Disappointed

[FebMama]

DS2 is 2 months old today. EBF for the first 6 weeks. Then started to combi feed and gradually worked up to formula in the day then BF at night and for the first morning feed of the day. Found that he was only then waking up once a night so maximum of 2 breastfeeds per day.

He's not content on the breast anymore. He's fussy and doesn't feed for long. Sadly I think it's a case of my supply dropping and him also having developed a preference for the bottle. He woke up for a feed at 2.30am and only managed a 20 minute breastfeed before we were both getting stressed. So I made him a bottle and he's had 4oz and now nodded off peacefully.

I'm disappointed because whilst I knew the impact of combi feeding on breastfeeding, I was hoping that we would keep up the night feeds for longer. Managed a good few months of it with DS1.

Is there anything I can do? Shall I persevere with the BF at night or just admit and accept our BF journey has come to an end? I don't want to stop formula feeding in the day as this works for us.

Have you tried breastfeeding in the day when he's more awake? Just to see if takes it.
If he does the same then it could be supply. But if he does have more then there's probably some other reason.

A 20 minute feed sounds fine to longish? Do you mean he was unsettled throughout the feed or just at the end?

I think so early on combi feeding especially if you are only feeding at night won’t work as your supply hasn’t being established so unless you will bf more in the day for a while I think you will struggle to maintain a supply enough for your baby.

Just persevere with the boob and your body will do it's thing and contine to make milk for those night feeds. There is a leap at eight weeks so fussiness at the boob is normal and your baby trying to make more milk. Don't stop the boob it's so beneficial to baby to keep combi feeding rather than all formula.

Could you try pumping to boost your supply? I ended up pumping and freezing the milk, then once I stopped breastfeeding I still gave my son one portion of frozen milk a day to lengthen the exposure to breastmilk. He was getting mixed feeds from around 2 weeks because he was always hungry.

On the plus side, think how lucky you are that baby is already sleeping through the night with just one wake up!

Thank you everyone.

I have tried feeding him when he's more awake and it's the same. He's fussy just minutes into a feed.

I persevered with it again this morning for his morning feed and we managed a 30 minute feed which he seemed content with afterwards.

I could try pumping but I just feel I struggle for time. I also want to continue formula feeding in the day as I'm not confident enough to breastfeed in public (I wish I was!)

Have you been to a breastfeeding support group?

They can help you with supply and fussiness, but also in building your confidence to feed in public.

Why don’t you pump for public feeds and breastfeed him at home during the day?
are you really out that much that this is the main reason for formula?

I haven't been to a breastfeeding support group but did have some help early on from our local infant feeding team with latch support etc.

@AllIwantforChristmas22 avoiding public breastfeeding isn't my main reason for formula feeding. There's a range of reasons why I am formula feeding and that's just one of them.
I invested in the Elvie pump with my first but just never did get on well with pumping and it's put me off doing all of that again.

Sounds like bottle preference- he's fussy during a BF because it isn't instant gratification like a bottle because he has to work at it to get the milk to flow/trigger the let down.

If you want to BF more, the only real way to resolve is to reduce the amount of bottle and up the amount of BFs, going through the fussy phases

Have a look for a group in your area or call the NCT infant feeding helpline.

If you want to continue breastfeeding you might need to reduce the bottle for a bit and get it re established. Then you can slowly reintroduce them when a bit older.

@FebMama how are you feeding him when you give him a bottle? If you’re not practicing paced bottle feeding to mimic feeding at the breast that might be why he’s showing a preference for the bottle.

There’s a great article on paced feeding here that’s relevant whether you’re expressing to feed or using formula https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/

As a side note, I have an elvie and really didn’t get on with it. I’ve since hired a hospital grade pump and had much more success in expressing a decent amount. If you wanted to revisit pumping as a means of boosting supply you could look at power pumping for a couple of days to essentially replicate cluster feeding. Alternatively if you really don’t want to pump I’d look at upping your skin to skin time with DS as this should naturally tee your body up to increase supply.