Have boobies... will travel

[Barb Glare]

Hi,
Glad you found it helpful, Jodie. I wonder what would happen if you fed her say, i5, 20 mins on one side then took her off when she starts to doze a bit (she may make a desperate grab for it!) and then burped/give her a nappy change and then give her the other side? After she has been on for say 20-30mins that side, take her off (she'll do the "grab for the nipple thing again) but hold her tight and cuddle her til she goes back to sleep. The net effect is that she may wake up more frequently. I was a little confused b/c you were saying that she has no trouble going to sleep, but then giving her formula helped her go to sleep. (It can be different every time, that's for sure!) Sometimes they don't really *need* the extra food to go to sleep, but need the extra sucking. That's where a dummy can be useful - it satisies that need for extra sucking, and between rocking and cuddling you can get them to go off to sleep without needing that really, really full feeling. You will probably have a time of the day or night when she wants to feed *a lot* over a period of 2 or 3 hours. Usually in the evening. This can be hard for mums to deal with, as it's often when we are tired as well. You are doing a great job, and breastfeeding doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing, but, more shorter feeds will help you make more breastmilk, if that is what you are after.
Regards
Barb

[Janie]

Jodie, good on you hun, you're doing a great job

I think Barb's advice is excellent. It sounds like you and I have had very similar problems with BFing. I had a very sleepy bub (premmie) and had to wake him to feed etc for many weeks. I also used to let him spend an hour or so on the boob. In hindsight it would have been better if I'd done as Barb has suggested to you - feed for approx. 20 mins on one side, then burp/change, and then offer the other side......doing this around every 3 hours or so. The idea is to get as many feeds as possible into these little ones, not necessarily spend a long time on the boob each feed. That's not to say that all that sucking is a bad thing though!

Sleepy babies are not necessarily babies that have full tummies. It's hard to see it that way, but sometimes it's better to wake them more frequently, even though we feel 'mean' doing so.

I have always had to comp feed with formula, and TBH, although I'm ecstatic that we have continued to BF this long, I wish it could have been exclusive BFing. I think if I had done as I've describe above we would have had a better chance at weaning off the formula early on. I have a reasonable supply these days, but DS is so used to his bottles now, it would take alot of work to get rid of them......and I don't want to jeopardise our BFing realtionship.

If you want to chat at all, feel free to PM me. And keep up the good work!