Advice on breast feeding

[woodhj]

I bf my daughter for approx. 4 weeks found it very hard and exhausting. DS came along and we knew beforehand that I wouldn't be able to bf him long term. I bf him whilst in hospital, after 24 hours he screamed constantly and tried feeding constantly as my milk had not come in yet and he was starving (9lb 2oz baby too) we bottle fed him as we knew we would have to anyway.
Im pregnant with DS2 and would love to bf him. I do however have my own business and will be returning back to work after 3 weeks and have no idea how I will bf him, express, run a business and look after my 7yr old and 4yr old.
Has anybody been in a similar situation with regards to work and how did they manage?

How will you bottle feed him, work and look after 2 other children? Genuine question, not having a go.

I think BF or expressing for a 3 week old baby is practically a full time job in itself, can't really see a way round it.
However, that's not to say you can't give him the incredibly valuable gift of your colostrum. Babies do not 'starve' in the first few days until milk comes in. Colostrum is only produced in tiny amounts and they need to feed little and often to get it. I think the best you can do is go with the flow and see how you get on, perhaps aiming to continue giving some breastmilk once you return to work. If you can hire a hospital grade double electric pump that will make expressing much more efficient. If you get one with a preemie cycle you can use it as soon as your colostrum starts to change and become less oily (day 2 for me) and this will stimulate your mature milk to come in. Try local NCT or LLL for pump hire.

:( Gosh, you are setting yourself a tall order...but like bakingtins says, I don't understand why bottle feeding would be much easier in the early weeks. Going back to work with a 3 week old baby is a very tall order for anyone, even if you have full-time nanny care for your children.

Would it help to talk to a breastfeeding counsellor on one of the bf helplines? They won't judge or try to get you to do anything, and they will be very good on the practicalities of expressing.

It should also help to talk to a midwife, one you like and trust, about ways things can be made as easy as poss for you in the v. early days.

Good luck!

Hi thank you for your advice.
I have had a midwife appointment today and she advised a bf talk and to consider expressing from 37 weeks. I have had a look into this and it has mixed advice. The midwife advised both expressing and feeding baby myself when im home, to both myself and DP to take turns with expressed bottle feeding and bf throughout the night to keep my milk regular.
I met my other half as I was opening my showroom, we had known each other for a long time and I knew he wanted children. Im 35 now and thought if im going to have another it should be soon. So working and a baby plus 2 children just has to be the way it is. Im very very lucky my DP is fabulous and I have no doubt he will be an absolute rock when baby is born but its knowing what to do for the best for baba.
Im not going to give up on bf I really want to beat it this time!!!

He wouldn't have been starving when you thought he was, newborns cry, unless you have transparent breasts then you never know what they are getting, it's very unusual to by medically unable to feed ... It's all down to confidence and as ogres have said, bottle feeding is much harder and time consuming

I was unable to feed him after hospital as our daughter had her first intense block of chemo so I had to hand son over to mum to look after for quite a few weeks. The unknowing made it impossible to express enough for him while we were in hospital. It wasn't a medical reason.

As im having to work (to feed us all) I would also like to bf as our bonding time. I lost weeks with DS1 and don't intend to loose any bonding time with DS2.

Plus its the best thing for him and I don't like the fact it beat me the first two times!!!

I was in the exact same situation. I had a 7 & 4 year old, neither of which I managed to BF past 5 weeks due to latching, tt, & my mastitis issues. I was determined to BF DC3 despite having to go back to my business after 3 weeks.
6 months on she is EBF. In the early days I took it each day at a time & fought off several bouts of mastitis with ibruphen & help from the local midwife breastfeeding team who had never been present before.

I introduced an expressed bottle at 10 days (I know there is a lot of debate about nipple confusion, but I believe the earlier the better, she takes the nipple, bottle & a dummy interchangably without problem).
Now I book 15 minutes off every 3 hours to pump when I'm at work, pop it in the fridge & this is given to her the next day I'm at work. When I'm with her she breastfeeds. I have every intention of taking her to at least a year & she has made up for the disappointment & sense of failure I experienced with her elder brothers.
It can be done!

Thank you FTVsmummy, I am attending a bf class tomorrow so will hopefully take some advice for the class and find out about the breast pump hire bakingtins advised on.
I am going to try expressing at 37 weeks so I have extra for baby in the home, it was horrible listening to DS crying because he couldn't get enough at birth.
I hope I am as successful as you and will keep at it!!

Hi all I'm 33 weeks and just researching breast feeding and or expressing can you advice please. First time mum very anxious x

Hi Samantha. It might get more responses if you create a new thread in this topic, as people might not notice your post on this existing thread. Also, what sort of things would you like to know about breastfeeding?