I had an absolute disaster feeding Ds1 who is now 2. Was desperate to breastfeed and thought all was well until he had lost 12% of his birthweight at 2 weeks and was readmitted. I was given no choice other than supplementing with formula. Cue three weeks of feeding, supplementing, expressing on a 3hrly cycle day and night with fenugreek and domperidone. I reached the point where I just couldn't sustain it and gave up. He immediately started to gain a pound a week. No one could tell me what went wrong- it just didn't work. I regretted giving up and even though it was the right thing I'm still not really over it and feel very raw that I was denied a full breastfeeding experience. That's the background to where i am emotionally at thus stage.
Dd born 6 weeks ago. I was determined this time i would succeed and saw LC antenatally. I even expressed colostrum antenatally (and had a shed load to express). We had a bit of a rough start with jaundice on first 24hrs and a skin infection requiring iv antibiotics- in hospital for 6 days. Again all seemed well but she has had really poor weight gain. She is on the second centile gaining just under 4oz per week. She was 6.13 at birth, now only 7.8. At the moment she feeds virtually all day. Plenty wet and dirty nappies. She never really comes off the breast on her own but is relatively contented and sleeps a 4 or 5hr stretch at night.
I guess I just need to decide what is best for her. Do I reconcile myself to a skinny EBF baby (she looks unhealthy) or supplement and have her gain properly? I am so committed to bf and don't know if this is clouding my judgement. At the moment she has a 2oz top up of ebm (expressed after night feeds- I can't get much when i express and although I know it is no indication of how much milk she gets it is pretty confidence sapping) at bedtime given by SNS. I just feel it is a bit unsustainable and I need a slap one way or the other but don't know the right thing to do. My confidence is rock bottom and to be honest I feel I have failed again this time already. On the plus side DH is an angel and really seems to get it and is there for me. He thinks she is doing ok but I'm not so sure.
Any thoughts or experiences appreciated. Sorry for the essay but thought it would help to write it all down. Oh and she also had a posterior Tongue tie snipped at three weeks but I wasn't sore and don't know if it has made much difference- they said it was a really minor one.