Hi, I have a 12 week old little girl (born 3 weeks early) and have struggled from birth (emergency c section) to get her to latch. Managed with some help from the feeding team to get a good latch and position before leaving hospital but by day 5, was readmitted for losing too much weight - when readmitted, she learnt to drink my expressed milk from a bottle ans we had a feeding plan to do so every 3 hours to ensure her weight went up- thankfully she regained her birth weight within 2 weeks.
My milk supply has always been good--I was given a pump in hospital on day 2 and was producing a lot of colostrum and then continued pumping at home and I get enough milk to cover her feeds. After having tried the first 5 days of exclusively breastfeeding and then realising little one was obviously not getting enough (or anything!), it created a lot of anxieties and confusion for me to know what to do for the best. I ended up taking the midwife's advice to try and breastfeed at every feed and to then top up with a bottle of my expressed milk after - the problem is that now at 12 weeks, she still always wants the top up bottle no matter how long she has fed from me. I thought maybe this had become a habit so tried to do a day of just breastfeeding (and pumped a few times to ensure supply stayed up) but little one just kept screaming and screaming until she had had a top up and it felt like I was starving her by trying to exclusively breastfeed in case she wasn't getting enough.
The problem and complex part is that I'm confused at what to do for the best--I'm now stuck in a complicated cycle of offering breast at the start of the feed (which she often takes for between 5 and 20 minutes.. Often 5-10), then feeding from a bottle of my expressed milk and then trying to pump once she has been fed.. She often falls asleep on me (further complicated by her having bad reflux (on medication and thickener and even tried dairy free diet!) but because she will only sleep on me, it makes it tricky to then pump ready for the next feed - I end up doing it either while she screams non stop sat up next to me,. Or I have to wait until she's really asleep (usually within an hr) to then be able to pump.. By which time it's almost time for her next feed and my breasts are then not as full as I've just emptied them. My little girl has had suction problems too-she had her tongue tie snipped which made it worse and so if the flow isn't fast then she just gives up.
I feel like I'm in catch 22 for varopus reasons - if I spend a few days not pumping and try to force her to breastfeed, she will likely not take enough and is already small for her age so am worried about her losing more weight.
If I continue pumping after every feed, my breasts aren't as full and she struggles to get enough to satisfy herself.
If I pump less then it affects my supply (and have had 2 bouts of bad mastistis already!)
The best case scenario would be for little one to exclusively breastfeed as I know the supply is there and this would save the awkwardnand timely step of having to express to feed from a bottle - I will move to formula if I really have to, it just seems such a shame with having such a good supply and because little one is so keen to latch on and feed from the breast (but just doesn't seem to have the tongue skills to get enough to be fully satisfied!).
So sorry for the very long post- can anybody help as am struggling to find posts of other people who combine breastfeeding with giving expressed breast milk. Many thanks!!