A few concerns about bf, looking for advice / reassurance

[RaisingMrC]

Hello,

I've been ebfing my 8 week old from birth (and doing so now, so this post may be a bit illiterate looking!)

I can't shake off the feeling I don't produce much milk - here's why:
-he seems to need to feed a huge amount, roughly 2 hourly including at night.
-he feeds for ages at a time and doesn't seem to want to get off the boob, though granted he does fall asleep and dawdle a lot !
-I have only been able to express an ounce at a time (in about half an hour then stop out of boredom)
-I've never suffered from leakage / rock hard boobs.

He is growing well, producing lots of wet nappies though sometimes does seem frustrated at the breast, comes off and on, claws, kicks legs.

I've had the latch looked at a few times and told its fine, am not in any pain.

What do people think - and will things change over time, while i want to continue with bf, i do get to the point - when he seems constantly hungry - where i wonder how much longer i can! Any views / advice / reassurance greatfully received!

comixminx - I'm going to answer your post to as you said a couple of things that I'd like to address.

If your DD is putting on weight, producing lots of wet/dirty nappies and is well and allert. Then expressing is really not going to be of much benafit to either of you. You should just feed on demand, this is by far the best way to increase your milk supply. espicaly night feeds as your hormone production for producing milk is higher at night.

3 week's is really a bit to young to introduce a bottle, you should wait at lest 4-6week's if you want to add a bottle to make sure your supply is well etabilshed and that you reduce the possiblity of nipple confusion. All mum's who consider introducing a bottle at any age should be aware of the possibility that any baby can then refusse the breast. Not saying it doesn't work great for a lot of people but you should be aware of the possiblity.

Even a full BF baby will often take more milk from a bottle as milk just flows out of the bottle and they don't have to suck at it like the brest, so this isn't really an indication of how full she is.

Babies at this age offten seem more unstealed in the evening and will cluster feed, it helps them go longer at night.

The MW reckoned she should only really need to feed for approx 20 mins at a time at this age, have others also heard this and is it true? This really isn't the case at all, a lot of babies at 3 week's can feed upto an hour at a time. Plus if they are cluster feeding it offten feel's like one feed is running into the next and you don't always realise that they are actualy have a collection of short feeds.

Have a good read of the kellymom website it'll give you a much better idea as to what to expect from feeding at this age.

Your doing a great job by the sounds of it so don't let the MW put you off.

Hi MigGril, thanks for the feedback. The thing is that yesterday it certainly did seem like the increased frequency of expressing over the previous couple of days had made a difference to my milk production - suddenly I expressed a lot more in one go and had leakier breasts. I should have said earlier that the mw thought that the latch was ok but could be improved, so maybe the pump will be better at upping my milk production than the baby, in this case. Anyway it does seem to have made a big difference so I'm going to continue with it. (I feel like the latch is fine overall to be honest; it probably could be improved a bit I suppose.)

Surely the possibility of nipple confusion is just that - a possibility? I wanted to give it a go because we were using syringes, and with them it took absolutely ages to give her a decent size meal. The bottle is an Aptamil one that says it reduces likelihood of nipple confusion because of the way it's made; seems to have worked ok so far and we are only using it for one feed a day, or so.

What you're saying about the feeding times is very true; my DD feeds for a longish time and then does it again - there's quite a lot of cluster feeding going on there I think!

I never experienced leakage/engorgement and worried about supply but was told at Baby Cafe by BF counsellor that some women don't and it's not a problem.