is there such a thing as 're lactation' or did i have a weird dream....?

[goodmorningday]

hi, my second son was born in feb weighing in at 10lbs 8oz. i bf him for two weeks and then gave up for selfish reasons...i was so completely and uterly exhausted....baby was 10 days late, i hadn't slept more than a few hours for two months with terrible spd i had a horrible rotten pregnancy and i wanted to get back to feeling normal for the sake of myself, my toddler and generally my friends and family. he was such a good feeder, latched and seemed to thrive but i was so depressed by the exhaustion..bf in the night felt sooo lonely and i felt a bit like i was hallucinating.
anyway...i now feel a million times better everything is back to normal and i'm now coming into the 'good' bit with baby. (his cries don't give me sweats and palpitations).
the thing is when i'm feeding him i really really wish i was bf him. it makes me feel really sad...esp because he was really good at it!! and i wish i'd hung on a bit longer....any thoughts?

Relactation is possible but difficult. How old is your son? Did you BF any previous children? If so, for how long?

Oh, sorry, born in feb. So he's four months now, or nearly so?

hes now 15wks...i bf ds1 for two days!!!! he was a furious purple faced baby who would NOT latch on...i had a really bad tear that required two hrs surgery and i was out of it for so long afterwards hed had two formula feeds(he had an initial latch on after delivery). when i got home it was really difficult to sit and get him in a position.. and husband was back at work so i was totally on my own...anyway bygones...

see the kellymom site for info on relactation. hth

I read that relactation is quite common in parts of the third world, as grandmothers will apparently take over feeding babies if the mothers die. I think that you have to have fed for a while at some point previously though, so not sure if you would be able to manage it if you've only ever fed for a couple of weeks. Sorry .

goodmorning, yes, relactation is possible for you, but it would not be easy to restore a full supply.

That doesn't mean you cannot put your baby to the breast and get that closeness and comfort for yourself and for him - see what he does if you try

i would try to see a lactation consultant. i'm not sure where you are based, but there is a wonderful one at the royal free hospital in london. i think it may be possible but would take a lot of perseverance. good luck.

www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/relactation.html

this is quite good info. i would speak to one of the helplines or lactation consultant to see if they think a drug such as domperidone (sp?) might be useful in this scenario.

not quite the same situation, but i had a go at relaction at 11 weeks, although I was mixed feeding. It was enjoyable and well worth it, although dismissed utterly by my mum's generation as it was very incremental - I think I dropped 1 oz of formula a day or a week or something as we'd had a traumatic time with weight loss and hospital admission before. I definitely fed him more and more bm over the 10 weeks I did it. It also meant that when I decided to give up bf (unfortunately ds started to lose weight again and I simply couldn't cope with the constant worry, not to mention comments from grandparents), I felt I'd given it my best shot and felt a lot less stressed about the whole thing.

BTW your original decisions re feeding don't sound selfish in the slightest...

dear all, thanks so much for your replies and thoughts. people who bf and breeze through it are really lucky...what could be nicer for you and your baby to have a lovely snuggle while feeding...mind you i'm always snuggling him!
choosyfloosy: thats really fantastic that you got baby back on and were producing some milk,i did do some mixed feedind after the exclusive bf but i was basically letting him 'snack' and have a cuddle. by that oint though i was giving him funny nappies with the things i was eating

You could get one of these. I got mine through a lactation consultamnt, who can also show how to use it. It allows you to feed formula at the breast, which stimulates the breast to produce more milk and stops the baby getting frustrated if there isn't much milk. Plus the baby gets whatever milk there is.

I'd also recommend motherlove's more milk plus, it really seemed to work for me. hth