That's wonderful!!
Good work.
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That's wonderful!!
Good work.
Great! :)
One more question though....I expressed 30mls a few hours ago and I just fed her from left breast only for 10 minutes and then gave her the expressed milk. But she seems to be having difficulty drinking from the bottle of expressed milk. She keeps spitting it out and fussing around :(
She might be full from her breast feed, or she might prefer the breast :)
And I just tried to put her down and of course, she just screams :( I just gave her 30 mls expressed milk plus a boob. What am I doing wrong!!?
Tasha she probably wants to be held a bit longer.
I had to stay in hospital for 5 days with DD she was either wrapped snuggly or held for most of those days. I think she probably feels more secure with you :)
As barb mentioned before, they miss the closeness they had in the womb. I know dd loved to feed to sleep because she felt safe on my skin. Maybe instead of having the expressed milk let her suck away on the breast. I know my LC said that babies aren't efficient at sucking when they are first born so they do suck for longer. As a basic guide I would go about half an hour on one side then burp, then swap sides and do half an hour. Maybe try that.
See if she will go to sleep on the breast? You will notice the sucking change as she has drained the boob. So you can even go till that point and then swap. It's important to make sure you keep draining your breasts each feed at this point so your milk keeps coming in.
My gosh your predicament sounds exactly how I was. Bubs is now 9 weeks and we have only just got the hang of it. So hang in there!
30mls is awesome!! I was only getting 10mls for the first week so topped up with formula, after bubs was doing 3hr feeds! So yes just as you finish it's time again. But I waited till bubs cried or gave hunger signals then to clock watch.
Also used nipple shield but bubs is a slow lazy sucker, so she would carry on on one side with the shield, so I had to bare the pain.
I'm only now getting 80-120 mls and that's possibly because I'm taking Motilium as bubs and I got sick week 6 and my supply dropped.
BF is hard work but don't feel bad about the formula as it helps bubs ; ) and you!!
Lanohsil has also helped, oh and Rite-Aid cooling pads for the nipples.
Oh and my bubs loves to be wrapped hands in with the blanket up to her ears! So I second the wrapping as previously mentioned.
Maybe try that. I just worry my nipples will never heal if I feed for long periods :( She always sleeps on the breast, but when its time to finish she just cries.:
I just started using the hydrogel discs. problem is i cant put them back on cos i cant put her down...:
I think because they have such a good feed the sleep for longer. With dd he would go the 3 hours between feeds with the longer feeds, so you actually end up getting more rest on your nipples.
Other thing I just remembered, if your nipples are really bad (dd took a chunk out of one of mine) my ob suggested using bepanthen for a while to accelerate healing. You just have to wash it off before you feed. This did help with the healing.
When does the nurse come again to check your attachment?
Have you tried the football position? I found that helped my attachment on one side in particular.
They are coming again tomorrow, this will be the third day. I am already doing the football position too. I will just feed from breast, no time to express now anyway. The pain is tears in eyes pain, but I will just have to endure it.:
Is that what it was like for you? Tears in your eyes pain?
Total tears pain. I used to count to 10 then once let down happened it would ease up a bit. Still painful but those first 10 seconds I just wanted to rip her off me :(
Definitely. I didn't know how I could keep feeding her.
Now that your milk is in another helpful thing is to hand express a bit to get let down and then put them on. That reduced the pain a bit for me so she wasnt dry sucking on a sore nipple.
That is a really good point, is it hurting throughout the whole feed, or just at the beginning? The count to 10 is a good rule, if you get to 10 and it still hurts you might need to reattach. If you get to 10 and it is settling it might be ok. This doesn't last forever, but i remember it from my early days.
Also, i almost never expressed more than 50ml at a time, however i was able to tandem feed 2 babies for over a year. Expressing really is not a sign of how much milk you have or can make.
one more, do you have a baby carrier? When my little ones were really unsettled, and i knew they had food in their tummy, and i needed a break DH would take off for a walk around the block with baby in the carrier. It gave me time to have a rest or shower and not have to worry about baby, and often the warmth, closeness and movement meant DH would come home with a baby asleep.
