Expressing dilemma, not sure what to do

[pigletmania]

Hi there again. In a nutshell after a difficult start bf, ds hospitalised for jaundice, then not latching I am still expressing now he is 5 months. Not exclusively though, I use my BM first than top up with formula. I plan to go another month until ds is 6 months, my dh sister will be coming g to stay with her kids at the end of July. It will be hard to express as we will go out and there will be kids running about, hers and mine. I still want to express but want to stop at the same time. It is hard, time consuming and with visitors even harder. I just do t know. Mabey duri g those 2 weeks I can express less and carry on as normal after they go. I'm worried that my supply will go in the 2 weeks. Oh I just do t know what to do

try to relax. Call a local breastfeeding councillor and ask them to pop in for a chat. They are amazing and you can talk everything over. Can you express regularly every morning for next couple of weeks and keep freezing it? If you do it constantly, often the supply increases.

Have you tried getting him to latch recently? Is there some kind of physical problem like tongue tie (which can be fixed) or cleft palate that means he can't? Have you tried nipple shields (Medela Contact ones are very thin and have a gap so the baby can still smell you)? If there is no physical problem he may just not have developed his final suckling reflex early on (especially if he was early?) and may now be capable of learning it.

It would just obviously be a lot easier to get him to learn to latch (even if it takes a while) than carry on expressing. Then you can build up your supply as babies are more efficient than pumps. And it's more convenient even when you're busy with family.

If you want to encourage him to feed directly, things that might help are: skin-to-skin in a sling during the day, co-sleeping at night with accessible breasts, bathing together, laid-back breastfeeding (a.k.a. biological nurturing). Offer plenty of opportunities, before he gets so hungry he cries, or he will be too distressed to latch. And if you use a dummy, offer the breast instead when he wants to suck.

I don't know about your dilemma Piglet, but just wanted to say well done. On your last thread weren't you aiming for five months, and now you reckon you will get to six. That's so impressive - it's as much as many women feel they can manage with straightforward direct feeding!

thanks everyone. No ds wasent early at all, he was overdue, the mw said that he was dehydrated and had to be admitted to hospital, there he had blood tests and found low sodium levels and crp levels and had to be topped up with me expressing and giving him bottles. I guess he got a bit lazy and started to refuse the breast and screaming and thrashing every feed so i just expressed and gave it via a bottle to him. My dd is 5 with sn and i dont really have the time to sit on the sofa and do skin to skin and try and learn how to latch on. Now he is 5 month, i feel he has probably gotten to the point of no return. I did ttry to get him to latch on a few times recently but he screams and starts getting distressed, i get dishartenned and just express for him. '