Help! Help! Help!

[misspollysdolly]

Gorgeous DD is four DAYS old. We have been readmitted tohospital because she has lost 13% of her birthweight (she was c-section born and fat with fluid if that makes difference to anything). She is my third DC and I am passionately committed to exclusively breastfeeding. My milk us only just coming in today. DD is feeding well. Latch is fine. Very content and sleeping between feeds. Poo and wee are both appearing at intervals. However here we are in hospital. She isnow subject to a delightful 'feeding programme' and I have just declined topping her up with formula against advice and am now feeling thoroughly confused about what to do for the best for my baby. She is now to be fed three-hourly (not 'on demand') I can only keep her on the breast for 30 mins each time 'so that she doesn't use up too much energy feeding' (apparently the amount used fretting and yelling for Mummy isn't the same thing at all) and I need to express using a pump so that she can be topped up with my milk on too of her reduced feed from me. Allof this goes against the grain and yet I'm adamant not to add formula in at all. I think that will muckabout with her system ament supply. Can someone help me make sense of all this and tell me what to do. DD is yelling. DH is holding her. I want to feed her. Help!

Thank you.

Another 100g on today and at 28 days, we are finally discharged from the Midwives - Yay!

tiktok (and others) - if you are still following this thread(!), just wanted to ask a quick question as confidence though pretty much restored is still easily wobbled...!

So my question is this: Now that we are not being uber-monitored (discharged from MWs last week, not seeing HV for a fortnight, so just getting on with it now) should I still be concerned about long-ish gaps/naps between DD's feeds...? If, for example, we get up in the morning (having had 2 or 3 'sides/boobs' in the night) and she has a feed from one side, then - relatively unexpectedly (since every day is still different...!) - she sleeps for 1-2 hours, should I leave her or wake her to try and get more milk into her...? Should I take her sleeping as contentment and a happy full-enough baby? Or should I be twitching and worrying that she hasn't taken on enough food...? If I'm not careful, I twitch and worry, but my instinct (which I'm trying to fully restore) says, 'she's sleeping, let her sleep, don't wake her, she'll wake when she's hungry'. This question extends to nighttime too - currently I'm co-sleeping so feeding as she stirs (about twice or three times per night), but she has miraculously done some sleeps in her cot - should I just go with night sleeps, regardless of how long they are? Or should I still be waking her to feed every 'X' hours...?

Sorry to sound like I'm stressing - I'm actually not horribly stressed, it's just a niggle really, and a dent that remains in my confidence. Sorry! On the whole, be reassured that we are both fine and DD is an absolutely joy, feeding well (ebf now) and sleeping pretty well too. MPD

Just bumping

Hi MPD- so glad that you've been discharged from the mws- must be a relief!

Sorry, I don't really know the answer to your questions. Personally I would tend towards letting her sleep when she needs it and seeing how things are when you re-weigh in a couple of weeks time. (I'm assuming she's back to birth weight now?)

Hopefully this will bump it enough for tiktok to pop along and give you her thoughts.

Hi crikeybadger - at the last weigh-in she was not quite at her birthweight but near enough and heading in the right direction. Won't be seeing anyone for a few weeks now (unless I choose to go to baby clinic, but there was no pressure on me to do this) so have to trust all continues to be well. Her nappies suggest all is fine .

Thanks for your support. I really appreciate it MPD

Just popping back with a happy little update before putting this thread to bed. DD is now 7 and a bit weeks old and an absolute delight. She was weighed on Thursday for the first time in three weeks and had gained over a pound in that time, meaning she is now well over her birth weight and happily pootling along on the 25th centile. She is completely EBF and we are both loving this. Thank you - especially crikeybadger and tiktok - for your interest, advice and support. All is well and life is good MPD

Ah, that is so good to hear MPD .

So glad to hear that things worked out, thanks for coming back to update and hope you have many happy breastfeeding times ahead of you.

:( Lovely happy thread. :) Congratulations. :)

Ooops, 1st was supposed to be :) not :( !!!

Hi there, so much of your worries sound so familiar.
after having my baby 4 wks early I was in a daze and did what everyone told me, midwife 1 would have diff opinion to midwife 2 and 3 etc. I was expressing and then bottle feeding ebm then formula. Ds ended up having to have formula top ups to ensure good blood sugar levels and to clear jaundice. So I went with the flow, not cause I'm easy going but because I was afraid to go against the medical advice. At 5 days we were discharged and my milk came in the day after and we have been ebf since then. Not easy but we stuck out the early weeks and now I'm addicted I think!
In the end up I had an excellent midwife to told me to listen to no one but my own instincts and to do what feels right, whether it be ebf or ff, and when I decided ebf she said throw away all books, feed baby when he's hungry, or when he wants to suckle at breast, let him sleep when he wants to sleep (I had been waking him to feed as per hospital instructions) and don't worry about routines etc.

You can get into such a muddle and so stressed trying to be good at breastfeeding and worrying about supply etc I know I did, but seriously some of the best advice I got was to CHILL OUT! and relax, much easier said than done!
It's not easy, but as others have said, first 6 weeks are hardest then it gets easier, good luck!
Ps I've read a lot of times on here for all baby worries to remember that "this too shall pass"!
Pss, def get a good pump, I pumped in mornings after feeding to get a good supply going and have only just packed it away.