Any breastfeeding help for someone who failed last time?

[EmilyTurner]

Any advice from you experienced people out there? Molly who is 3 wasn't breastfed due to horrific post-natal ward experience that had me bleeding and with green nipples within 24 hours of delivery.

I've really decided to give it a go with Fat Zach. Today is day 4. Milk is now well in. I've managed to get him to do three feeds, 20 mins each and feel pleased. But he won't latch on every time he is hungry. He does this huge song and dance thing.

I have to calm him, present, calm, present and sometimes he goes into full on paddy mode and only a few spoons of SMA calms him down again.

It dents my confidence. He's got jaundice and obv very hungry but my milk is in now, we've managed feeds together. I just wish he'd do it everytime.

Last time I got him on was midnight and this morning he just won't latch on. He will put the breast in his mouth and rear away, hands all over the place and screaming. I've given him some expressed milk but my hand pump only gets a bit out and my milk has only just come in. But he seems to like having my milk from a cup.

I am also getting sore now and got a blister on one nipple. But I can cope with the pain as I want to do this so much.

I've called NCT and my friend from LLL is coming today. Anyone got any other suggestions? Just need some confidence I think as I am worried I am really harming him.

I am wavering.

By break I did not mean stop bf!!!

I just meant 'be kind'

I had exactly the same thing, didn't manage to breastfeed my first dd but was determined I was going to do it second time around. I went to breastfeeding classes with my second dd and a friend of mine helped me who had had a baby 8 weeks prior to me so I could just follow what she was doing.
Try vaseline on your nipples, I tried Lansinoh and although good was pricy at £10 tube, vaseline better as it takes the sting out too, make sure you pile it on! Try hand expressing a little milk out first so that your baby gets the smell of it and your not too full, he may be coming off boob due to big let down reflex, expressing little milk may help. Also try to feed him before he crys, I know this sounds daft but by the time baby crys they're normally starving, look for signs of hunger, for example, my dd got fidgety and agitated when she was hungry. Hope this helps, just keep going, my dd is now 7 months and I'm still feeding her.

One thing I found to help keep ds calm for feeds was to spot his early feeding cues. If we left it until he started crying it was really hard to calm him down enough to feed.

This link has a list of early & late cues and other links (including a really useful video clip showing some of the cues).

Try to get there before the song and dance...sometimes by that time they are to distracted ,by their feelings of hunger, that they don't know what they are doing, even though they did it perfectly well last time!
Whenever he is waking up, even sleepily, put him on, see what he does!
If you are very full of milk, i.e boobs overfull and "rockhard" expresse just a weensy bit, just to make the nipple and areola area softer, as it is easier to latch onto the breast then..had that prob with ms, sadly the m/w's never told me to express and I never thought of looking on boards, but luckily I drew my own conclusions, lol!
I am sure you already had all the advice and have not read the replys, so, probably duplicted it...but hth anyway!

I'm breast feeding my second child who is five months,as I type this, and fed my first for ten months. Even though I am an experianced breastfeeder it still hurt for the first three to four weeks, your nipples are not used to being treated like that, but they will toughen up with use. The swaddlling thing really worked for me, as Jess is a real fidget. Keep at it, it's really worth it. I was really sad when my first stopped, of her own accord, and would have carried on if she had wanted to. I'm not sure mixed feeding really works, I think it can send confussing signals to baby.
Wishing you the very best of luck Julia

congrats on little one - same day as mine! I'll watch your blog with interest...

EmilyTurner - I have had v painful and difficult starts with bf too, not helped by conflicting advice at the time, but I did have encouragement and support from peer group, professionals and dh.

For painful nipples I recommend raw cabbage leaves inside bra, and for painful breasts in general, a sleep bra is v useful at night. In my case I persisted and it sorted itself out in the end. Good luck - it will be worth it.