2 and half days old.....cried himself hoarse, pulling off the breast

[snowqueenrollo]

so.....he went straight to the breast when he was born. we did skin to skin for hours after the birth and he nursed. We've been doing great. Co-sleeping and last night we did a combination of me latching him on and him finding the nipple himself. He was on the breast a LOT last night.
Today he's windy, screaming and arching. Fighting any attempt I make to help him shift the wind. He's wanting to go to the breast.....but then when he gets there he is shaking his head and pulling off. He had one 10 min feed when I switched to rugby hold.

I've left him nappyless for a couple of hours and skin to skin on the sofa. He eventually expelled a large, sticky black/green poo. That's the third today.

He's currently on daddy, settled but periodically crying (trying, he's almost completely lost his voice)........

Midwives are coming round tomorrow.....but I need to get through tonight so just wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom.
We've been doing so well at the breast, my milk is starting to come in I think (breasts are feeling heavier tonight) and after abandoning it with my previous DS because it was just too hard with no support, I really want it to work this time......

By no means knowledgeable about these matters, but thought I would pass on my experience, which pretty much agrees with Weissdorn. I was in a pro-BFing hospital for a week. Being on a shared ward and seeing so many mums and MWs coming and going, you got to hear quite a lot of differing advice. Overall, the general message in first few days was to have baby suckling often and for as long as you can stand it. One MW said to do it however long baby wanted while another MW said give it 20 mins each side and then pull baby off as you don't want to hurt your nipples unnecessarily.

As you can see, this was the start of my ever-increasing collection of conflicting BF advice.

DS was beside himself on the evening of day 3 - frustrated and distraught all rolled into one. He'd been trying to feed for about 4 hours and the MW on duty that night was very supportive by helping us with latch and positions etc. When DS and I finally both worked ourselves into right states of red-faced, hoarse-voiced exhaustion and frustration, MW told me matter of factly that I should just top him up with formula and get myself some sleep. I resisted thinking that it'd spoil the establishing of BF, but in the end I had to admit defeat. He took the bottle, scoffed down about 20mL (not much at all) and fell into a deeply satisfied sleep. This was repeated the following evening, but by the night of day 5 my milk was in and I didn't have to worry about top-ups anymore.

So, for us, it was possible to give formula without it wrecking anything (still going at 18 weeks and it really does get better/easier - for me it was about week 3-4 when I realised that BFing wasn't actually another thing to be endured). I was just so fortunate to have been in hospital where I could quickly get guidance, not to mention formula milk. FWIW, if you want to go down that route, they had 3 different varieties available (no idea how many producers are out there) and MW said that they are all pretty much the same and they weren't allowed to recommend any brand in particular.

There was one big downside to the whole experience, which I don't know if it was related or not, but DS did end up with jaundice. So please do keep an eye out for changes to your LO's appearance. The MW actually picked it up that evening and told me she'd be referring DS the following morning, which is when I could started to see that DS was indeed changing colour (almost like he'd been suntanned rather than yellow).

Hope you get it sussed quickly.

I suppose it could be connected since lots of hydration is crucial to letting jaundice run its course.

How did things go OP?

well.....it was obvious the next morning that DS had jaundice. M/w came to visit and asked us to go to the hospital for a SBR (bilirubin) test. DS came back borderline for treatment but as he is a 5lb scrap of a thing they decided he needed it. So under the lamp he went. I was distraught, I'd been holding him and sleeping with him constantly since he was born.
The next day after over 12 hours under the lamp his level was down and I discharged us from hospital as they removed the lamp and only wanted us to stay in so they could take blood at 5am. We agreed to go back in at 8am the next day.
My milk had come in and I wanted to co-sleep properly as DS was starting to fuss even more at the breast because we were all so stressed.
8am bloods showed his level had gone up to 298......so back under the light. 9.30pm bloods his level had come down to 238.......9.30 am bloods, was the second sample they took that was unusable by the time they got to the lab. So they took more blood and his level was 133. We came home on Sunday afternoon. We are back at 4pm today for another SBR......DS still looking yellow but alert and self waking every two hours and feeding like a demon.

I really don't want to go back in for more light therapy. The damn thing gave me a migraine, I can't take any medication for that.....i don't sleep properly.....and they keep heel-pricking DS for the blood and have knackered his heels. I want them to put a canula in if they need to keep taking blood, they are reluctant to.
To add to this DS had his first cast put on to start correcting talipes in his left foot.

What a tough start snowequeen- all sounds very stressful.

Hope you get on ok this afternoon for the test. It's good news that he is waking to feed and 2 hourly feeds are the way to go for now. Just ensure that your latch is as good as it can be to allow for maximum milk transfer.

My baby was just like the op's at that age. 3 days after my milk was in things got a lot easier. Good luck and I hope it gets better.

How you getting on snowqueen- hope all's OK now.

had a blood test yesterday and his bilirubin level is now such that they told me to just feed him through it. he's small so it will take his body a while to get over the jaundice.
The feeding is marvellous! he's taken to it so well. Today has been the first day we haven't had to go anywhere so this afternoon we got into bed and did skin to skin and he fed loads, and we just enjoyed some quiet time.

Great news LO is home and feeding well :) My DD had jaundice and we 'fed through it' (bf). Took about 4-6 weeks until it completely went, it starts going from the lower part of the body first, with the whites of the eyes seemingly the last to loose the yellowness.

Congrats :)

Also just to chip in, i don't know if everyone was as oblivious as I was but I really think they need to tell you a bit more about the early signs of jaundice on discharge given so many babies get it and it can feeding issues as well.

Once we were home and had a terrible night (after no probs in hospital) I realised she was yellow the next morning but wish I would have known what to look for earlier.

Anyways rant over, glad everyone on the mend :)

Great news snowqueenrollo.

Happy to hear your little one is on the mend. I was distraught like you and thought phototherapy was the end of the world. Turned out I was the only one traumatised by it as DS loved his night on a heated waterbed catching some rays. Totally sympathise with the headache from the lights! I think I spent the whole time with my head under a blanket. Sorry to hear you've got a couple of other things to deal with. No idea if the heal pricks had anything to do it with it, but DS was extremely calm during all 3 of his immunisations

Glad to hear feeding has picked up. Just wanted to reasure you that a certain level of jaundice is very normal and to expected in BF babies. DS was severe enough to need light therapy too but there are no lasting issues from it. DD was jaundice but we were able to feed through it. BF lots is the best way to get rid of it, and sunshine helps too.