Support with swapping to formula?

[Moonrocks6]

Hi,
I am really sorry if my many posts today are annoying but I am tying myself up in knots trying to decide what to do for the best.

I have breastfed my two week old with very limited success. She has not gained weight, constantly falls asleep st the breast and finds the whole thing exhausting.
I think that this is mainly down to a tongue tie that has not been properly clipped. We have another appointment for it looking at next month.
I have been feeding, giving formula to top up and then expressing since Monday and she has gained weight bit each feed is now taking two hours and I can't sustain it.

Mw has said that she thinks that the bfing is too stressful and that I should consider my options. Do I am trying to decide whether to give up altogether and move to formula or whether to express and formula feed.
Could some lovely person please answer my questions?

1. If dd seems hungry at the moment I put her back on the breast. If I change to formula and she won't settle do I offer more formula or stick to the suggested amount?
   
2. How do you do your night feeds safely? We have a three story house and I'd prefer not to be down in kitchen while dd is screaming for food.
   
3. How many bottles would I need?
   
4. Any experience that you could share?

[Moonrocks6]

Sorry that is really bloody long. Thank you to anyone who manages to read it all and reply.

[LifeLong13]

I've no experience with FF but I just wanted to say BFing is fucking hard & you've done so well getting this far. If you decide to go back to BF after the TT appointment you need to express until then to keep your milk up. Do you think it could be a supply issue? Fenugreek and blessed thistle tea worked wonders when I needed to Up mine.

Good luck and I hope someone with more FF experience comes to help

[BlurtonOnKites4eva]

Hi, sorry you've been having such a shit time of it.

When formula feeding you feed on demand like breastfeeding. Ignore recommended amounts, don't do anything to try and cajole them into drinking more milk though eg. Bottle tapping/twizzling.

Main safety issue with bottles is using hot enough water to kill any nasties in the powdered milk. Take a flask of hot water and some sterilised bottles up with you. If you take a winecooler with ice and water to cool them down. Or you could use small readymade formula bottles overnight for a bit. It's not recommended but after my DD was four months old and seemed a bit sturdy I made bottles up, cooled them down and put them in fridge/cooler bag for up to twelve hours. You will find a method that suits you!

[BlurtonOnKites4eva]

You could get away with 3 bottles but 6-8 is convenient in the early days.

Do you reckon you could try combination feeding? Bottles in the day and bf from say 5pm to 5am? Night time is when the main action happens for keeping your supply up.

If your at the end of your tether though and it's making you feel mega shit just stop.

I had breastfeeding problems from day one and I stupidly persevered for 8 awful hideous weeks. I combo fed and did all the powerpumping, fenugreek and all that stuff and it still didn't work. I saw lactation consultants and asked everyone I knew for help and nothing helped it just didn't work. If I could turn back time I'd FF from the beginning, I was just stupidly determined and my stubbornness did not pay off. I didn't bond at all with my DD until I sacked off breastfeeding. I really regret not stopping sooner.

[yetanotherdeskmove]

Why is the TT not being looked at till next month?

[MonkeyBrainsInPickle]

Your situation sounds similar to mine. I had a traumatic birth. Breastfeeding actually seemed to be going ok, but on day four I sensed something wasn't right and took DD to A&E (on the advice of triage). Turns out DD was dehydrated and she ended up on a drip.

The advice of the feeding team at the hospital was to bf to help encourage supply, then top up with formula and then express. I think expecting woman to do that is a piss take tbh. I was on my knees. I couldn't manage expressing and looking after DD at the same time, so I was expressing when DD slept instead of sleeping myself. I felt Iike I was spending more time with a michine than with DD. Def not good for our bond, which is what they tell you is so great with bf!

Switching fully to formula was the best thing I ever did. DD thrived and she had a happier, more responsive mum.

I highly recommend the Perfect Prep machine. Absolute godsend.

[Moonrocks6]

It's not next month yet baby brain is getting the better of me. It's the 26th.

the main problem dude seems to be her tongue tie making it difficult for her to feed and this impacting on my supply.

The night seem to be the time when she finds feeding from me the most difficult so I'm not sure that combination feeding like that would work.

Just so confused about what to do for the best.

[HopelesslydevotedtoGu]

That's a very long wait to have her TT cut. When it is cut she will probably feed much more easily (although the older she is she will need to relearn how to feed).
Can you afford to see someone privately to have it cut asap?
When I was looking into it I was recommended several Lactation consultants in the £100-150 range, however we had it done on NHS quickly in the end

[yetanotherdeskmove]

I would really push to get the tt cut sooner. It does sound unsustainable what you are doing at the moment, but if the tt snipping will fix it then it's really worth pursuing further.

[Moonrocks6]

I will ring in the morning and see if I. So get it moved forwards. It's already been done once but is tied very far back. I don't seem to have much of a supply at all.

Still confused about preparing formula at night if anyone can advise me.

[BlurtonOnKites4eva]

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough before. Take a flask of hot water, sterilised bottles, formula powder and measuring spoons up to bed. When you wake up make up the bottle (I'll pretend your making a 4oz bottle) by pouring hot water from the flask into the bottle to the 120ml mark, then add 4 scoops of formula powder and shake like fuck. A 4 ounce bottle would take about 10 mins to cool to a reasonable temperature at room temp, about a minute under running water, bout 2 mins in some icy water.

You can get perfect prep machines which lots of people swear by for making bottles, or you can get 200ml bottles/cartons of sterile formula which you could take up to bed with you. They are expensive but maybe worth it in the early days.

[Moonrocks6]

Sorry blurton that was perfectly clear, I somehow missed it in your first post.
Cooling it sounds like a pain in the arse.

[BlurtonOnKites4eva]

No worries! I definitely needed it spelling out to me at first, it baffled me. Once you find a way that works for you it does get loads easier. I used the little pre made bottles when I was particularly tired. If you've got a bathroom upstairs or an ensuite could you cool them under the tap there? They also cool quicker if you put the bottle in something like a glass/mug/bowl and then put it under the tap.

[Kmxxx14]

I used to get a flask of boiling water and a flask of cooled boiled water. I'd add some boiling water then add the formula then top the bottle up with the cooled boiled water. This way any bacteria in the formula is killed and the bottle is instantly at the right temperature.

[Me624]

What Kmxxx14 said is what the Perfect Prep machine does and is imo the safest way to do it without the faff of cooling it down under running water/with ice etc. My DS was ff from about 2 weeks old and I used the ready made stuff for the first couple of days, then got a perfect prep. I used to leave DS in his Moses basket while I went downstairs to make the bottle and yes he was usually crying but with the PP machine it only takes 2 minutes so not long.