Help! Just re-established BF and now worried: am I starving my DD?

[Andromaca]

Hello there, my DD was born pre-term with an emergency C section due to my severe eclampsia and because she was low weight and very sleepy in the hospital they gave her formula. As soon as i arrived at home I started expressing breast milk and she was for the first 4 weeks bottle fed with exclusively breast milk, at the biginning waking her up every 3 hours to have her drinking an average of 90 ml, but i have more in my breast (i usuallly express 150 ml) and she was gaining a lot of weight .
She is now almost 6 weeks, and since saturday we are back at exclusively BF on demand (no bottle anymore, but such an hard work!!) but my Italian MIL insist in weighting her before and after every feed and she now drink 50-70 ml every 2-3 hours during the day, even more often, and every 3-4 hours during the night, sucking for around 20 min and then going back to sleep. She pass a stool every 24-36 hours, but when she does it it's a explosive!!
is it ok? should i force here to drink more or more often? should i top her up with EBM in a bottle? i'm still expressing after every fed to mantain my milk supply, but I'm wondering if she is having enough milk and if i have to go back to bottle because she is not fussy at all and i'm scared that i'm starving her and sh is too weak to complain... Am I starving my DD?

[IControlSandwichMonkey]

Weighing her before and after every feed seems absolutely guaranteed to pile on the pressure.

If you want to improve supply then the baby suckling is much better than a pump.

Is she weeing? Alert? Gaining weight? What is the poo like?

The feeding pattern doesn't sound abnormal to me. My dd fed every couple of hours until nearly a year old.

[IControlSandwichMonkey]

And by the way, WELL DONE. Getting back to exclusive feeding is wonderful.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Tell your italian MIL to butt out and stop weighing her.
No, don't force her to drink more than she wants.
You don't need to express after every feed to maintain your supply. If she is feeding on demand then she is maintaining your supply to exactly the level she needs.
No you are not starving her.
Explosive poos quite normal at this age.

Well done for achieving this after such a difficult start.

[Andromaca]

Hi, she is weeing around 6,7 times a day, transparent, the poo is yellowish and not solid, she is aways been a very sleepy girl, but she does not seems more sleepy than usual to me. She is gaining weight, not so much as she was when I was bottle-feeding but she is still gaining weight.
Everyone around me is saying that I should go back to feed her from a bottle with my expressed milk because is easier, but i love having her at my breast and it was so hard to re-attach her at the breast that i don't want to give up!

[squashimodo]

Wow, you are doing sowell, do not give up. You have worked so hard to get this far. Well done!

[EyeoftheStorm]

Our situation couldn't be closer. I have premature baby - now 3.5 months (6weeks adjusted age). I expressed while he was in NICU and gave him EBM bottles for 2 months until he came home and I managed to establish breast feeding. To begin with I gave EBM bottles at night because it was quicker and I knew how much he was getting. As he grew I dropped the bottle slowly and now only breastfeed.

My DS2 has fed like your DD for the last month and has been weighed once a week. It's enough. You are doing brilliantly - only someone who has done it knows how hard it is to establish breastfeeding after all the stress and difficulties of an early birth.

Don't let ANYONE discourage you if it's what you want to do.

[Andromaca]

thank you all for your support, I'm really less concerned now... and I think is time to send my MIL back to Italy... I quite like the idea

[Hulla]

I just had to post to say well done for getting back to ebf! You have done amazingly well. I can't add much to answer your questions except to say if my dd wasn't being fed enough at 6 weeks she definately knew how to let me know!

I think you've done an amazing job