Help please!

[massagegirl]

Baby is 4 days old. Sleepy baby not very hungry. Hospital pressured me into formula before letting me home, incredibly unhelpful time there expressed and syringed colostrum. So now routine goes... Wake baby every 3hours, skin to skin try breast feed, she is getting better at latching on and sucking, then partner gives her formula while I express (pitiful amounts!) just feeling bit overwhelmed and any advice experience would be great. Don't know if this is the right. Board for this.
Would just like to be able to breast feed normally.

Were you advised to give formula and pump? Who advised you? Are there concerns about your baby's weight? It's just that in general, replacing some feeds with formula can potentially decrease your supply just at the time you are trying to establish it - ie when your baby is tiny. But obviously you might have had specific medical advice about your situation, so it's hard to say for definite.

Don't get despondent about only being able to express pitiful amounts - many women find they can't express very much, but they can successfully feed their baby direct from the breast. How much you get when you express is not an indication of how much milk you have. The best way to get your baby feeding is to feed them as often as possible. Often newborns want a feed more often than every three hours - have you tried that?

You might like to speak to an expert, eg NCT breastfeeding telephone helpline, or there are breastfeeding counsellors or peer advisers you can see face to face, eg see Baby Cafes here, or via your local children's centre.

Or hopefully one of Mumsnet's resident experts like tiktok will be along soon .

Firstly many congrats!
Keep going with the skin to skin and feed your baby at the first sign of hunger - 3 hrly is probably the longest you would want to leave it.
How much formula are you giving? Their tummies are tiny at this stage and you don't want to fill it up with too much formula or your LO won't be hungry when they come to the breast.
When are you next seeing your mw? It would be good to chat things through with them.
Don't forget that you can also ring the bf ing helplines if you want to speak to someone else with good bf ing knowledge.

Hi Massagegirl, I am not an expert at all and hopefully someone will be along who is to help. But I did have similar issues with DD when she was born. I wasn't pushed into formula but DD wouldn't latch for at least 36 hours post birth and then was very sleepy. I used to gently stroke her cheek when she was latched and feeding if she started to drop off really quickly, to just try and get her to feed a little longer.

Has your milk come in yet? (ie: are your breasts starting to feel full/like they have been pumped up?) if not you will only be getting small amounts of colostrum in any case, and even if it has, it can take some time to get used to expressing and get any amount out, so don't think this means you don't have or won't have enough milk. But you do need some advice on how to reduce the formula and up the breastfeeding - if she is latching and sucking now why is your partner giving her formula? Was that the advice from the hospitital?
Hope one of Mumsnet's very helpful breastfeeding experts is along soon for more advice.

Agree that really discussing this in real life will help so midwife and helplines are your next step. It is really early days so bags of time to get this sorted .

No one expresses loads on day 4 . Milk prob not in yet. Read about laid back bf, skin to skin, co-bathing and give them all a go :)

Three hourly not all that often so feel free to be free about the time . Post tomorrow with update !

Thanks all. Was based on mw advice. Just doesn't feel quite natural to me! Have nct teacher coming over tomorrow so hopefully that will reassure/help. Just felt but overwhelmed this evening. Thank you will update.

Much better night and day! Guessing there will be lots of ups and downs. Will carry in with small amounts if formula until I get my supply up. Thanks for the advice .

Good to hear that things are getting better.

Keep on pumping and atm top up with FF. i did that 10 months ago because milk took 5 days to come ! It worked so well that my DD does not want the bottle at all with expressed milk or formula. She is 10 months today and thriving on EBF, of course she also has solids now but her weight has never been an issue. Don't worry too much about the quantity you get when pumping, doing so you are placing a milk order to your brain that baby needs milk, milk supply will increase after 2 or 3 days of pumping. Don't feel pressurised to only EBF, it is still early days. BTW advice came from MW and she knew what she was talking about, best advice ever re BF.
good luck and enjoy your LO

My SIL couldn't pump a drop and fed her first to 15 months and 2nd till 2! There isn't very much colostrum, which is likely what you were getting (thick and yellowish) it will gradually get whiter and more plentiful over the next few days.

Every mouthful your dd gets from you is a huge achievement, so sit your arse down on the sofa and snuggle up to her. Keep hydrated and if you can eat porridge for breakfast then do - oats are apparently good for supply and even if not i found bf makes me ravenous so slow release carbs help (still going at 6 months after a similar sleepy start)

Congratulations

Thank you lovely ladies. Currently snuggled on sofa after breast feed.

Glad to here things are improving!
I seem to remember being told that Dark Chocolate and Almonds were good for supply too, so used to treat myself with some dark chocolate after feeds :-)

'hear' (sorry have had a shocker of a day)

No dark chocolate here, or any chocolate. Caffeine gave ds colic in the early days and i daren't reintroduce yet