Very long-time lurker here. I've got many a good piece of advice from these forums in the middle of the night. Now needing some sage wisdom as I'm lying on the sofa crying and this is not me and not who I want to be!
DD is 3 weeks old, our first much longed-for IVF baby. I always intended to breastfeed but was unable to after the birth - stayed in hospital for 2 nights and had various midwives helping and prodding about but she would not latch on. Thought this could be due to my nipples being fairly flat, or because DD was 2 weeks early. Discharged from hospital expressing milk.
I tried nipple shields but found them really faffy and DD lost weight - was sent back to hospital and dr suspected she was losing too much energy trying to feed through the shields and not getting much milk. Stopped using shields and she's gaining weight now.
This past weekend DD latched on at last! She seemed to be feeding well, sucking and swallowing, milk in her mouth after she came off etc. Went to BF clinic yesterday and was told all looks good. Then she fed most of the afternoon, and constantly from 8.30pm til 1.30am, screaming if she came off the breast for a few seconds. At 1.30am I was dozing/hallucinating (had very little sleep previous night too) and crying, kep reading articles online about how this was normal, keep going etc. DH woke to me crying, got a bottle of expressed milk, gave her about 50ml and she slept for 3.5 hours.
Today I've continued BF but she seems very unsettled between feeds. Brought my duvet down to the sofa as I'm still desperately tired and tearful but DD is making quiet moaning/snuffling/grunting noises and I just can't sleep. So tempted to give her a bottle. I've cancelled seeing friends this afternoon. I can't help thinking if I had just stuck to expressing and bottle feeding things would be easier. I've seen so many people saying how wonderful breastfeeding is. When does the wonderful bit kick in? I don't want to quit so soon but sleep deprivation is making me feel miserable and ill.
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Infant feeding
Started breastfeeding at 3wks, now I want to quit after 3 days!
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vincentaroony · 24/01/2017 13:38
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