Breastfeeding nerves!

[MrsMarrioo]

BREASTFEEDING!

So I'm 31 weeks pregnant with my second baby! She will be delivered via elective c section at 39 weeks unless I go naturally before hand.

I unfortunately only managed 2 days feeding my son nearly 6 years ago. I didn't really have much help in the hospital I was kind of left to it and feel like this was a huge contributing factor and possibly the fact I introduced a dummy too early. I was so so sore, bleeding etc and ended up making him a bottle and that was the end of my journey.

I'd LOVE to be able to successfully breastfeed this baby. EBF for the first few weeks then I'm hoping to combination feed so my husband can give baby a bottle through the night too. I'm really nervous about not being able to do it, purely based on no sleep or being completely drained which I don't deal well with due to a medical condition.

My question is... how soon can I introduce a bottle, without her preferring bottle over breast and therefore turning breast down completely? How long do breastfed babies go inbetween feeds? Am I to expect to be awake all night? Desperate to succeed but don't want to compromise my mental health.

Many thanks!

It sounds as if you had some issues with your first that you needed support for, especially if you were in pain and bleeding. Do you think they could have had Tongue Tie? If you experience the same this time, definitely get them checked for TT.

Some other things that might help are:

What to expect in the early weeks.

Common Questions in the early weeks

Information is your ally.

I'd also recommend finding out where your local BFing Supoort Groups are and going along well before the baby arrives so that you've already got some support in place.

And the LLL have some useful tips in introducing a bottle here.

The first few weeks the baby might need feeding regularly through the night but that's normal. It's also easier if you can figure out how to sleep lying down and follow the safe bed sharing guidelines

Forgot to add that I read Baby Calming before I had DC2 abs found it really helpful and the advice works whether you BF or FF

That's great thank you for your help!x

The lack of support is a huge issue and it seems such a postcode lottery. If you can afford it I’d look into booking to see a private lactation consultant near you. You can find one here lcgb.org/find-an-ibclc/. They can ensure your latch and positioning is good and most will come to your house to do it so you can feel totally comfortable.
Even the midwives in hospital with breastfeeding training don’t have anywhere near the level of expertise that a lactation consultant does provided they are a IBCLC (the highest qualification).

With regards to a bottle I guess I’m not much use as my son refused it and I haven’t properly tried with my daughter. It’s said best to wait 4-6 weeks for your supply to be established. In terms of how long they go it differs baby to baby. My son literally fed every 1-1.5 hours for a few months. My daughter has always been happier to go a bit longer but I’d say the average is a couple of hours. It’s best to feed on demand though so don’t deny baby a feed just because they only fed an hour ago. It’s crucial they feed very regularly in the early weeks to build up your supply and your body will regulate around 6 weeks.
With the sleep thing I also think this really varies; there’s no evidence to suggest that FF babies sleep any better than EBF. I have friends who have FF and theirs have slept well but also some whose haven’t, all baby dependent.

Hi, I was very similar to you in that I stopped breastfeeding my 1st after 2 days. Thus time I knew I wanted to breastfeed. We ended up giving formula the day after he was born as I had to go into theatre. I still managed to breastfeed but we have ended up combi feeding since day 2. Lots of people will tell you not to introduce a bottle til 6 weeks but luckily our baby would take a bottle and still breastfeed. It meant in those early weeks I would stay up til 2am then my husband would take over and give bottles til 6 so I could get a few hours stretch each night. It made such a difference as my baby would feed as often as every half hour! Now at 4 months he sleeps from around 9 til 6.30 and only gets the odd bottle if I need extra sleep or I go out somewhere. So basically what I'm saying is if you are struggling in the beginning don't be afraid to try a bottle but it doesn't mean you have to give up breastfeeding. Hope all goes well for you x

YY to the private IBCLC.
Choose one who will also be able to support you with combination feeding successfully.

With my first, I breastfed and waited until the advised 6 weeks before trying a bottle (mainly for if I was to out etc and the occasional use) but she point blank refused so I gave up after many attempts.
With second just born, I offered bottle on day 4 and he took it well. I will offer it every few days as I don't want him to get a bottle preference as it's less work for them to drink from a bottle.
Currently 10 days old and feeds every 2-3 hours during the day and 1.5-3 during the night. It's tiring but I just grab sleep where I can - I go to bed early and husband has him downstairs and only brings him up for a feed.

That was me at to say, husband then brings him up about 11pm and I keep him upstairs after that.

Just wanted to add to look at pace feeding bottles so baby doesn't develop a flow preference and use the smallest teat size 0 or 1. You can also look at milk shells to collect the let down from the other side when feeding, especially for me in the early days, I could collect a lot, we used this milk in baths though.

Good luck!

I will go into more detail later but with DD1 I combi feed for 6 weeks and then moved to ff. With DD I combi feed for 2 months, then ebf and now I’m still feeding her 2.5 years later.