Hi! I've been breastfeeding my son since birth, he has always had 1-3 bottles of formula a week also but it never caused any problems. Lately, for the past month weeks he's been have one formula bottle a day before bed. Breastfeeding came really naturally to us and never had a single issue until now.
So for the last 2 weeks he has been waking up a lot more at night, I feed him every time he wakes although I was thinking he couldn't possibly be hungry since I would have fed him only an hour or 2 ago at his last wake up but he always seemed starving and desperate to feed. He self settles at bedtime so it isn't a feed to sleep association and we had the 4 month sleep regression at 3.5 months so we're passed that.
He's also been really cranky and off form, not my usual happy chilled little baby.
Breasts don't feel full like they used to and never ever leak anymore. I know this happens when supply is established but thought it was worth mentioning anyway.
Before he would often get sick on me when I burped him after a big feed - to the point where I would have to change my pajama top most nights, but I realised today that he hasn't done that in a couple weeks.
Today he was so cranky even though he was fed and napped in the last hour and 15 minutes. On a whim I just decided to give him a bottle of formula (the ready to drink aptimel stuff). Well he absolutely guzzled it back and cried for more so I gave him another half a bottle. He is as happy and content right now as I've seen him in the last week.
I dug out my electric pump then to see what I could get and I barely managed 55mls. I don't often pump (it's probably been 5 weeks or so since I last did) but when I do I normally get 150+ mls very easily.
So, it's just after hitting me that he could have been cranky and sleeping badly for the last 2 weeks (especially the last week) because he's been starving! I never thought I would start having supply issues now when I fed him for 5 months with no problems. He was 91st percentile for weight at birth and was 98th percentile at his last check. He's always been 99th percentile for height so he's a big boy. I'm not sure what to do now, do I pack in the breastfeeding and go straight to formula? Maybe pump alongside it? I'm really paranoid now about not being able to see what his intake is!