What's happened to my milk supply?! And some other questions...

[Thingiebob]

I am bf my four week old. It was a rocky start but now things have been going really well.

Two nights ago my DH stayed up and looked after baby and bottlefed him. I slept for six hours and woke up really engorged and feeling a bit shitty. I fed him and felt fine. I then spent the afternoon out and ended up bottlefeeding whilst out as bfing was a bit tricky. Again, felt engorged so since then have fed him regularly and expressed. Now as of 5pm I feel like i have no milk. My DS is fussing on the nipple in a way I have never seem before and is clearly getting nothing out.

Is this normal? What should I do? Do breasts 'empty' and fill up like a cistern or something! should I give him formula?

Your breasts at never totally empty and they re always ma,long milk. At this age cluster feeding and a bit of fussiness esp in the evening is normal. Feed feed feed and your supply will catch up.

She. You offer a bottle it would be good to express as buy letting your breasts get engorged they will get the message they are making too much milk and so may start to produce less but all you need to do is feed more and they will catch up again :)

The fussiness is normal in the evening.

This is a crucial point in bf for you - it's essential that you're able to believe in your body's ability to make milk for your baby or it'll be really easy to end up fully ff, bottle by bottle - which is great if that's what you want to do, but if you want to keep bf then I'd really urge you not to give your ds formula just now, just feed feed feed.

If your supply is a little low (when your breasts get full and the milk isn't removed it's a signal for your body not to make so much), or he's going through a growth spurt and wants more, the simplest way to fix things is just to keep feeding.

Normally he latches on and feeds. Job done. But this afternoon and this eve he is munching away and pulling off the nipple really distressed. I've tried hand and pump expression but nothing is happening. Have I buggered it all up?

No you haven't buggered it up!

Is he overtired, that can make them fussy. Have you tried dif positions or swaddling? That soemtiems calmed mine down.

Just offer and let him feed as much as he wants, pumping is no indicator of how much milk you have.

You have definitely not buggered it up - seriously, I'm prone to an insane oversupply, have had a terrible time with fast letdown, mastitis etc etc. The one thing I definitely don't have is not enough milk, and my ds has had times when he's acted like yours. It can be for loads of reasons.

If you're feeling stressed about your ds not being happy then expressing can be affected in my experience and it can be really hard to get anything out. Your ds will be a lot better at it so just keep feeding him directly.

Tonight might end up feeling like hard going, but it might very well be back to normal by tomorrow after some marathon feeds . These early weeks are full of growth spurts, or just wee leaps in development that maybe put them out of sorts a bit and they end up feeding more.

Everything seems normal today although I ended up giving him some expressed milk through the night as he was getting really grumpy.

I also feel as if my period is due. Can this happen so early and can it affect milk supply? I feel tired, crampy, headachey and tearful. DH suggested it as I've been irritable all weekend.

How's today gone Thingie?

You can definitely get your period back this early even if you bf. I've heard that sometimes babies can get fussy around the time of your period but I think that's down to a possible change in taste, don't think it affects your supply.