24 hour weighing - lost again. What shall I do?

[AlienLady]

Midwife came yesterday - Day 5. DD lost 10% of her weight
Midwife came today and she lost a further 0.3g.
I have been trying to feed her every 3 hours since yesterday.
She seems sleepy today and not that bothered so I’ve had to strip her just to get her to take some milk. Midwife wanted me to give her a top of expressed milk so I got my haaka out and tried expressing for the first time. I got only 10ml out of my left breast. What do I do? It’s my birthday today as well and I am so upset as I thought I was doing a good job. Do I do a formula top up and how?

A good sign and with that in mind I’d continue as you have been doing. I wouldnt personally be expressing or worrying about top ups providing she is actively feeding at the breast and continues to produce wet and dirty nappies. Just do lots of skin to skin, react to any hunger cues and don’t go more than two hours between feeds. I think things will look different at her next weigh in.

And try to do breast compressions and switch feeding at each feed too.

Now she’s crying and won’t latch at my nipple. I don’t know what’s happening :(

Have you winded her?
Is your let down too fast at the start of a feed, hand express for 30 seconds first as it can be like being shot in the throat with a full flow tap so you need to reduce the pressure so it's more of a steady constant flow.

5 days is still so tiny so she needs to learn what she's doing. You have the formula there if you need it so everything will be fine.

Take your top off, maybe undress her as well, cuddle her up with a blanket over you both. It took both of mine a while to figure out latching - DD1 used to do this thing of just open mouthed head butting at my breast before finally closing her mouth and latching.

If she doesn't latch, give her formula (or have your DH do it while you go and relax and get some sleep), and try again next time.

Breast is best, but fed baby is better xx

Try popping her in the sling and taking her for a walk - or getting dad to do it. Might just be tired.

So she seems to have taken well to a bottle and teat well and isn’t taken my nipple. I really want to cry.

You're overwhelmed, which is understandable. But if you look back over your posts, she latched and fed from you for an hour just a few hours ago. That's really fantastic.
Keep offering, do lots of skin to skin, see if there's a breastfeeding group nearby who could help with the latching.

And if it doesn't work, that's fine too.

You might want to avoid using a bottle or dummy until you have established breastfeeding and use a cup or syringe for top ups instead.

I'm glad to hear she's had some good feeds now. It sounds as though you had a really successful bf.
What's your plan overnight? Is your partner/husband on paternity leave at the moment? And what about tomorrow? You mentioned an older child so does he have to get to nursery or school.
I'm just trying to think about the best way of ensuring you get some sleep whilst also keeping up the skin to skin and bfing frequently.
Having a couple of really good feeds inside her might make her less sleepy and have more energy to feed and so you may find she wants to feed a lot over the next 24 hours. You might want to line up a good series on Netflix! Or it might be that you have to keep waking her every 1.5 - 2hrs and offering her the boob or, if she won't take that, a bottle so that she continues to thrive.

Happy birthday and congratulations on your new baby. My first lost 10.5% of his body weight by day 3. A midwife that was a trained bf counsellor helped me with the latch and he put in 6% by day 5. We went on to bf for nearly 2.5 years. Sounds like you're doing great already and as previously stated once you're getting wet and yellows seedy nappies daily, you're going well. Just keep putting baby to breast as you're building your supply and great to hear baby is being assessed for tt. Get lactation consultant to check your latch as well.

Ultimately whilst breastfeeding is what you want, it is not the end all. I enjoyed bf and breastfed 3 kids over 2 years. Don't put yourself under too much pressure, some days may be great and others not so good. You're doing a great job whether breastfeeding or not.

So I’ve stripped her to try to get her on mu boob. She’s drinking some but just wants to sleep. I will express after and give it to her via syringe. Not sure what to do ? How do I force feed her my boob?

