Confused!

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have a ds1 who is 9 weeks. After a tough start in the nicu for 10 days we established breastfeeding. Wasn't putting on weight at first so I gave 2 supplements of formula. Now down to one. In the last 3 weeks he has put on 31lbs.

I'm confused by the literature though. Some say your milk supply fixes at 6 weeks, but how then does your body deal with baby's increasing milk needs and growth spurts? Can I still increase my milk at this stage and phase out the 1 formula bottle?

Secondly, if my latch is not quite right, could I be sabotaging my supply? I have large breasts and we improvise a bit. We don't tend to do the traditional holds.

Finally, my dp stresses me out sometime by saying silly things, generally being a bloke (sorry to nice men out there). Could this affect my supply also? Do you have to feel relaxed to bf? A lot of the time I'm not!

Great you got over your difficult start :)

It's too dogmatic to say your supply fixes at 6 weeks. Your supply is never 'fixed' in that way. The body continues responding to the baby's fluctuating needs as long as your baby is feeding in response to those needs.

I think where the confusion may lie is in the fact that with well-established bf (which takes a varying amount of time to achieve) the body makes milk pretty quickly in response to the baby's sucking. So there is less 'over production' which is what tends to lead to over full breasts in the early weeks. You will have almost certainly got to that stage now.

Breastfed babies don't increase their intakes after the first few months - they continue to grow on more or less the same overall volume of breastmilk (with individual variations). This is not quite the same as ff babies, whose intake tends to increase as they get older - the baby needs more volume of formula because more calories are needed to digest formula.

Best guide to whether you are doing it 'right' or not is your baby's growth and health. Plenty of women improvise with different positions and if you and your baby are happy it doesn't matter a bit :)

Stress does not affect milk supply - acute stress can sometimes affect let down, temporarily, but daft remarks, even if stressful, will not have any effect, happily. However, it's not reasonable for you to have to put up with it, if it's more than the usual irritations that happen in any relationship :)

Hope this helps.

Wow 31lbs in 3 weeks!? That is one big baby! .

I'm guessing you mean 3lbs in 3 weeks which is still an amazing weight gain.

You most certainly can increase your milk supply- as you say, your body responds to growth spurts and times of extra demand. There is info on kellymom.com about reducing formula top ups.

Personally,I'd say, it doesn't matter if you are improvising with the latch as long as it feels comfortable and your baby seems to come off the breast content.

Stress can affect the letdown process (I think it has to be fairly major stress though) but I don't think that it will affect milk supply.

Oh there you go, x-posted with tiktok who has said everything in such a better way.

Oops I meant 31 oz... That's lack of sleep for you! Thanks for this. I'm hopeful that I can continue to satisfy him with mainly bf then. It's just that my breasts feel soft a lot of the time! Also, I never leak anymore....

Not leaking and breasts being soft most/all of the time is NORMAL NORMAL NORMAL - the over-filling and the leaking are features of the early weeks, for the majority of mothers :) :)

Your lack of confidence is prob related to those early days when you were so scared and worried when your baby was in the NICU.

Those days have gone - hurrah ! :)

Sounds like you are doing a fabulous job :)

Lots of women don't leak. I know one who has had 4 dcs including twins and never leaked a single drop, even during the early days.

Makes me ! Just think of all the money you'll be saving on breast pads. More to spend on cake .

Tiktok.... You're right about the trauma of the nicu. I have to put that behind me now! Glad to hear not leaking is normal...

Will keep going then.... Confidence is 9/10ths of the game I think!

Hmm. Cake!

Confidence is definitely key. You have a lovely, growing baby who is putting weight on. That is all you need to know :)