I am after some advice. This is hard one for me, as I had envisioned that baby M and I would only stop BF when she was good and ready.
However, I am unwell: with high temps, headaches nausea etc. and this has been going on now for roughly 5 weeks (with 5 days reprieve somewhere in the middle). Basically I am copping every virus that i come into contact with.
Which brings me to my dilemma. I am now finding BF nigh on impossible. I feel so so weak after each feed (she is demand fed) and because i am unwell, i guess my supply is a bit lower and she is also seeking extra comfort so is feeding ALOT. but even on a normal scale, atm i am finding it really hard to even hold her.
Part of me is saying to just wait it out, but I have had a time in my BF journey with DD1 where I had a chronic illness for roughly 10 months (and I BF through that), and well, I just dont want any risk of prolonging recovery ITMS.
Do you think by BF i could be asking too much on my body? Or is it separate??
I dont really want to stop, but I also dont want to put myself in a position of a long drawn out illness...
I think that it may be mostly separate.
Lack of sleep is correlated with being sick, and if your LO is now waking you for more feeds then that is a bit of a nasty cycle.
But the number of nasty viruses going around at the moment is horrendous - we have also had what seems like a non-stop run (courtesy of DS collecting them at childcare/swimming/kindy; he gets somewhat sick and DH and I get somewhat sicker). And we really can't blame the few feeds he has a week for making us run down.
If anything your immune system should work better whilst breastfeeding, so stopping now may not be very good for getting rid of the virus.
And I am a bit concerned that by blaming BF-ing you may be missing another more important issue.
Can you make your own nutrition, gentle exercise and sleep your priorities, without full on weaning? Try feeding lying down (on the floor if you have to) so that you don't have to hold miss M, and so that ideally she can come to you. And can your partner take on more night duty (armed with bottles if need be) for a little while?
There is alot of pressure by DH and family to wean as they all believe that it is contributing to my pretty crappy immunity, which has not helped as of course they are now really applying the pressure while i am down.
we do feed lying down most times (do alot of co-sleeping etc). but i am finding the physical exertion of even doing these feeds atm really hard to handle. but like you said, it might be more related to the virus generally than the BF
I am so lost
I have an appointment with the the chinese dr and the naturopath coming up as yeah, there must be other issues going on as I seem to quite vulnerable to lurgies (rhuematic fever 3 weeks ago and now this!!!).
You may want to consider swapping from "demand feeding" to Mummy-led-a-bit-more feeding.
Things like offering some food and water and a cuddle during the day before offering a BF. I think that your DDs clinginess is probably as much separation anxiety as anything else (i.e. I know Mum can't leave me if I have her nipple hostage), and she may actually be OK with lots of cuddles and less feeds.
Oh you poor thing!
She's 1 now, right? (already!) So a mummy-led approach might work better. Do you have someone else who can help with nighttime wakings?
And your immunity would be higher when breastfeeding, yeah
Really hope you're doing better soon
Interestingly, this is happening *in spite* of breastfeeding - not because of it. You have breastfed long and well, but this is an illness, not caused or exacerbated by breastfeeding. You will get better whether or not you are breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is actually designed to be *easy* on your system. It does not suppress your immune system. And many mothers find that it is an easy way to comfort a high needs toddler. The pressure mums get from relatives to wean is dreadful and often insurmountable, but those rellies often *disappear * when you are up trying to comfort a baby *without* breastfeeding. So think carefully before you wean altogether
[ADVICE] I might have to wean :(
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks