Barb - i posted a thread not long ago asking for advice explaining abit more what's going on, HERE is the link for it.

basically in a nutshell, i've been having problems BF'ing since birth. in hospital i had a couple of good feeds, but although she was feeding well, it hurt me like all hell and i ended up with blistered nipples. then she ended up just being terrible and we were trying to feed her via syringe but she hated it, she'd still scream and cry and get a belly full of wind out of it as a result.
so when the midwife came around to our house after being discharged, she suggested trying a nipple shield, as she thought that my flow may be too fast for her to handle, and that seemed to be the case because as soon as we tried the nipple shield, she started feeding like a champ! she'd feed between every 2-4 hours for upto an hour at the most, and then sleep like a champ too
then all of a sudden it changed? she now is really fussy at the breast again! she'll go on, have a couple sucks and swallow, then pull off and cry and whinge, then go on again, and the cycle continues, and she will often be feeding for AT LEAST 1.5 hours, and would easily go past 2 and still be acting as though she hasnt fed. this morning i put her on the boob again after giving her 50ml of EBM in a bottle and she managed to get letdown happening for the first time in a couple days because she was able to suck long enough to get it! but, then she didnt last long on that either, (but then i suspected she was full anyway) but as soon as i took her off when she fell asleep, she woke again, and was acting hungry (sucking the hands, head bobbing, etc) and wouldnt attach again, so, i gave her another 30ml of EBM and that settled her down, but that again took 1.5hrs, and im sure she would have been contented MUCH sooner had i have just given her more EBM in a bottle.

but anyways, that's what's happening with her BF'ing.


Mrs.B - i should clarify that DH is VERY supportive of BF'ing, and even if we do bottle feed with EBM for awhile, his plan is to keep trying to get her to BF, but maybe wait a couple weeks til shes bigger, which will hopefully clarify the problem as most seem to think this is it. he just hates hearing her cry like she does when she's trying to feed, and he hates knowing how stressed i am knowing shes not feeding. but it's just the words hit me that it feels like that's what i'm doing to her..

babyluv - my DD is 2 weeks old, we have tried baby led attachment many times, and she knows what to do, but she just cant attach, she gets herself so frustrated that she just cries and cries and wont get on. she has a very short fuse, i must admit lol. we even tried it with the help of a couple of ABA counsellors, and they were stumped at it too, saying she knows what to do, but just cant get on!
my breasts arent hard any more, not that they ever really got that hard, my milk supply has settled somewhat, though i still have plenty, ironically, it seems she did better when my boobs were harder than now when they're softer! lol
we tried the expressing today, but it was only after we gave her about 50ml and she was still looking around hungry that we thought we'd try it, and though it took about 15 minutes, eventually she got a letdown and sucked for awhile, but that seemed to almost make it worse in regards to her constantly seeming hungry until we gave her another 30ml or so an hour and a half later! but we are thinking we'll try again next feed and just give her about 30ml and see what happens.


KMN - did you bottle feed your bub with the EBM for the first 6 weeks? did you still keep trying to BF? so he's BF'ing now fine? where abouts are you located? i'd love to know some locations of the Lactation Day Stays, we have tresillian at the hospital near us, but no mention of a day stay for lactation, its more for babies with sleeping issues.


As i mentioned earlier, we have seen 2 ABA counsellors, and for the majority they were both stumped. one thought that perhaps my nipple is too short for her to get it to the back of her mouth the stimulate the sucking, hence why she did/does so well with the nipple shield, because it gets to the back of the mouth enough to get that suck happening. other than that, they could only suggest that perhaps her mouth is a little small, so there's an anatomical mismatch there which makes it nearly impossible to feed without a shield for the moment.
We have talked to different ABA counsellors on the phone too, to no avail the suggestions they gave we had already tried bar one which has helped us get her to sleep and know once she's had enough, which was to wrap her and take her off the breast and give her cuddles and what not and if she's still fussy after about 15 minutes, THEN put her back on, but alas, although this works, it drags it out ALOT longer when we are trying to feed solely on the breast.
but we are definitely trying to make sure she's calm (relatively) when feeding, and waking her sooner doesnt work for her, we wake her too early, she simply wont stay awake to feed, wake her at any other time, she still gets frustrated just as quickly as if we let her wake herself for a feed, and she's often still more tired and will start falling asleep quicker. so its a catch 22 there lol.

we are going to try again with the LC's. we contacted one, but she couldn't see us for a couple days, hence why she sent us to a couple of the ABA counsellors instead because she realised we needed to see someone ASAP. and other counsellors we'd tried to contact weren't answering their phones, and we havent heard anything back, and apparently there's only 2 in the local area according to the IBCLC website.. but we'll keep trying to contact them!