I really am just taking breastfeeding one day at a time. One moment I think we are getting on top of it all and then the next I'm in tears ready to give it in . I'm pretty stubborn though- so I hope that holds out!
I saw the CHN today and she saw us feeding and saw how obviously uncomfortable my DS is during a feed (constant wriggling, groaning, pulling off the breast etc) and she said it might be a bit of reflux. So we are going to see if that's the issue.
Funny thing is, DS was a perfect baby while there! Hardly exhibited any of the behaviours I'd just been telling her about (eg bad wind pains after a feed), which is great because he was happy but funny at the same time!
Plus he's put on just over 600g in 2 weeks so she told me not to stress too much about the feeding and to not stress too much if he doesn't seem interested in feeding after only a short time. She said I might be trying to feed him more than he wants and that's why he gets cranky etc.
She also mentioned he might be a 'sandwich feeder'- anyone heard of that? She said he might like to feed for a short time, have a play and then feed for a short time again before going to sleep (rather than feed, play, sleep). I didn't know that was OK to do- does anyone have any advice on this?
DD#2 often feeds 2 hourly so yep, I guess she would be a sandwich feeder - although I've never heard that expression before. Because she can feed so often I've not been sure when her feeding is for comfort, and when its becauser sh'es hungry. Because she has so many horrid poos she's getting reduced nutrition from feeds (it passes through her too quickly), so that's why she needs more feeds than "normal" (I hate that word). I ended up that if she was really upset but had been feed within the last two hours I would try to comfort her first. If nothing else worked, I ended up feeding her. The upside is she can sometimes be comforted by a feed, even though I know that she'll pay the price for it with a sore tummy. The downside is that if this feeding regime stretches into your nights you suffer hugely with sleep deprivation.
ETA: If you can avoid bottle feeding, then that would be brilliant - please don't think I'm pushing you to formula feed. Other than the fact that you would lose all the benefits of breastfeeding - both physical and mental for you and your son - bottle feeding is a serious PITA. It takes so much time away from what you could otherwise be spending with your baby.
Last edited by LuluHB; September 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 AM.
Peekay - My bubba displays similar problems. She squirms around when she's on the boob and doesn't finish her feed. I'll wait until she gets a poo and then usually by then she has thrown up her feed from pushing so hard. So then I'll have to feed her again.
Her sleep is regularly disrupted by wind pains. She seems to catnap a lot now, where she used to be a good sleeper.
At least twice a day she will get so bad that she will scream for a couple of hours, and nothing will be able to console her. I just lie down with her on my stomach and pat her to sleep as best I can. But then I have to keep patting because if I stop she'll wake up again and start crying!!
We used Infants Friend for a while but now we find that it doesn't really make a difference in terms of her level of discomfort. I have also tried a couple of other colic formulas..
We always burp her as well and she's a champion farter just like her dad...
I don't want to leap to putting her on medications or anything, but I'm just hoping that she'll grow out of it soon
Me, too with oversupply and related issues!
We took to posture feeding, as well as constant sling wearing - keeping him upright, especially after feeds and to get him to sleep, was critical and is probably why the situation didn't escalate in terms of my sanity.
I definitely found the co-sleeping, sling-wearing, demand-feeding, posture-feeding and some foremilk expressing helped alleviate a gut full of my milk from one boob!n It meant that whilst he was very gassy and burpy (and a little chucky when burping), he was not a very 'cry-y' baby. Sometimes he'd cry from it, but it was quickly settled by being thrown into the HAB It took well over 4 months for my supply to settle, and even now it doesn't take much for it to be thrown out of whack again (thinking of DS's present cold and frequent feeding...I'll go back to hard boobs again when he gets better and feeds less...check ticker for his age!)
Feed, play, sleep isn't "the thing babies do" It's a some-what strange western construct of what adults, particularly health professionals want them to do. Most research shows that babies are happiest when babies sleep, feed and play the way they want to feed, sleep and play (well what really IS play for a young baby - hanging out in mums arms or on mums boob, gazing lovingly at her face, pretty much) There's no right and wrong, in particular when it comes to feeding babies.
Regards
Barb
Feed-sleep-play, blurgh! I hate that phrase! We fed, snuggled, fed, snuggled, fed, snuggled - and a lot of the snuggling involved sleep, because snuggling was HAB related! So DS could sleep and I could still do stuff round here
and Lulu
. I'm pretty stubborn though- so I hope that holds out!
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