Am I doing things right ?

[Sophiea94]

So my little boy is 2 weeks old today and breastfeed with 2 bottles a day due to losing to much weight. The day times are fine for us but I struggling so much with the nights. During the night I find it really hard for him to feed at all and can never get wind up but he looks in distress the whole night ! Currently not sleeping at all as he won’t be put down at night so running on 0 sleep for the past 2 weeks and am highly considering giving up breastfeeding as I’m not sure my health can take much more. What am I doing wrong?? Why can I not settle my own child

Eventually you will just know what he needs but in the meantime, I'd start a little routine for night time.
Is he hungry? Does he have wind? Is he wet? If it's none of those, then usually all that's left is that he's tired and grumpy.
So feed (bottle, breastfed, expressed - whichever enables him to fill his little tummy); wind (upright, pat on back, put a pillow under the mattress at his head to tilt him up slightly if needed) and check/change nappy. Then quick cuddle, put him back in his cot and leave the room to give him a few minutes to settle himself (this is in case he picks up on your stress and to give you a few minutes to settle yourself). Hope this helps.

It all seems a bit back to front. Are you sleeping when he sleeps in the day?
Tell us a bit more about the pattern, when does he have his bottles, is he grizzling at night and not in the day? Does he settle better after a bottle?

No I struggle to sleep during the day but do try to Atleast lay down while he sleeps. He’s breastfed but has a bottle at 1 and just before bed about 10. He sleeps a lot of the day but I try to have some awake time around mid day and also during the evening from about 6. Apart from that he just sleeps during the day a lot. His feeding during the day is pretty much every 2 hours and he wakes himself for it and will burp after fine and fall asleep with no problem. During the night when I have put him in to the next to me he becomes stressed quick and has only settled twice in it (both times rolling on to his side to settle which I’m not sure is aloud). I’m struggling to get him to latch at night and it can take me about 2 hours to feed him properly, he will then arch his back and throw his head back when trying to be winded but most of the time after trying for ages I cannot get anything out. And unlike during the day when he will be put down at night he instantly wakes

If you're doing too up bottles to help weight gain could you perhaps try those in the night instead? That way DP could do it too so you can rest a bit.

I found a nappy change before the night feed in the early days really helped her wake up enough to eat.

Good luck, the first 6 weeks are the hardest.

I’ll definitely try moving both feeds to night but will it affect my supply ?

Also is it to soon to start expressing milk ?

Thank you all very much !!

I can answer the question on expressing milk. My midwives encouraged me to do it as soon as possible as both DCs were early and had jaundice. The electric machine they gave me in the hospital was a bit industrial but very efficient. I managed with a hand pump when I went home.

Moving both bottle feeds to the night will probably affect your supply. In your situation I would pump at say 9pm then get into bed, DH gives baby the bottle at 10pm and settles him to sleep. Then you do the next feed. Have you tried feeding lying down. DD3 was very sicky as a baby, if she was moved after a feed she'd wake, be sick and scream. I just started co sleeping and fed her laying down so that once she was asleep she didn't need to be disturbed. Would work for a next to me crib thing too if you have one. She lost more weight than recommended but then she started gaining well. It's hard work at first but if you want to keep going it will suddenly get easier.

My little one had a patch of being windy in the night. We could bring up wind fine in the day but at night / evening it seemed to be stuck and upsetting him. We used Infacol for a couple of evenings and it seemed to help. We've also found that a gentle bounce on the knee helps to produce a big burp.

Also worth checking the room temperature and consider adjusting clothes / blankets.