Expressing concern

[Scottyshirley]

Hi, my boy Conor is doing great. Three weeks tomorrow, breast feeding has been exhausting, every three hours since the start, last few days I've had burning pain at the start of feeds, less so during and sometimes in between.
I've been given clotrimazole cream (thrush diagnosed over the phone) Nystatin for Conor, I'm so tired feel like giving up. My partner has suggested we express and he does a feed in the middle of the night, rather than just help with nappies, it might give me a 6 hour run for sleep
My concern is I will get engorged, or the bottle will upset conor, he thinks it worth a try because the morning tiredness is when I feel like giving up, can it work at 3 weeks , thanks for any advice

Middle of the nights are when your prolactin levels are highest, and therefore they are the most important for keeping your milk supply. Maybe he could do the last 'night' feed with expressed milk, and you go to bed early?

Agree, if you want to keep going with bf you need to keep those middle of the night feeds up. When I stopped bf (well expressing as DS didn't latch) at 2 weeks, when I stopped expressing/feeding in the middle of the night my milk dried up really fast.

Have you contacted a bf counsellor for advice?

Please don't feel pressured though to keep bf if it's making you miserable. Go with the choice that works best for your family! Many ladies I know tell me that bf does get much easier after the first 6 weeks though.

Yes you do need to keep up the night feeds if you want to keep your supply up. It sounds like you're both doing brilliantly and actually 3hrly feeds is pretty good going at 3wks old (though appreciate it's still tiring).

It's great that your partner is supportive. Can he pretty much do everything else while you just concentrate on feeding & sleeping? Are you sleeping during the day when baby naps etc?