Here we go again, help preserve my sanity...

[MrsCaptainReynolds]

Need some rational advice.

BFing DS2. He arrived following a precipitous labour 9 days ago. 7lb 3oz at birth. Excellent suck and latching from the start and I seemed to have a good amount of colostrum. Milk in on day 4. But his weight dropped and is yet to recover. Dropped to 6lb 11oz by day 4, now on day 9 it's 6lb 10oz.

The midwife and BF advisor are full of suggestions but the problem is I've been down this road before with DS1 who was really slow to gain weight and didn't really thrive until we started topping up with formula around 4 months.

Basically I think the problem is oversupply. I have a huge amount of foremilk and poor DS is exhausted by the time we get to anything less watery. It also spurts fairly fast and abundently at the beginning of every feed so he can get a bit pissed off getting latched on. He's much happier feeding on a near empty breast.

Because of this I've been block feeding i.e. sticking with one breast for around 3 hours so he can get to the hindmilk and to stop overstimulating my breasts. I think this is really helping, he's much more satisfied and my breasts are less like concrete balls spraying water everywhere -what comes out is generally white at least!

But the weight loss is troubling the midwife and while I feel we just need a bit of time, I'm now being asked to let them weigh him daily and being asked to express. I'm resolutely against expressing as this made my oversupply problem so much worse and started a period of real misery last time. But they are so keen that I do, they've been getting the local breast feeding advisor to call me and harrass me about why I won't express.

All I want to do now, for a few days at least, is continue feeding on demand, and continue block feeding.

Does this seem unreasonable? Does anyone have any other suggestions for my situation?

[stargirl1701]

I'm a bit further down the road OP (DD2 is 6 weeks). Have you read this?

www.llli.org/faq/oversupply.html

[MrsCaptainReynolds]

That's really helpful, thank you.

[stargirl1701]

Have you phoned a helpline? I find the LLL one excellent. It might give you a second expert opinion to fight your case.

[mineofuselessinformation]

I have no direct experience of this, but would say as long as your baby seems healthy and happy, stick with it. You've successfully fed one baby, so obviously know what you're doing!
Keep nodding and smiling, carrying on with what you know will work in the meantime.