New born bf advice please

[Sparrowlegs248]

Dc2 born this morning. Ds1 bf well from the start, no issues apart from weight loss and conflicting advice in the first few weeks. Stopped bf him last week at 18 months

Dc2 born today, 10lb 13.5. Is having a go at bf but doesn't seem to be getting a lot, sacking lots of air in, wind, burps. Crying etc. No wet nappies, born @10am

Doing lots of lip smacking and tongue pushing.
I'm.not going to get quite so obsessed bf this time and was thinking bottle of formula before bed.

Hello not! No advice but am up feeding my DS, also born well, yesterday now. He's fed since about 11pm. Am tired now...

I remember it's just like this at the beginning because your milk hasn't come in yet? Maybe it was just me but once my milk came in my DD was fine!! Good luck.

The midwives in your hospital should really be helping you with this. Call one in! Why on earth are you MNing about your baby possibly not getting enough food?

I'd be surprised if you got a wet nappy day one. Isn't day four more likely? Takes a while for your milk to come in, probably just tiny bits of colostrum right now. Baby is just signalling to your body to start making milk at this stage and learning how suckle. No need for a bottle for several days yet. Maybe you're not that keen to bf? Sounds a bit like it stresses you.

I got very stressed out about ds1 feeding, though he was bf til 18 months. I had a lot of conflicting advice and ended up feel crap. At the start. But he always settled well on the boob even if he wouldn't be put down.

Dc2 well he settled eventually, but it took a long time so was asking for opinions, after what had been quite a traumatic birth earlier in the day.

I didn't realise that about the wet nappy though so thank you vold

Congratulations Notalotta

First things first, if you've had a traumatic birth, definitely have skin to skin with baby. This will help him
and help you with your milk coming in.

Giving a bottle of formula is obviously your choice, as long as you understand that by doing this will affect your supply (baby sucks, tells your body to produce milk; baby has bottle, your body doesn't know he has).

Speak to the midwife and ask for a breastfeeding counsellor to check your positioning and latch. Without teaching you to suck eggs as you've BFd for 18 months, you may have developed some bad habits over the time; and of course, feeding a newborn is different to a toddler so you need to remember to go back to basics with your positioning and latch.

I can add you to a good Facebook BF support group of you're on there.

Will post link

Born to be Breastfed Facebook group

Potentially tongue tie. My newborn exhibited similar behaviours. The midwife in hospital said he had no issues andntongue was fine. Then I saw a health visitor and feeding had become painful, ridiculously frequent he was very unsettled and unhappy. Health visitor said immediately He had posterior tongue tie. I then went to a bf group and the leader confirmed it. We had it snipped over a week ago and it's improved. He had a 75% attachment. Many NHS trusts aren't trained in spotting them properly and often there aren't the services to follow up tongue tie. Go to a BF group and see a couple of health visitors as their experience will vary.

I had a traumatic start to bfing my first child, and my second I was really concerned that he wasn't feeding to the schedule that the hospital I had my first in obsessed about. So much so I expressed off colostrum in a syringe to give to him. But the midwives there weee much more clued up about bfing than the first place, and said a recovery from the birth (sleeping) is pretty normal for the first 24 hours. So keep having a go when dc2 is interested, and you'll get there.

Huge congratulations!

Thanks all. I was feeling pretty desperate in the night.

I know a bottle isn't the!'best' thing. Ds1 fed constantly has only recently given up night feeds, so was thinking it might help me more than anything. I can't see how I could feed ds2 in the same was as I did ds1 (in constantly - with ds 1 I could just sit and feed, now I have him aged 18 months to see to too)

I had tongue tie with second. If she'd been my first I would have been bottlefeeding her by day 5, but as she was my second I knew something was wrong (and midwife spotted it at apgar). Luckily it got sorted and she fed really well.

My first had a bad tummy for the first month. Wouldn't sleep unless held. He grew out of it, but a dummy helped, which I felt bad about, but he didn't need it by 12 weeks. Good luck OP and congrats.

DS (fourth child) was 10lb 14.5 so don't worry that a big baby is any harder to feed than a wee one.
He did have a tongue tie though and smacked his lips and found latching difficult. When he cried his tongue made a funny shape and he couldn't stick it out much. It wasn't even a "bad" TT but it definitely affected feeding a lot and made it very sore. It was cut day 5.
Please ask about this. Get some skin to skin and remember his wee tummy is the size of a marble so don't stress about amount of milk as he just needs time at the breast to get your milk in.

Feeding a new born is usually a lot harder than feeding an 18 month old so it may take you a while to get the hang of it with new baby.

Once you've got breastfeeding established, it can often be easier if you've got an older one as you've always got a way to settle the baby while still being able to give your DS attention. So you can sit on the floor and play while feeding, cuddle up with him on couch and read a book while feeding baby, play playdough/draw one handed, etc.

Obviously it's totally your decision but giving him bottles can affect your milk coming in and make breastfeeding more difficult. If you do decide to give bottles, look up 'paced feeding'.

Like pp says, definitely get tounge tie assessed by someone experienced as often this can be missed and cause unnecessary feeding difficulties.

Congratulations on your baby.

My dd has a bottle of formula before bed every night but I wouldn't start doing that until 4 weeks minimum. You don't want to muck up your supply or for your baby to prefer a bottle and start refusing boob (unless you want to just bottle feed of course). Congratulations for your new arrival