Hi - looking for some advice and wisdom please for my baby who will be 7 weeks tomorrow - it’s a bit long, sorry!
When she was born the infant feeding team recommended nipple shields as she was very sleepy and my nipples were flat. After 5 days of expressing milk she got the hang of latching (with the shields), and I then fed her without supplementing with EBM. She feeds a lot and for quite a long time at each feed, but has a good stretch of sleep at night. Her weight gain has been steady (she was small at birth and has remained on the 2nd centile), lots of wet nappies and poos, so I assume she was getting what she needed despite the shields. I have tried weaning from the shields but each time she will only latch for a minute or two at most.
About a week ago she became very fussy when trying to latch. It started on just one side and only at a few feeds, but after a few days she was screaming at every feed, only latching after 5-10 minutes of crying. There doesn’t seem to be any obvious cause - she does it when sleepy, awake, recently and not recently fed, in the day and night. Yesterday was the worst day by far, and so I decided to try expressing milk for a few days in case there was any issue with the shields causing her pain/upset.
I had no issues expressing milk when she was first born, and I also exclusively expressed for my twins when they were in the NICU for 2 months a few years ago. But so far (since yesterday afternoon) I have only managed to express 3 ounces of milk, and one side has only produced a few drops. She’s had some formula overnight and this morning. My breasts are getting increasingly painful and it feels as though I am getting engorged. I managed to get her to feed this morning and the pressure was relieved, however I tried again a few hours later when she was looking to be fed and she wouldn’t latch at all - I tried before and after giving her some formula but neither worked.
If anyone has any idea what could be causing her to be so upset, and any tips for getting her to latch, I would be very grateful for some advice. I am worried this may be the end of breastfeeding, and also worried about getting mastitis if I can’t get her to feed and can’t express anything. A lot of what I have found online suggests things like having her on me as much as possible, staying in bed and just feeding, but that’s not possible with toddler twins to look after.