not feeding 2 week old at night - is this what's causing problems?

[lookout]

i've started so many threads now, we're having such trouble and i can't stop worrying that i'm doing everything wrong.

ds has a tongue tie, due to be cut friday, we're combining nipple shields and expressed in bottles on advice of bf midwife.

for about a week i've been feeding til midnight then dh has given a bottle of expressed before bringing ds to me between 6 and 7am so i can sleep. ds doesn't wake for more than one feed during that time. during the day he feeds every 2-3 hours.

problem is one side is hardly producing any milk, he fusses, falls asleep and screams when he comes off that side. other one is fine, he always seems satisfied after feeding. again on advice, i'm expressing for 10 minutes after every feed on the bad side (i barely get 1/2 ounce ) and the accumulated amount gets given as a top up as and when he doesn't settle after a feed.

having read some other threads, i'm worried that my not feeding at night is having an impact, but why only on one side? and as it's only one night feed i'm missing, would it really make a difference that it was me and not a bottle for that one feed? mw didn't seem that worried, which seems strange considering what i've read. please can someone give me some advice, i can't stop stressing about it.

I get up in the night and pump to keep things going - ebf at the moment.

I tend to have one better breast - but not as different as yours. Do you always start feeding on one side? Try mixing it up. Or express for longer on that side.

If your not feeding during the night at this age then yes it can impact on supply. If you where exculivly expressing you be recomended to pump at lest once between 12 and 6am, so actualy you do need to do this feed I'm afraid. could you DH not do an early morning bottle instead so you can have a lie in?

Night feeds are really important in the early week's for estabilishing supply.

You need to either feed or express during the night, and nap during the day to make up on sleep.

6/7 hours is a long time to go without feeding and yes, it might affect your supply. Don't get too hung up on measuring what you express though - this is no guide to what you produce.

Tbh this all sounds a bit of a faff. At 2 weeks I think you need to accept a bit of broken sleep and just feed without messing about with expressing.

Thanks for the replies. We'll mix things up a bit i guess so i can feed during the night. I had just had such a bad first week with bleeding nipples due to the poor latch of the tongue tie that dh felet sorry for me and we worked this out instead. I don't mind a bit of broken sleep if it's in the name of getting my supply back. I'll give it a go tonight then. Thanks so much everyone

Good luck with the tongue tie, my DS is the same age and we had his TT cut on Monday. Does your DS cluster feed before bed? We generally do half a dozen or so feeds before 1-2am which seems to tank him up before he goes to sleep, and then he'll sleep for 4-5 hours, but has emptied the breasts fairly effectively so I don't feel too uncomfortable. Before the TT was cut I was feeding him on the better breast using a nipple shield and exclusively expressing from the left - had to get up at least once in the night to express which was a pita, but seems to have kept the supply up ok. Have you tried expressing a bit from the good breast before you do the other? I found that sometimes helped with letdown. I also found that doing something else whilst expressing helped distract me and the milk flowed better - but do check you have the pump positioned right as I had a few really frustrating times where I got a measly amount off and it was down to the angle of the pump, not how much I was producing! Keep pumping from the bad side, try a hot bath first or hot flannels and you should get a bit more out. Watch out for any sore lumps as you don't want to get mastitis on top of everything else.

Just a word of warning - don't be too quick to jump into bare-nipple feeding after the snip - I did a couple of pain-free feeds which was lovely, but then felt really sore soon after, so wean yourself off the shields over a few days -nipples seem to take some time to heal!

Best of luck - the TT cut is very quick and he will get over it with a good feed after, just be ready with your shield!

Sorry for the long post, but hope it helps!

MightilyOats thanks so much for your reply. Coming from someone who seems to have gone through the exact same problems that we have, it is reassuring to know you got through it ok!

Ds does cluster feed until about midnight then seems to zonk out for a few hours. I was at that point going to bed myself until 6-7am, with dh givving a bottle of expressed, but after these supply problems, we've decided I'll do the night time feeds and dh will do the early morning one so I can lie in a bit.

My nips are still sore, and on the low production side i have been attmepting to feed without shield as he seems to take more that way. But it is getting sore again. I will carry on with the shields for a while.

I'm so hoping that the snip will be the start of the end of all our problems. I'm presuming that the bad latch is what makes him feed badly, falling asleep very quickly at the breast cos he gets bored/tired, plus causing me a whole lot of pain. Did your ds latch properly immediately or did you have to re-educate him as it were?

Hi lookout, hope the snip goes/went well. We still have a few feeding issues but we're getting there. I think the shields encourage a poorer latch and ds given half a chance will happily slip back onto the nipple, but use them until you feel you are healed enough to try a sustained attempt without. Mw this morning suggested that I use the cross cradle hold, holding him on with one hand and squeezing the boob with the other to make sure he gets as much of the darker area in as possible - so might be worth giving that a go.

DS tongue is certainly a lot more mobile now, so I think given time and a certain amount of re-education we will get there! I would probably choose your shield free times carefully...

The hormone that signals milk production is strongest between the hours of (I think) 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. (or some similar ungodly hour). That's why the night time feed is so important, or if you're not feeding, it's still important to express at this time.

Once the TT is sorted out, you might find it easier to feed at night.

I had a bad latch to start and it was hard work correcting it every time but we got there in the end.