Congratulations on your beautiful little baby!
It is really hard work doing all three things! You're already a supermum and only a couple of weeks in
I'm so glad to hear that you're in touch with the ABA and an LC. I hope they can help guide you through this.
I agree with Pretty Butterfly - if expressing is not working well, ditch it and try to put her back to the breast at these times instead. At this age it's pretty typical for them to feed every 1-2 hours during the day and frequent feeding is definitely the best thing for supply. The alternative is to try a better pump - some mothers find one kind works much better for them than another.
Try and take as much time out for yourself and bubs as you can - just concentrate on being together and feeding whenever she wants.
Lots of mums struggle early on with feeding, you're not alone
ETA - I may be wrong, but I think the topup thing is about 'certainty' with volumes, rather than actually necessarily being better. You don't know how much she'll get from teh breast, so they'd rather you give her a set amount from the bottle.
That weight gain is fabulous - why not try breast & more breast for a week and see how you go? It really is mroe effective at stimulating your supply than a pump.
You are doing so well. YOu know, you hit it on the head when you said you had been forcefeeding her. 70mls is a huge feed every 3 hours. Why don't you try to cutting it down to 40mls per feed - and then top her up with the breast if she still won't settle - I bet she will be just fine.
I would suggest that you breastfeed her every 3 hours - no more than 20mins each side, then top up then express no more than 10 mins each side. You will be fully breastfeeding in a few weeks (honestly!)
That is a massive weight gain, I agree with Barb, cut her top ups down.. and she will want the breast back earlier too for a feed if she isn't TOO full...
Pumping can be detrimental if it makes you too tired to feed properly, as tiredness can affect your supply. It is also a BAD indication of how much milk you actually have.... you could have mountains of milk, but only express 30ml... its deceiving that way!!
It can also affect how much you put bub on, and bub is better than pump!!
If you still want to pump, please dont wake yourself up to do it... It works best between feeds, and in the mornings... if bub feeds at 7.ooam, and then 9.30-10am, a good pump time is around 8-8.30am... pumping in the arvo can affect your arvo supply IF you have a bub that wants to be on/off all arvo... the "witching hours!".. bub in this case will help boost your supply, so you can use bub not pump...
Your doing a FAB job babes, and it does get easier!!! xoxoxo
You sound like you're going great. Expressing is really hard work so if they say that you can cut down on doing it night then give yourself a break.
The best way to encourage your milk is to put your baby to the breast whenever she wants it.
By te sounds of it you'll be exclusively breastfeeding in no time.
Hi everybody, thanks for your wonderful and supportive replies (I haven't been able to get on the website for a little while, sorry I wasn't in earlier to thank you!).
Salma continues to gain weight really well and so we're slowly dropping comp feeds. The comments about expressing are true, it is tiring so I'm just doing it when I get the chance and not stressing about it too much. Luckily I've got wonderful support from the ABA (my local group is AWESOME) and we're really cutting down the amount we comp feed her, when we do that.
The reason why I haven't completely cut out the comp feeds is that I'm a little bit scared of her losing weight again... So for my own peace of mind I need to do it slowly. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm sure I'll be back again soon to announce that we're exclusively breastfeeding. Wish me luck, and watch this space!
Dont worry about cutting down slowly, your mental health is also very important to getting a great breastfeeding relationship going! You'll be exclusivly b/f'ing in no time!!
Well done, you deserve to feel great about yourself, its not always easy, but pushing through and getting help is such a great gift to your daughter, AND for you!!!
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