Did you breast feed?

[K1999]

My baby boy is only 2 days old but he doesn't feed a lot..at all. Maybe one decent latch and feed a day. He's had a few poos and wees though. But the midwife said he should be feeding ever 2-3 hours but he's really not!
He's just sleeping lots and lots. Any advice please as google basically tells me I'm awful

Hope you and the baby are okay. You did the right thing seeking help. Turns out you are a great mum doesn’t it. You’re baby needed help and you got it. You’re going to be brilliant, keep seeking help whenever you need it.

That’s really good - I hope you’re both ok

@SunshineSmellsLikeSummer I cannot believe you went through that! Honestly sad that there are people like that on this earth. You did so well!

We're in hospital now, had his bloods checked and they're not too worried. Doctors going to come in and do some checks and see if we should stay over night for observations. Having skin to skin at the minute :)
He may just be a very lazy baby, (not surprising if you knew his dad 😆) but as you all said, the fluids is just not enough so I needed to come up regardless. Again, thank you all for your advice and kindness x

You’ve done the right thing. Mine is a year old and still breastfeeding. But on day two my milk still hadn’t come in, he was in NICU and I was crying my eyes out because a nurse told me they needed me to give permission to try formula.

He had formula. The world didn’t end. The midwives and nurses helped me get my milk established. He started to gain weight and thrive. I had more help (tongue tie, lip tie, tiny premie mouth) and I started to thrive too. Now he’s a healthy happy almost toddler. Who still loves a breastfeed.

Aw glad all is ok. You definitely did the right thing. Was just coming on to say newborns need to be fed every three hours and to wake your baby to feed them. My first struggled and lost a lot of weight. We used to take clothes off to wake her up to feed her and tickle her toes. Also I expressed and we topped up too with a bottle.

Congratulations on your baby 💕💕

K1999 I just didnt want you to feel awful. T happens so easily.

You've done the right thing - trust your instincts and I will repeat - you are not awful, you are awesome

Congratulations on your little baby!

Has he been checked for tongue tie? My little one had that and it was a good few days before he had it snipped then started feeding properly. It caused major issues at first for me trying to breastfeed. He was hardly feeding because he wasn't able to do it properly. Luckily a midwife spotted it for us.

Amazed at previous poster being sneered at. I worked as NICU nurse and in Transitional unit..saw many woman in bits attempting breastfeeding.. we were 'not allowed' to suggest formula..though it was available. As a mum of 2 which were sections..I tried with 1st then went to formula as I thought was best. And with second straight to formula. Contact your HV if you need support but please do not give yourself a hard time. Your MH is extremely important etc

So he's not jaundiced! He's just extremely exhausted (was quite a traumatic birth) so he didn't have the energy to feed which means low calories lower energy. Going to express and syringe it in and hopefully can just go home with a plan! X

I had a sleepy, slightly early and jaundiced baby. He was sleeping instead of eating. I kept a pint of cold water near me when feeding and kept putting the glass on his leg when he fell asleep to wake him back up to continue to eat. Sounds a bit mean but it was really important that he ate more. Good luck with the syringing! Xxx

My first baby was exhausted after a traumatic birth too and I had a lot of trouble getting her to latch on because she would always fall asleep and when she did latch she would only be on a couple of minutes. We left hospital when she was 5 days old (other problems meant we had to stay in) my milk didnt come in until day 6. It was a very challenging first couple of weeks, but we got there through little and often feeds. She was a big baby so there were never concerns from midwives about weight loss but I was terrified! Everything settled and breastfeeding became a joy. Fingers crossed it will for you too.

I hope the hospital give you some good advice and congratulations

Put to the breast, then top up with expressed bm, wake for feeds I had to so this with both mine, ended up dropping the bottles. so it is poss. Always offer boob first, How is the latch? Do you find differing positions helps. Do liots of skin to skin. If you can get a breast feeding suplementer system going that will also help, but a lot of pople don,t know about that.

Good news, OP. Once he’s got some more milk in to him he will have more energy and you may be feeding round the clock for a few days - don’t panic if this happens, he just needs to do this for a bit to stimulate your milk supply.

