All I do is sit and breast feed :-(

[Letmeeatcakecakecake]

Hello ladies.

I EBF my DC1 using nipple shields for 7 months. No problem.

DC2 was born on the 19th april and I have been feeding her using a combination of nipple shields and latching her on without.

She is a very, very, VERY sucky baby. If she is not feeding or sleeping then she is frantically rooting.

I feel like all I do is sit and breast feed her and I'm really starting to resent it. My DC1 is 5 and you can see he's really struggling with it so is attention seeking, and in turn it's making me start to resent the both of them (him for attention seeking so much and her for feeding so much!)

I know I have alot of milk as you can see it in the nipple shield/ all over her face when she pulls off and she looks like a drunken sailor who has been let loose behind a bar so I don't feel this is the issue. When I don't use shields you can hear her guzzling it down and she is producing plenty of dirty and wet nappies.

Feeding sessions lately have taken at least 1.5 hours at a time, on Sunday I literally spent the entire day on a chair feeding her.

Realistically I don't know how much longer I cn go on with this! Would a dummy help??

A dummy would possibly help. I used one with DC1 and had no problem with nipple confusion.

DC1 was also a very sucky baby and would be constantly rooting but with DC2 I was bit tougher as I didn't have all day to feed her. She refused a dummy or bottle but I found that if I kept her wrapped up close to me in a sling she was perfectly happy to snuggle up as I ran around after DC1 at the park, mini-nastics etc. Is that something you could try?

Erm, this is how new babies are, no? My DC2 was EBF and DC1 was 3yo at the time, we just had to do a lot of iPad, CBeebies, local soft play, friends over to ours, stickers etc. Didn't level out until DC2 was about two months old.

If you want to introduce a bottle to give yourself a break, there's nothing wrong with that. I think it's recommended at about 6 weeks to avoid nipple confusion/impacting supply, isn't it?

Thank you

I've been looking to buy something that I could wear her with! She's usually just wrapped up in my dressing down with me and seems happy there but I need to be able to use two hands... And actually leave the house(!) so really should get one!

I just want to be able to put her down too, im constantly holding her! I haven't washed in days!!!

Yes, go with a dummy for a while. Feeding for 1.5 hours is definitely not necessary although that depends. Is she latched on the whole time? My DD at that age regularly had feeding sessions that would last 1-2 hours but would be latching on and off throughout, sleeping in between feeds. My doctor told me that 20 minutes is plenty of time for a feed and anything else is comfort sucking. Not sure how true that is at the newborn stage as they need to build up supply of course but it sounds like you have plenty of supply anyway.

There are slings that can let you feed while you wear the baby. Never worked for me but a friend swears by the Ergo. I used the Ergo too but just to get my DD to sleep. She never fed in it

Do you have a husband/partner around? They should at least be letting you wash! Saying that, I had to spell it out to DH that babies cry for other reasons than needing a feed and he should explore some of those options rather than passing them to me every time they squeaked.

I had a Close baby sling to start off with, and then got an Ergo and a couple of ring slings. An outside walk in the sling has rarely failed to send my DC or their cousins off to sleep as tiny babies.

Could your dc be tongue tied? My dc were all like yours. Feeding 24 /7, turns out they weren't getting enough milk because of the tongue tie and would just exhaust themselves only to wake up 20 minutes later starving again. Also sore nappies, bad latch are also signs of it. There's a good fb group all about it. And Google it too. I was able to feed my last dc for much longer and much happier because we got the tie released.

After spending about 6 weeks never moving off the sofa and with a baby constantly attached to my nipple, I put him in a sling and solved the problem overnight. I think a lit of the time he was feeding for comfort rather than due to hunger. When he was snuggled in his sling on my chest he slept for hours and I had both hands free to do things like wash my face or make a cup of tea!

Sore nappies? Ment to say sore nippels

Ds is 2 and half weeks old and we are using a Victoria sling lady stretchy wrap sling - it's awesome. There are lots of similar ones out there and they are really easy to use once you've tried it a couple of times.

If you think getting a sling might help (I have also managed to feed ds while he was in the sling - proud moment) maybe you could look on fb or ask around to see if there is a sling library near you, before you invest in one.

Thanks everyone!

I've now got a few dummies and bottles to try give expressed milk in (if she stops feeding long enough to allow me enough milk to express!) I think that is correct about waiting 6 weeks but at the moment I feel like I won't make it that far so may as well try now!

I've got a sling but it looks quite big for household wearing so will look into other types too!

Haha yes my partner also needs reminding that babies don't just cry because they are hungry (to be fair most of the time he holds her, she's furiously head butting him and throwing herself around trying to latch onto him!).

I have a midwife appointment on Thursday... I'll ask them then about tongue tie!

Thank you

Haha! I think the whole family tried BFing DD at one point or another. DH tried to get her to latch on just as a joke but was met with a screwed up face and a huge wail, then DS (2 at the time) decided to try expressing 'boy milk' for her. I have the photographic evidence :o

What sort of sling do you have for her?

Hi, Letmeeatcakecakecake , this may sound like a strange question but have you tried winding your DD? I know a lot of BF babies don't need winding, but if you have a bit of oversupply and fast flowing milk (I am guessing here because you say it's all over face when she finishes), then she might be taking in a lot of air when she feeds. Sometimes a BF baby with wind or silent reflux will want to feed for comfort when they have wind or reflux, which has short term relief but doesn't actually cure the problem and creates a bit of a cycle of feed for hunger, then pain relief, then pain relief, etc. Also has your DD put on a lot of weight quite quickly (not a bad thing btw)? this can be a sign of this too. If you think this might be the issue, perhaps you could try to wind her for a while after a feed? or maybe express a little bit of milk off before a feed so the initial spurt calms down and she can feed at a slower pace and not take in much air? If you think it could be silent reflux discuss with your HV/GP. Also have a look at the kellymom website it's really good.

Hey captain!

I've been winding her because of nipple shields and always manage to get a burp so she's defiantly taking in air! An stepping up the winding and will see how it goes!

I used nipple shields until
8 weeks & feeding sessions went from 1.5 hrs to 30/40 mins just like that! I don't know how I managed those long sessions! I literally had 30mins / 1hr between feeds max which was hard & that was without a toddler!

Can you work at dropping the shields?

DS got bottles from birth (severe tongue tie, I expressed until snipped at 10days) and we introduced a dummy at 3 wks & have had no confusion issues. Still BF at 8.5 months.