My many breastfeeding woes!

[redwallday]

My DD is 14 weeks old and breastfeeding her has been an uphill battle from the start. Initially it was very very painful and it wasnt until around 8 weeks that it started to get better. During the day she is always on the boob and it takes lots of jiggling and entertaining to have a break between feeds. The max break she has between feeds is an hour and its always been the same.

Anyway at about 6 weeks she started sleeping through, 12 till 6ish and has pretty much slept through since whuch is great! She started to be really hard to put down to sleep for the night. She would fall asleep, Id put her down, she would wake straight up screaming her head off. This started to get stupid and was taking 10 attempts to get her down for the night. She didnt want to feed, she would suck for a few minutes then fall asleep again. Its gotten to the point where I cant put her down if asleep day or night! I started to get very stressed so my OH had to take over. So we introduced a bedtime bottle given by my OH of which she usually takes 9oz!!! She then goes down fine for my OH. She has been having it every night at 9pm for about a week but now as it approaches 9pm she is sooo unsettled on the boob. Crying and refusing it until I give her the bottle. Im gutted as I now feel like Im on a slippery slope to her refusing boob altogether.

I dont know what to do. Last night I tried to go without it and she screamed for half an hour!! Help :(

I dont know what to do because its the fact that my OH is the one who puts her down which means she stays down. If she comes back to me after the bottle for a fed she will cry when I put her down. Also every night she has had a bottle I have expressed but only get about 1oz off my right and nothing off my smaller left boob. But I have found expressing is getting harder!

Also just to add she is generally difficult, she hates the car, wont go in a pushchair so I carry her in a sling and she refuses a dumma

Tut, dummy!

Is she refusing the breast at any other time, or just the last feed at night?

Do you know why it was painful to start with, and what changed?

My DS was really difficult to feed at night, he just wouldn't latch. I used to give him as much boob as he'd take, then top up with milk I'd expressed. I expressed immediately after him going to bed on that ebm bottle to try and make the supply for that time establish. I wasn't so good at expressing - I got better with practice and when concentrating on DS - so the ebm bottle would be made of two expressing sessions, one in the evening and one after the morning feed, when you are meant to be in good supply. Can't remember when I stopped really but my supply is now well established (we are 10mo and I've posted about excessive let-down).

I also want to say that it was so so hard at first, and my DS went from the 75th centile to the 4th in the first weeks, so I was desperate and very worried. But it does get better and better and now I can't imagine what a hassle it would be to faff about with bottles. Do stick at it if you can, your supply will get there and your DC will make up any lost food during this time (we were on the 91st centile last time we checked). Good luck darling.

Just to say I'm going through this now too. However dd is only three weeks. She has fed ALL day and I couldn't even get round one shop this afternoon without her screaming for a feed. Prior to this, she had been squealing and pulling off my boob. Winding her, we thought, would sort it but no luck. My nerves in tatters, dh and I gave her a bottle when we got home. :( she gobbled down 6 oz and has since been on my boob again every hour since, although she is sleeping now.

I hate giving her a bottle and have to leave the room when dh feeds her it but we all get into such a state that it's done in desperation. I also have a toddler ds to look after so such intensive feeding is negatively impacting on him.

Hope your situation gets better. I wish there was a magic solution!

Do you want to drop the bottle?

It can be normal for baby's to be fussy in the evening there isn't nessary anything wrong or that you can do to fix it.

As you haven't been expressing this milk I think you'll find you mite have to gradualy reduce the amount in the bottle if you want to drop it all together. Or be prepared for a rough couple of nights while your supply catch's up.

Thanks for your responses everyone. Yes she feeds ok during the day 99% of the time. I am noticing that she will start bobbing on and off before she falls asleep on me in the day, so I think some of her frustration is being tired. She only ever falls asleep while feeding or in the sling and thats only after a good crying fit! Just to add her weight gain is fine. Shes on 50th for weight and 98th for height as she has mahoosive long legs!

Organiccarrotcake the pain I think was a mix of bad latch and the fact that I have very sensitive nipples and breasts. Also she had a bad habit if clamping down and then pulling off! To start with she pulled a whole layer of skin off doing this!