Hi All,
Sorry - just need to come and have a rant and ask your advice as well, please!!
My DS was born on Monday afternoon after a particularly gruelling, lengthy and difficult labour. He took to bf-ing straight away so even though I was on the fence about whether to do it or not I decided to go with it and see what happened. First night in hospital and then the second night back at home were really manageable and easy - he took a feed about 11pm, another one about 1am and then didn't want anything until about 6am.
Midwife was worried DS was looking a bit jandiced so she asked me to make sure he fed every 3 hours, which is what I did from Wednesday afternoon until last night (Thursday), with no problems and with great results - DS looks a lot pinker and more lively and alert. Then at 17:30 yesterday evening he was due a feed. He woke up, latched on and that was fine. But by 19:30 he was STILL feeding, without having had a break at all. I had a pretty major episiotomy done so I eventually had to take a bathroom break and go and clean my stitches. DS went crazy, even though I was only gone for 5 minutes and DH was holding him, screaming himself blue in the face. DS then proceeded to feed from 19:30 until 01:30 with no more than a 20 minute break.
My nipples are raw, I've had no sleep, I'm on antibiotics due to retained placenta, my stitches are killing me and I feel sick, tearful and guilty that I seem to have lost the hang of doing this. I breastfed DS at 01:30 and since then he's been fitfully dozing in the bed with me and DH because as soon as we put him in his crib he screams the place down. I gave in and gave him a dummy to suck at about 02:30 which has sort of quietened him down tho he keeps spitting it out after about twenty mins and then wailing again, so between that and the fact I'm very nervous about letting him sleep in the bed I've had no sleep at all in nearly 24 hours. Now my temperature is up, I'm bleeding a lot and when I tried to feed him again about 20 minutes ago I was crying with the pain.
I've had to resort to giving him a bottle of formula, which he's taken with gusto, gulping it all down. I'm wondering if the reason he's been feeding so much, that my nipples hurt so much and I've not been able to express any milk to give him is because my milk supply isn't enough to satisfy him?
Can I supplement with a couple of bottles of formula a day? Will this necessarily doom my attempts at breastfeeding?
I'm so disappointed because even though I wasn't 100% committed to breastfeeding from the outset, the last few days of doing it have been really lovely and a great bonding experience. But I'm in a terrible state physically, DS seems starving and really upset, and me and DH are now completely drained.
Your advice, experiences, ideas are all very much appreciated everyone - I'm at my wit's end!!