BF newborn support?

[crazytyke]

Hi, hoping for some advice & support in the early days of my BF challenge.

DD is 3 days old, born by ELCS. I am really keen to BF and she seems to be latching on well (I've asked each and every health professional I've seen to check this).

Day 3 weigh in showed almost 10% weight loss which really upset me as DS lost about 14% by day 5 and we ended up in the low supply - formula top up spiral.

She is feeding very often, all the time she's not asleep, never going more than 2 hours between feeds. Last night was one long cluster feed and she's currently snoozing so I guess tonight might be the same.

I can see colostrum is turning to milk, but breast are still soft and not engorged. I never had the milk "coming in" feeling with DS, but he didn't demand anywhere near as much as DD is doing.

So overall I am feeding her loads, taking fenugreek and trying to catch some sleep when I can. I do have a pump but struggle to get her to sleep outside my arms to get chance to use it. Any advice?

Sounds like you're doing pretty well. Keep feeding her on demand. I didn't get that big "milk coming in" feeling with my second as it came in slowly over a few days, so that's not necessarily a worry.

Have you looked on the Kelly Mom website for more tips?

All sounds within normal. What about nappies?

She's had 2 dirty nappies today, still black

wet nappies I'm less sure of, not many, maybe 2 at max. last 2 have been dry.

Relax! [flower]

*

Lots of skin to skin? Ditch the bras and wherever possible just stick the baby down your top! Offer the breast at every opportunity, let her feed as long as she wants whenever she wants.

If you still have access to a midwife you could ask about the nappies - how many hours since a wet one? This is the only thing that niggles at me on what you've said.

Different babies gain weight at different rates and times, so I would try to avoid getting sucked into the vortex of growth charts. You are the best judge of whether your baby is happy and thriving: conversely, if you think anything is wrong, trust your instincts and push for it to be checked out.

La Leche League can be fantastic for support - Google for your closest group/LLL 'person'.

Sounds totally normal. After a section sometimes milk doesn't come in until day 4-5, sounds pretty text book to me. Hope you are getting support from your midwife?

Section should not delay milk coming in, somebody.

OP - the black nappies should be changing to greenish today. If the poos stop or are still black/brown, then it's a sign you need someone to check milk transfer.

Maybe it doesn't delay it but milk not coming in until day 4 or 5 is pretty normal - happened with two out of three of mine. I was told by midwife this was due to section but I stand corrected if this is wrong.

I had emcs 6 weeks ago and struggled for first few days I tried topping up with formula then by day 4-5 I had milk hurray. I had been worrying my baby was starving. One of midwifes I saw was a bit like it will come when it comes but day 1 i had nothing, not even a bit. I'm not sure if some people just take a bit longer to get the milk coming, I certainly did and all is fine here now

I had an emergency c section and topped up with formula. So long as you offer a bf first every time your milk will get going still but you'll know that your baby is getting sufficient milk in those first few days. Within about 10 days we were back to ebfeeding and continued until 6 months.

She sounds fine. Milk doesn't generally come in properly until at least day 3 and it can be a bit longer with elective C section births because your body didn't have any 'warning' about the birth so the hormones weren't gearing up in the same way as they do when you go into labour.
Both of mine lost more than 10% of their birth weight in the first few days and my midwife said this was normal.
Good luck, keep offering a feed as often as she's awake.

Oh and keep an eye on the wet nappies. Newborns often do teeny wees that super absorbable nappies mop up immediately and it can be hard to tell if they've weed or not. My midwife recommended putting a cotton wool ball in the nappy over their bits and this made it much easier to see when they have weed.

When we were unsure about wet nappies with our newborn the midwife said it can be very difficult to tell with modern nappies as they are so absorbent and newborn wees are small! When she wanted us to monitor it more closely she suggested tucking a little bit if cotton wool in the front of the nappy and checking it frequently, it's much easier to see if that's wet. We were surprised how often the cotton wool was wet, but the nappy seemed dry.

Good luck, and congratulations on your new baby!

Normal range for milk coming in is between 2 and 6 days, and it is untrue that it takes longer after a section - it really does not. Milk production is primed by the delivery of the placenta which happens in vaginal and caesarean births, and milk comes in just the same.

Separation of mother and baby delays milk coming in, and because this used to happen more often after a section, the myth grew up that the section caused delays.