Should I start combination feeding after hospital stay with 6 day old?

[Rebeccamoggz]

Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice. We rushed to the hospital last night after our 6 day old started coughing up blood. The doctors think this came from my nipple and his blood test are all fine, thank God.

I had to pump both breasts for 15 mins so they could test the milk for blood (non was found)

We've only been home for 2 days after I've had 5 day hospital stay due to induction and both baby and I having an infection. So I'm very sleep deprived already.

With that said should I try combination feeding with the milk collected (200mls) so that a family member can feed him whilst me and my husband sleep? Or persevere after having slept for less than 2 hrs a night for nearly a week? (We also both haven't slept in over 24 hours)

Any advice is much appreciated. I just want to know of it's silly to attempt it so soon. Thanks

Poor you and congratulations both at the same time! If you want to bf then persevere and try not to use formula, if you don’t mind not bf then give it a go. The only thing that will make you make milk is time that your baby spends suckling, so ‘missing’ a feed means you will start to make less milk which may well mess up establishing bf. I found bf very hard with (oddly) my 2nd dc, and tried to just think about that feed (not tomorrow or next week), ‘just one more’ got me through the first few tricky weeks until it became easy.

Oh and for the next few weeks just lounge around snoozing whenever you can or bf. That’s all you need to do! No cooking or housework!

Thank you. I didn't think about the fact my boobs would be missing the feeds. I wonder if missing a day has a dramatic impact on supply? So far I've found it impossible to snooze in the day. I tried to sleep for 2 hours yesterday, I even tried meditation sounds and just couldn't fall asleep. I know at some point my body will have to. I'm used to having 10 hours of sleep, so I don't know how I'm still going!

Go for it, assuming you have stored the milk safely. Obviously it's up to you but in my experience missing a feed here or there isn't going to affect establishing a supply. Feeding is all over the show In the early days, if you are feeding very regularly your supply will be fine. Just don't panic when the baby wants to cluster feed. You haven't tanked your supply and caused this. It's the baby putting in their order for more milk for there next growth spurt

Alternatively the milk will be fine in the freezer for months so you won't waste it.

I would only miss one feed, so if baby is sleeping every two hours give baby a feed then leave the bottle and get a good 4-5 hours in. Even that should be restful enough.
If the milk wasn’t collected in a safe way I.e sterilised collection bottles etc, just use a bit of ready to feed formula.

I wouldn’t go for longer than that when your milk is coming in, you might get engorgement/risk mastitis.

when my baby’s were young I used to go to bed at 8pm and stay there till 6am just feeding and sleeping/quietly reading. It helped me get some rest.

I had a hospital stay with my then 4 day old and as part of checking him over they discovered he wasn't really feeding when on my breast so was badly malnourished. We filled him full of formula for 12 hours to give him the strength to get better at breast feeding.

Within a few days he was back on track so this small break in BF didn't mean my supply was ruined. We went on to exclusive BF successfully.

Just a little anecdote to show that missing a feed does not mean it's all ruined.

Thanks for all of the replies. The milk was collected in sterilized bottles and stored by the hospital. We are currently still there and hoping to be discharged by 9am.

Missing one feed and giving an expressed bottle sounds like the best thing. Baby is has started going 3 hours between feeds within the last 24 hours so we could get a good 6 hours sleep in.

I really appreciate the advice. I've been a long time lurker on mumsnet due to infertility, I never thought it would be me asking for advice!

Just to leave a little update. Baby easily took one bottle feed from the expressed milk and then went back on the boob perfectly fine. Missing a feed didn't seem to affect my milk supply. Baby has been sleeping 2-3 hours after feeds so I've now managed to catch up on some sleep.