Really tempted to give up BF - only guilt stopping me

[sponge]

I couldn't feed my dd so was delighted when ds took to it really easily.
He feeds pretty well, had regaubed his birthweight after a week and is well up now after 13 days.
The trouble is I hate it. He feeds at least every two hours and doesn't seem to take enough each time to keep him satisfied for long - within no more than an hour he is rooting around again.
This means that it is still realy painful as he is doing the hard latch on sucking really frequently.
Last night I fed him at 11, dh fed him some expressed milk at 2, I fed him again at 4 and again at 6 and 8. It's just wearing me down.
When he does feed he rarely keeps going for more than 15 minutes before he dozes off or goes into a really sleepy, occasional fluttery feeding mode. But if I then put him down he wakes up and starts grizzling again.
Help, what should I do?

Just wanted to add my support to the "it will get better" team.
I struggled and wept and had tantrums for 16 weeks with my DD but we cracked it (with the help of a BRILLIANT bf teacher) and now am still feeding at 9 months. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I'm so glad i stuck it.
It DOES get better, honestly Sponge and you're doing really well to get this far.
S

Well I a still sticking with it, he's 3 weeks now, and it is getting better.
I have settled on a bit of a compromise where I breastfeed all his daytime feeds and give him a formula top up last thing at night to make sure he's as full as possible as he seems to want to feed most in the evening and isn't yet going for very long stretches at night. During the night dh feeds him an expressed bottle for one feed and I give him forumula for another. If he wakes more than twice then I breastfeed.
Seems to working OK for us and at least most of his milk this way is breastmilk.
I'm no longer very sore but for the last couple of days my breasts have been quite itchy. Does anyone else have this?

sure its much easier than bottle feeding in the middle of the night
once the soreness has gone its a doddle-try to stick withit if you can!
feeding is easy at night if you and baby share a bed for a while

not sure about the itching could it be thrush?
best to get it checked out
hth

I know what you mean Dino. Ds is a lazy little bugger and I sometimes have to retry quite a few times to get him to open wide. Also often he will lastch on well at first but then pulll back a bit once he's settled into a feed. I tend to leave him if it doesn't hurt and if he's still sucking and swallowing but have got stricter about taking him off at the first sign of pain.
I don't think the itching is thrush. It's not the nipples but the actual boob. Think it's just a reaction to being encased in bra and pads all the time so I've tried leaving the bra off at night which has helped. I bought a different brand of breast pads so perhaps it's a reaction to them.

I used to get some itching of the breasts too. I just put it down to the same thing although have no idea if it was. I dont get it anymore and ahvent for some time now (11 months).

good on you sponge...

sponge, is there a breastfeeding councillor in your area? If there is, I would strongly recommend you give her a call if the soreness etc doesn't clear up soon or if it flares up again. I was not enjoying breastfeeding my third baby due to constant soreness and pain and recurring mastitis in one breast. I also had itching on this breast (don't know if it was a symptom related to the mastitis.) I delayed seeking help because I suppose it didn't occur to me that third time around positioning could be causing the problems. I ended up developing an abscess and had to go into hospital for a few days. I don't want to alarm you but you shouldn't put up with discomfort for too long without getting it checked out. I am now finding BFing a lot easier as I have given up feeding on the side I had problems on!