is my milk supply satisfying my baby?

[madeindevon2]

baby is 12 weeks and 2 days old.
until last weigh in he was on the 75% but 3 weeks ago was off that line and betweeen the 50th and 75th.
in the week leading up to this i had been worried that i wasnt producing enough milk as boobs werent getting as hard as they had been. and baby started waking more in the night. i had even stopped expressing coz worried about milk drying up. so i then introduced a bottle of formula for bedtime feed (so dh can feed baby....coz i felt i couldnt express and dh loves to do "his" bedtime feed....
anyway this is all ok but i still worred about my milk supply. baby fed for 10 mins earlier and kelt getting agitated and coming off the boob....just not sure he is getting enough?
any suggestion?
by the way he was 9lb3 at birth and weighed 12lb 8.5 at 9 weeks 3 days.

Hi, devon. It is normal for breasts to stop feeling hard and full, and the age you discovered this - at about 10 weeks? - is textbook.

Waking up more is normal - babies do it for all sorts of reasons.

Formula at bedtime doesn't support breastfeeding and the milk supply but many women can 'get away with it' once bf is well-established. I don't understand why you stopped expressing, sorry...expressing would not make you have less milk.

Being agitated on the breast - could be anything at all!!

His weight gain sounds within normal limits to me.

If you are worried about your milk supply, (and as I say, I can't see any reasons for this, to be honest), then you could offer your baby the breast more, and avoid the formula. At this age, there are lots of ways your dh can be involved in the baby's care!

(I am a breastfeeding counsellor with NCT)

That weight gain sounds OK to me. Forget about fluctuations between 50% and 75%--doesn;t matter IMO.

I'm no expert on BF but why stop expressing? Supply is supposed to increase to meet demand so expressing is the way to boost it, not decrease it. And your DH could give him the EBM.

I have no regrets about this, but would nevertheless point out to you that in my case introducing FF was a slippery slope to all FF. Good luck

ok. will try expressing again.
it was doc who suggested giving baby a bottle of formula.
i hope to bf until baby is 6months old.

I think you should express and use that at bedtime--either as a top up or otherwise (if you have 4oz or more) have your DH feed baby and you express some more.

Your doc is probably thinking that your DS should get a big ffed at bedtime, but the FF method could be v harmful to your efforts to continue BF.

i hope i havent disrputed my milk too much.
been giving formula at bedtime for over 2 weeks.
gonna express tomorrow morning

is morning best time to do it?
and is 4 oz really enough?
he takes nearly 6 of formula. and still wakes for feed in night sommetimes twice

Very, very, very unlikely that your milk isn't enough if he's got to 12 weeks and he's been putting on weight - a bit of wobbling bewteen centiles is normal, as is your boobs going soft now. He will go through stages of wanting to feed all the time, but that's how he increases the supply, not a sign that it's inadequate.

The only thing that might put your milk under threat of drying up is supplementing with formula (and it still probably won't if it's only a bit)

You might need to express twice during the day to get enough for the bedtime feed - but doing it should increase your supply overall so your DS has more available for his night feeds (btw bf babies need night feeds as the milk's more nutritious and if you leave such a long gap as a whole night that can reduce your supply)

AFAIK waking for a feed twice a night at this age is perfectly normal. its not a sign that there is anything wrong with your milk. i agree with everyone else - drop the formula and express if you like. but dont set your heart on hims sleeping through the night. some babies just dont

it sounds to me like you are doing really well with BF your baby and your dr is a well meaning idiot

Yes, morning's a good time to express. Those weight charts are also based on ff babies who tend to gain weight more quickly anyway; I think they're just designed to make us anxious. After all, how many babies actually waste away these days? and how many grow up to be obese adults? maybe we should be worrying more about babies who gain weight fast rather than those who are slower. Please stop worrying, it really sounds like you're doing well

Don't beat yourself up over ff you have been and will continue to do what you feel is best, if you choose to express & boost your milk again to drop the ff then great, if not do what you feel is right. Yes there are risks to milk drying up with incresed formula use but some people do manage this.

You may also find that round about now he will have a growth spurt just to warn you he'll want to feed and feed to get your milk sorted in addition to dropping the ff.

If you can during this time, stick your feet up, rest & poss sleep as if he's anything like my dd's growth spurts she'd last upto 3 days where it was pajama time & loadsa drink & eating for me!!

Hi,

My little boy is feeding very well on breast milk, but how much expressed breast milk should he be taking?

He was 4 weeks early and I know he's playing catch-up as he's putting on almost 1lb per week and is now 7 weeks old.

I was wondering whether to give him a teaspoon full of Organix Baby Rice with his nightly (breast milk) bottle feed... Is he too young?

Many thanks... first time Mum!

definitly do not give him rice
he is way too young
and never put rice in a bottle however old they are.

if he is doing ok on breastmilk (and at a lb a week it sounds like he is), I wouldn't bother with anything else, even the faff of expressing - much easier just to feed him direct .

You sound like you're doing brilliantly, well done!

Hi KalaNewForest

I'd start a new thread if I were you - you'll get a lot more replies that way. Well done for bfing. It sounds like your DS is catching up well. Are you mostly expressing? I don't think anyone would think it's a good idea to put any baby rice into his bottle of ebm as he's too young to digest it. Breast milk is really all babies are able to digest well with formula as a reasonable substitute for those who aren't bfing.

I don't think you should worry about how much he's taking either - if you don't restrict how often or for how long he feeds, and he's putting on weight and producing plenty of wet nappies and the occasional dirty one, then you're both doing fine and you shouldn't change anything.

He needs to wait until he's 6 months for solids and then you should give them to him as 'food' (in a dish with a spoon) rather than in a bottle. When he seems hungry before he's 6mo, it's realy just becasue he is growing and is sucking more to increase your milk supply. He will catch up no problems on breast milk alone; you're already doing the best you can for him.