Has anyone successfully re-started BF after a break of a few months...?

[babysaurus]

More curious than anything else really, although I am also wondering if it would be worth a shot too.

I finally stopped BFing at 4 weeks, but the last 2 weeks of that had been expressed only and I could only find time to express in the evenings so DS had formula too. I had two bouts of mastitis, horrendous thrush in both boobs and decided enough was enough! I am now wondering, more for occassional convenience and also DS's comfort (he's a bit of a rummager, if that makes sense) if it is indeed possible to start BFing again, but only for a couple of feeds a day...?

I loved the idea of being able to BF my baby when he was first born but the reality proved to be, for me anyway, one problem after another and I had had enough and wanted my body back!

This is possible - call a bf helpline and discuss it. Whatever you decide there is no reason not to put your baby to your breast and just see what he does...it's helpful that he likes rummaging :)

Thanks Tiktok. I have done a bit of googling and it seems semi do-able, at least in theory.
The reason I didn't express more when I had the hospital pump was because they recommended I did it every 3 hours to keep supply going properly while the mastitis and then thrush cleared and, frankly, I did not have the strength to do that as well as the real feeding and everything else a newborn entailed. While I don't regret stopping, as such, I do wish it was a lot easier to maintain at least some milk supply without having to deal with humongous boobs / constant expressing etc etc.

Have you tried putting him on when he's not really hungry?

I tried to re-lactate once DS was about 6 months (we had stopped bf-ing at 3 months) but couldn't manage it. He refused to latch on (despite having had a perfect latch from day 1) so it would have been a case of trying to express very frequently and hoping once I started the milk flowing that he would smell it and try to latch again.

I tried but with a 6 month old who was just starting to crawl, but still didn't sleep through the night it just wasn't possible for me to spend so much time expressing.

If DS hadn't been on the move I may have found it easier, and I did a lot of research into it (it's even possible for women who haven't had a baby to start producing milk, there's a lot of info online for adoptive mothers who want to breastfeed) but I decided to stick with formula, I wanted to enjoy my son and sitting expressing every couple of hours just didn't feel right to me.

I've not tried putting him on when he;s not hungry, no.

I am reluctant to get into the cycle of having to express every few hours, and I am guessing that this is what will have to happen to get things going again..? I guess I need to speak to a BF person about this (not done it yet, been busy with birthday - mine - stuff.) I suppose, perhaps selfishly, I want to be able to BF but am not prepared to go the whole expressing etc debacle to get there. I would love it to simply come quickly and easily but not sure if this would happen...?

Bugger.