Please critique my breastfeeding routine!

[Peridotty]

Hi ladies! Please can I get some of your wise opinions on my BF routine? Is it ok or are there problems with it that I can’t foresee due to lack of experience? I have a 10 week old baby. I also have a boob with more milk than the other. I am trying to even them out by starting on the slacker boob unless the other one is engorged.

6.30am: breastfeed (on slacker boob) and pump the other boob and put milk in fridge. Go back to bed.
9am - 6pm breastfeed every two hours. Pump if the baby is having a long nap and I store the milk.
9pm-3am breastfeed but if baby gets fussy after one boob and won’t latch on to the second, then I will use the expressed milk from fridge and pump unused boob.

Is this okay? I find I have a ton of excess milk in the morning so I like to pump in the morning around 6am or 8am. She likes to drink more at night and is very fussy too so I use the milk in the morning and I pump instead.

Feed on demand. Nobody can advise because nobody else has your baby. Feed when baby needs it, for food, comfort, whatever.

Feed when your boob is engorged too.

Also if you are engorged you need to stop pumping. It’s supply and demand. If your boobs are really sore try hand expressing just until you’re comfortable. Unfortunately if you pump for comfort you’re going to get more and more milk and so more engorgment.

Hi thank you for your reply! Yes I don’t feed on a schedule, only when the baby wakes up or looks hungry. She seems to feed best when she is just woken up from a nap. If she is too awake, she will not latch well and fusses on the second breast especially. That’s why I have to give her expressed milk from a bottle as otherwise she is squirmy and cries.

With the engorgement, isn’t it a good thing because I can pump more milk from it so that I can feed my baby with it when she is fussing?

You are messing up the supply and demand system by pumping when you have extra milk. Just feed baby when baby is hungry and your body will soon adapt.

If you are full at 6am, just feed .

Unless you have a desperate need for expressed milk, stop pumping on the engorged side. Pumping on the "slacker" side will help stimulate more milk but it's not necessary, it's normal to have one that produces more than the other. Try looking out for some hunger cues while baby is awake, clenching fists, pursing lips, making sucking motions, and feed then, it'll help her latch before she gets fussy.

Also you will confuse baby bevause the way they suck on your nipple is totally different from a bottle. I don’t understand why you are pumping - you are making so much extra work for yourself for no reason.

My main problem is that my baby refuses to latch on to the second boob when she is clearly still hungry! I have no idea why! Unless I give her some expressed milk from a bottle she will be squirmy and won’t settle down.

Are you sure she’s still hungry and not full by then?

For some reason she doesn’t like to latch on the second breast so I have to top up with milk from a bottle to fill her up.
I do try to look for hunger cues and I am successful at latching her on the first but not the second.
If I didn’t pump then I wouldn’t have expressed milk to give her.

Or maybe she needs winded? Most Bf babies don’t get wind because of the way they suck on the nipple ( they don’t take in air ) but some do.

Or maybe she’s bored. Maybe she wants to stop and feed again in 20 mins. Maybe she has a dirty nappy - lots of Babies poo when they are fed.

Are you sure it’s hunger? How does she behave at that time if someone else holds her and she can’t see you ?

Well sometimes she is full but often she is so squirmy and when someone picks her up she keeps diving sideways (I’m guessing looking for the breast?) However, when I offer the second breast to her again and again she will start to cry and scream.

But you don’t need expressed milk. Your body has plenty.

BF on one side and pumping on the other is all the work of breast feeding AND bottle feeding. It’s mad to do this unless you have to.

Agree with stop pumping. You're just telling your body to make more milk in the mornings and less at night when you actually want to feed her more. Engorgement is not good, it means oversupply. Ideally your breasts should always feel soft - they produce milk on demand, they don't need to 'fill up' as it were.

I appreciate your difficulty with baby not taking the second breast at that feed, but she may not be hungry or conversely she may be fussing to increase your supply. Honestly I'd drop the expressed bottle unless there's some other reason for it.

She has a few different reactions when I don’t give her the second breast:

1. calm and not hungry - then I don’t offer expressed milk
2. dives for breast when held upright - then I offer breast again. If she cries I give her the bottle. She does cry at the bottle too but she drinks it.

Get some advice from an infant feeding team (nhs) or evening the Facebook breastfeeding yummy mummies page. You need to begin “pace feeding” with the bottle and I think your milk supply is different at night so pumping and feeding at night is better I think than using pumped milk.

What if they hold her over their shoulder or sitting outwards on their lap? Or lying on their legs ?

Not cradling her in their arms - lots of Bf babies don’t settle like this as it’s feels like feeding time.

What happens if you start on the side she dislikes, when she’s more hungry ?

3. I wait about 30 mins, when she is calm and offer second breast. She does latch on and drinks.

You could also try a nipple shield on the fuller breast as it may mimic the feel of a bottle.

Problem with a bottle is they can't help but drink it. If something hits the roof of their mouth then they have a reflex that makes them suck, and if something hits the back of their mouth then they have a reflex that makes them swallow. So if you force a teat into their mouth they will drink it. Not a problem with breastfeeding because you can't force a breast into their mouths (believe me, ive tried). I'd try winding or offering some other form of comfort if she doesn't want the second breast.

My DS always wanted to comfort suck but would get really angry at there being milk when he didn't want it 🤷‍♀️ we used a dummy but of course that can interfere with breastfeeding.

If you feel uncomfortable and need to ease off the fuller breast you could try a collection cup rather than pumping. It just takes the initial let down, which you can still store to use but doesn't create the ongoing supply / demand issue that others have commented on here. I was recommended this by a breastfeeding support lady and I love it. uk.naturebondglobal.com/products/naturebond-silicone-breast-pump. Tommee tippee does it too and it's available on Amazon.

If baby is fussy, after the first boob (and my no 3 is often like this - same age as yours) I wind him and wander around the house for 5 and when he's clearly fussing I sit back down where I usually feed him and settle him on the other side. Nb they don't always need both sides. Some feeds are long and some are short.

The other thing you may find helpful is la leche league. They are running zoom calls at present and are incredibly helpful for support.

Agree with a breastfeeding consultant. If you don’t know of any ask your HV.

Sounds like you’re doing a great job OP. Just a bit of tweaking to get you both more comfortable.

She is often very squirmy unless you walk around with her. She squirms if you sit down and she cries if you put her down. We havent tried to hold her in ways other than upright. Because she is squirmy we assume she is still hungry. 90% of the time when we offer the bottle milk she will refuse it AND refuse breast too. BUT 80% of the time when held she falls sideways. We assume it is because she is hungry ??
Feeding times are always soo stressful when she is awake.

You are overthinking breastfeeding. No need for a routine, just feed on demand split evenly between both sides.

Thank you for the replies so far! I knew I could count on you all for further insight. I guess I can try not feeding her when she is just squirmy? Walk around for a bit? it’s not pleasant to hold her when she is squirmy though. She is such an active baby