You need to relax a little bit it’s hard but previously you said latch was fine and now your saying taken by the teat of the bottle but not the nipple. It’s really early days it’s takes time patience and perseverance. As previously stated if you really really want to exclusively breastfeed you need to stop doing anything else for a little while set yourself up in bed on sofa lots of skin to skin and it will come. Refuse visitors and get professional help as if baby does keep losing weight or doesn’t gain quickly enough midwives and health visitors will
soon start pressuring to supplement. If your latch is fine then that’s a massive hurdle to overcome early days. If baby is dribbling it means latch is not deep enough so concentrate on getting a deeper latch which will help baby get more milk from you and in turn start to gain weight x

Also co sleeping saved our breastfeeding journey. Wouldn’t have been able to
csrry on if we hadn’t. Just meant baby was close at all times and would feed frequently throughout the night which increased supply

Fed is best. If she’s losing weight and not taking your milk but will drink from a bottle then give her a bottle. You can continue breastfeeding too if you want to, and as she gets bigger and more used to it she may move on to ebf.

I think you sound overwhelmed and you need to take a step back and breathe. You're doing great, it sounds like your milk is coming in now and your baby is feeding from you.
Losing 10% or even a bit more of birth weight is not a disaster, it's quite common.
If she's having plenty of wet nappies and yellow poos then she's not dehydrated and is getting enough milk.
You want to EBF so do that, just feed feed feed, no need to mess around with expressing and bottles now, you have enough milk. (also 10mL at this early stage is actually loads).
Try and feed every 2h let her feed completely on one side until she's finished then offer the other one and do the same, you can switch back again to the first side too and see if she will take a bit more.
Plan to not do much apart from feeding for the next couple of days. Let DH take her to settle her between feeds so you can get some rest.
I would also recommend co sleeping and lying down feeding.

So after her screaming for 15 minutes, she’s not left either breast since 12am. This whole thing is getting me down.

OP I know how annoying this is to hear but honestly the long feeds etc are pretty normal when they're increasing your supply it's a bit like cluster feeding x

I think her being in for so long is a good sign. That's what babies do. I was basically strapped to a chair and watched a lot of netflix.

I also coslept

OP, I know you really want to breastfeed but you don't have to if it's seriously affecting you mentally. It has to work for both you and the baby. Your needs matter too.

Most babies regain their birthweight by day 14, most, not all.
I would take the midwives advice and express.

Gina Ford gives good advice on how to increase supply ( I used it )
After each baby feed express manually as much as you can.
Do this and within a week and your supply will have increased
At this point stop with the expressing and let the baby feed to allow them to control the supply
If you notice your baby needing more ( usually during growth spirts ) and you’re not producing it go back to the feed and express routine.

If your midwife or gp advice the best course of action is formula top ups then obviously that’s what you should do. If you want to go back to just breastfeeding then keep on expressing as well.

As an aside if you are hand expressing warming your breasts in the shower or with a hot cloth increases flow. Personally I’d get a mechanical pump as they are so much easier and more efficient

Ok, sweetie, first things first you're doing an amazing job. I'm so proud you're not giving up. I breastfed for 2 years and there were so many challenges. I topped up with formula right from the start and that's ok, till my milk fully came in just to keep her going. It's ok to do so, you're both failing and you're doing so well for your baby. What you eat makes a difference. Oats are your friend and look after you too. I know it doesn't help when people say it but they're so right. If we're fed and full so will baby's tummy be x

I am just here for support and to say keep going. It’s so hard. I breastfed both my kids for two years and both got off to very rocky start. DD with a tongue tie and DS lost loads of weight - 14%! - before he got back up again.

I ended up renting a medela double pump. It’s amazing for keeping supply up and for getting enough milk to do a bottle feed without formula. DS was so slow to get going and it really helped me plus I could see and document what he was having until I was totally confident he’d figured out the boob.

Day 5 both times was the day I wanted to quit. Hang in there. It gets easier and you’ll never look back.

Ps OP in terms of average milk supply for feeding
Check out Great Ormond Street info
After a week it’s 45/60ml per feed ( babies stomach is the size of an apricot )

• if she wants to sleep let her sleep
• offer her a feed at least every 3 hours.

OP you sound like me at the beginning when I had my first. I was pulling my hair out but really wanted to breast feed. I know other MN are going to say NO don’t do this, feed on demand etc etc etc but my life saver was Gina Ford. I just had to know what was going on and what to do when. So I suggest Send dh out tomorrow to a bookshop and get Gina Ford the Contented little baby.
She advices on timings of feeds depending on age etc of baby.
I went on to use her again when I had my twins and not only did they never cry for a feed, they also never cried at bedtime to either go to bed or wake up. I can’t speak highly enough of her advice and techniques.