours maximum. Mine are 2 hourly feeders though so it's not often they go longer than 3 hours.
I never got engorged when I had DS, I was in hosptal for 5 days, the nurses kept asking me if my milk had come in yet? were my BBs hot, swollen etc, I was like yeah, yeah, im ok, no, no, im fine, (off my face on pain killers, I didnt know where I was, let alone how I was)
But I fed that baby every time he woke up, every time he made a noise, every time his hand went to his mouth. He was 100g up on his birth weight by the time we left, so I assume I did ok!
I had a c sect, I think (its really very fuzzy now....) I fed him within an hour (or maybe less...) of him being delivered. after my second experience of asking a MW if my attatchment was ok and then having my breast roughly SHOVED in DS poor little mouth, I didnt ask again, I just made sure his mouth was nice and wide and put it in, if it hurt, I broke the seal and tried again. I remember my mum watching me in exasperation as I yet again took him off the breast to re position him, I just told her, if it hurts, im not doing it properly.
By the time we were home he was feeding every 2-3 hourly. I would wake him in hospital (he had a bit of jaundice and was quite a sleepy bub, probably due to my drug intake) every 3 hours if he didnt stir himself.
Babies are born (under normal circumstances) primed to breastfeed. keep your baby close, and breastfeed him whenever he shows signs (if he is close to you you will notice the signs - stirring, mouthing, sucking hands - by the time he gets to crying it's a very late sign that he wants to be fed! Generally babies kept skin to skin with their mother will feed within the first hour after birth. They may then sleep for a while, before feeding again. Clusters of feeds will be normal at some times, while they will have longish sleeps at other times - and having no idea of day and night, many feeds will be at night.
If your baby is feeding frequently many others don't feel engorged. It's not necessarily part of the deal! Much of the engorgement mothers feel is lymph fluid, blood etc as well as milk. There's a lot going on in those breasts.
In hospitals these days we often put a few "trouble-shooting mechanisms" in place - so we tell mums to feed their babies maybe every 3 hours or so. This can be helpful especially if you have had a cesarean or medicated birth. Often these babies don't give the normal signals that they want to feed.
If you haven't yet, make sure you join the Australian Breastfeeding Association and go to one of their classes. They are great, and will tune you in to how breastfeeding works and what's normal and what's not in the early days and beyond.
With DD1 my milk didn't come in until day 5. With DD2 it came in at day 3. Both were natural deliveries. And I have never had engorgement throughout my breastfeeding history with the girls. Like the others have said, if you can feed bub every 3 or so hours, then that should be all that you need to do.
I just fed my baby everytime she even thought she might be hungry It worked really well. We did the breast crawl too and let her self attach and if there were any issues I just broke her suction and started again as well. It worked really well and we r 11 months into our bfing story I think you will have intuition for when your bubby needs to feed, if you keep baby with you and just feed when he/she wants. My bubba slept 7hrs straight in her first week and I just left her to sleep. my MW did say that if it had gone past 8 hrs I should wake her and feed but she didn't go that long.
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