Tasha, you are doing a fantastic job! I remember needing to breathe deeply LOTS when DD started to feed because it was so painful, even without nipple issues. Sleep can help your milk production as long as your not missing many feeds. Sure helps the sanity!
A LC would be a great support right now. I'll PM you the details of a well known very experienced LC that lots of mums have used, including us. I've even cried(heaps) on the phone to her.
Eta- I had to burp DD at least 4 times per breast feed for ages. 4 times with a bottle too. She was a windy baby!
You're not doing anything wrong at all :hug: My babies never wanted to be put down either. I couldn't unless they were in a deep deep sleep. She just wants to be held and that's ok. Plus, when you hold her she will sleep longer so your nipples will have more time to heal.:
Now your milk has come in she is probably just spitting out the bottle because she is full. She will be getting lots from you. I would just keep an eye on her wet nappies and forget the expressing now.
I had a terrible beginning breastfeeding DD1. I remember feeling so anxious and crying worrying about when I would have to feed her next because it hurt so bad. It took us a while to work out attachment. I'm not sure who's helping you with attachment but try and see a LC if you can. I think the pain at just the beginning can be normal but if it keeps hurting after 10 seconds then take her off and try again. No matter how many times you have to take her off and start again it's ok. It's better that trying to just bear it and damaging you more. Are your nipples a normal shape after the feed? I could tell something was wrong if after feeding mine looked lipstick shaped or had a ridge. I ended up with bad blisters and a crack and wondered how I would ever get the hang of it but one day she just got it and it became easy. Hang in there lovely, it's hard I know but you CAN do it, you ARE doing it. :hug:
The first health nurse that came over was a LC, but the one today wasn't. Not sure who's coming tomorrow.
How do I go about getting a LC? How does it work?
Tasha, it sounds like you're working really hard at getting bf established, and that's awesome. How easy it it has nothing to do with how hard you try! Definitely try to see an LC... Whether or not the visiting midwives are LCs or not, is probably a bit random, it will depend on how your local service works, but it's most helpful to be seeing the same LC (as long as you like her) every time. Ring the clinic first thing and ask them if the health visitor who comes tomorrow could be one of the LCs, or ask for a referral to an LC, and try to see the same one each time. I think (from previous posts of yours) that you don't have a lot of spare money, but you can usually be referred by the health visitors to either a private or a publically funded LC.
Ask your maternity unit at your hospital - they should be able to help. That's how mine was organised :):
And I'm pretty sure the ABA runs groups too.
Yes it is extremely common - both mine lost around 14%. As far as I can tell 10% is just an easy number they came up with - there is no science behind why 10% is key - (if you think about it would be pretty weird for the magic number to come out scientifically at 10% - far more likely to be 11.654% or 9.234% etc - but that wouldn't be so easy to work out). As others have said every baby is different, every mother is different, every delivery is different (for example there are studies that suggest that babies delivered by c-section lose more weight as more is retained fluid due to fluids given to mother prior to c-section) - output is the key.:
Just an update..
Health nurse said I can drop the 3 hour feeds and bub has been sleeping through. I wake her after 4-4.5 hours to feed instead if she hasn't already woke. Nipples are doing better, right one is still ouchy, but using hydrogel breast discs which are working wonders! I think I had around 6 hours sleep last night all up, I feel amazing :) She fed at 8pm, 12am, 4am and so on and I average about 2.5 hours sleep in between.
Just an update..
Health nurse said I can drop the 3 hour feeds and bub has been sleeping through. I wake her after 4-4.5 hours to feed instead if she hasn't already woke. Nipples are doing better, right one is still ouchy, but using hydrogel breast discs which are working wonders! I think I had around 6 hours sleep last night all up, I feel amazing :) She fed at 8pm, 12am, 4am and so on and I average about 2.5 hours sleep in between.
Well done! Hang in there, and keep doing what feels right to you!
Awesome! You sound so much better in your last post. Amazing what a bit of sleep can do, and hopefully the blues are passing too. Well done!! xx
You're doing well! Glad you got a bit more sleep :)