I had a really tricky time with this with DS2 who was jaundiced (and had a tongue tie!) he also list 12% of his weight in day 3 so we were readmitted for a couple of nights for light therapy.

If you can get your hands on a pump you could express for a while and see how you go?

I had a 3 hourly routine that went something like this:

1. wake and attempt to feed baby from the breast (Change nappy and strip down if not that interested)

2. feed baby warmed expressed milk
   from a bottle to top up. We were on a feeding plan so they told me how much to offer him based on his weight.

3. change baby and settle back to sleep/pass to DP/DH!

4. pump so I had milk for the next feed.

5. sleep!

I kept that routine up 24 hours a day for a week (it sounds hideous but once I got into a routine it wasn’t too bad). As he got stronger and more awake I was able to get him to take more and more directly from the breast until I was able to drop the top ups entirely.

He’s 12 months now and still very keen on the boob!

@SunshineSmellsLikeSummer my son was in NICU for 12 days. He was tube fed to start as he wasn't getting enough milk. The complete opposite happened to me. I chose to exclusively formula feed, I knew I didn't even want to try breastfeeding at all. The looks I got from the rude staff because of my choice were disgusting. Anyone would think I'd committed the worlds worst crime just because I chose not to breastfeed or express breast milk.

Op I'm glad you got some help

I don't think my baby fed at all until the second or third day. He was hungry buy would not latch on. They did give him a bottle eventually but only one, then between us figured it out but it wasn't until the second week that I felt we really got the hang of it.
My daughter was in NICU for four days and was fed through a tube. I would try and feed her when I could. Day four she came out and latched on and didn't let go for a year (so it felt).
Keep trying but don't be afraid to use a bottle of you are worried. You will not dry up if you miss the odd feed. And of it doesn't work out don't beat yourself up about it.

Glad you reached out for some support OP. I had to wake little one lots in the early days, usually get them down to just nappy, blowing on their face, tickling feet etc, usually when latched would happily feed, and then soon doze back off, so often repeated!

I breastfed both of mine for over a year, you need to wake him, strip him to his nappy, tap his little feet, tickle his feet, (my friend used a cold wet towel on her DD's feet 🤣)

My DS is 8 weeks today and a real chubster with a huge appetite.

At 3 days old we had him in hospital for exactly the same as this. Wouldn’t wake up to feed and barely ate anything, we felt like terrible parents. You’re doing a fab job don’t let this put you off, you’re both learning push through and carry on.

Once he’s regained a little strength, if he’s still a sleepy eater try stripping him down to feed and sticking a cool flannel on his feet xx

Good luck OP! Do whatever you need to do to get him full of food, if that means formula then that's the right thing.

I had long hard birth with dd and she was super drowsy, lost loads of weight and didn't want to feed. It was awful and I took it personally when really I was just new at everything and getting over the birth and doing my best, like you are.

We did express milk and formula top ups for a month or two then went ebf, bf until she was almost 2.

Thanks for updating op :) Glad he's been seen and that they aren't too worried, and that you have a plan.

Good news. Get that nip in his mouth

Congratulations and hang in there. Rest yourself too if it was a traumatic birth op. Sofa, Netflix, chocolate, DS. That’s what you need - oh and DH to do some fetching of various things. You’ve got this.

You're all so fantastic thank you so much. Home now! He's had a good feed with formula by cup and a syringe full of colostrum. Got a good plan in place and I'm optimistic about everything now. I can't thank the people telling me to get help from the start enough, so glad I did! FTM so it's all pretty daunting!
Thank you all for your personal stories too they made me feel so much more relaxed and nice to read while waiting up hospital ❤️

I'm glad you've got the help you needed OP. DD was sleepy at first and the hospital midwives said to wake to feed after 6 hours, I didn't know any better and got a bit of huffing from the community midwife on day 2 who said that's just the first one and it should be every 2/3. DD soon picked up, though still used to try to sleep on the breast after 5 mins, I used to blow gently on her face to keep her going.

Fab news - so relieved!!