Thanks Mantaray and Starangelk for the advice. Will try those tips and see if they help. Sometimes when she finds the nipple herself she latches on such that it hurts so she must be only sucking on the nipple. It's just really heart breaking to see her so frustrated and keep crying when she can't get milk from the breast then she's all happy once she starts drinking from the bottle.
I've called the MW at the hospital and they've also worked out how much EBM she needs to have. So I'll try to get her latch on each time but if it doesn't work I might eventually still offer her the bottle so she gets something to drink. Got the maternal child nurse coming on Tues, too bad tmr is a public holiday!
These longs weekends without medical services readily available are really hard for new mums
Babies usually attach better when they are calm too. If she's crying, try to calm her a bit before attaching - maybe by letting her suck your finger if that helps. Looking for the early hunger signs can help too - bobbing head, sucking fist etc, rather than waiting until she is crying with hunger. If she sleeps right up to waking for a feed it makes it hard but calming her before attaching might help here.
Mantaray: She does indeed attach better when she's calm but sometimes if we feed her too early just when she's starting to mouth and turn her head she falls back to sleep almost immediately once she's on then comes off the breast. If we wait till she's crying then she doesn't feed very well either. So I'm till trying to find that balance.
I've tried to express before feeding and it seems to help for the right breast as she attached well this afternoon on the right but still refuses the left. Makes it hard for me to judge how much she's had as she would only drink about 10 ml of the EBM that I offer her after. She's often too worked up for me to try the baby led attachment but will try to if I get the opportunity. Babies can be so hard to read, not coming with an instruction manual!
Janie- I expressed tonight to see how much milk i am getting and bottle feed it to my little boy to see how much milk he is drinking to see if he gets satisifed or not as every hour or so (sometimes shorter) he is waking for a feed, its getting hard as im not getting anything done through the day and my older boy is getting frustrated cause all im ever doing is feeding his little brother
Im at my wits end i dont know whether my milk is satisfying him or not im really confused to be honest
Hun, I'm sorry I can't reply right now, but I suggest giving the ABA helpline a call 1800 MUM2MUM. As Manta said, all the counsellors are mums themselves, and are trained to help breastfeeding mums. Good luck, I'll check in on you tomorrow.
Mizqtie, it can be confusing when we are answering two people in the same thread. You might find it easier to start your own thread then we can reply to you without the answers getting lost. I agree that 75ml is a lot but expressing all the time shouldn't be necessary as is probably going to leave you with an oversupply of milk. I really suggest you ring 1800 mum 2 mum today and talk through what it is happening. They can give you some ideas about what might be happening and some suggestions. As for your milk being enough, what comes out is more helpful than what goes in. Sure, with a bottle you can see the amount they are drinking, but you still don't know how much they need. The nappies tell a better story - 5 or more heavily wet disposable or 6-8 very wet cloth nappies and 2 or more runny or soft poos in 24 hours are a great sign that your baby is getting enough milk.
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