DS was born 9 days ago via C Section and we were in hospital until he was 6 days old. He fed from the breast within an hour of being born, but after that was very sleepy. I was assured this was normal in the first 24 hrs or so.
By day 3, I was concerned that he wasn't weeing very much at all and he was far too fond of sleeping! I was advised to put him to the breast 3 hourly and to wake him if necessary. Sometimes it wasn't but he'd often drift off after a few sucks. I've also been worried about his latch and asked soooo many staff on the ward for help and advice. It got really frustrating as one MW would say "Next time he feeds, we'll try this" only for the next time to be when another MW had come on duty who then told me something different. All through this time I was worried he wasn't getting enough from me.
On day 4, he suddenly seemed to switch on and fed for extended periods and I was delighted that we seemed to be sorting ourselves out, but on day 5, the day we should have been discharged, he'd lost 11.3% of his birth weight, so we had to stay in and I was told that "We need to be more proactive" and to feed him 3 hourly for up to 30 mins, top him up with expressed breast milk and or formula, then for me to express as much as possible too.I wasn't happy particularly about this, but was at such a low ebb having thought we were getting BF sorted only to find out he'd lost too much weight, I didn't feel confident enough to say no.
Anyway, we implemented this and by the following day, he'd put on 50g so we were allowed home. This was on Wednesday and we've been following the plan ever since. By yesterday, he'd put on a further 100g, which is fab.
I'm concerned/confused for a number of reasons:
- I'm still not sure my milk's come in properly. I know that it can be delayed with a CS. I have large breasts but have never felt the 'full to bursting' sensation that people describe when their milk comes in. I was expecting 2 beach balls but they don't feel much firmer than normal and only occasionally has one leaked whilst I've been feeding from the other and that was more because I was putting pressure on it by reaching round to the other one! I am managing to express a good 50-70mls every 3 hours or so - would I be able to do this if my milk hadn't come in?
2)DS is still quite sleepy, although over the last day or so has begun to be a little more alert and has woken himself a few times to be fed. We still have to wake him quite often and he still regularly drops off after only a few sucks at the breast, resulting in lots of feet tickling, stripping off, etc to keep him awake. I've read loads of advice on here about demand feeding and how newborns need to feed loads, but how can I do this if he's not waking up?
He can feed well for a good 40 mins, detach himself and not want to go back on the breast, but still glug down some formula or expressed BM a few minutes later - would he do this if he was getting a decent amount of milk from me? I assume not. He seems to be doing a combination of smaller and slower, longer sucks and seems to concentrate when on the breast on these occasions.
Basically, am I doing more harm than good following the hospital's advice and would I be better just trying to BF him more often? I'm worried that if I did this he wouldn't put the weight on/might lose some as even three hourly it can be a real battle to wake him to feed but equally I'm worried that I'm messing up my supply by all this expressing and topping up at such an early stage.
Somebody talk some sense to me please! I've had so much well meaning but conflicting advice whilst on the ward and all I want to do is breast feed my little boy!
Thank you in anticipation, and for wading through such a long post!