Help! I’m in such a mess…

[rosear]

Hi,
I need help urgently, some advice and support and also if someone has gone through something similar I’d love to hear your experience… My little one was born 4 weeks ago, she was born small in weight and she dropped almost 10% if her weight in one day, which made the midwife put us in triple feeding. We have been triple feeding since then, I have been pumping every 3 hours after breastfeeding her and giving the occasional bottle of formula when I didn’t have enough pumped milk or if I need to skip a pumping session to sleep or if out and about with her and my husband (it has happened a couple of times) - I saw a different health visitor yesterday and was advised, despite baby putting on weight, to give her formula after each bf session, mostly as baby seems to take a whole bottle, meaning that she may not be taking much from my breast, and also so she keeps putting on weight and puts on weight faster than she is - she has dropped down one percentile apparently despite having put on weight.
I’m worried that if I stop pumping now my supply will just stop all together, has anybody done this before successfully? Can I bf her and give her a bottle after every feed and kind of keep the supply? Should I continue pumping so can offer her still some breast milk top ups too?

I’m sorry you’re having a rough time OP ❤️ I remember it well!

You've had shit advice from everyone who’s supposed to be helping you 🤦🏻‍♀️
You're right: breastfeeding is a supply and demand system. The more baby is at the breast, the more you will produce - that includes non-nutritive sucking (aka comfort sucking) where baby isn’t actively feeding, but are suckling. It all still gives your body all the right signals.
If it’s financially workable for you, I massively recommend engaging with a IBCLC - internationally board certified lactation consultant.
Unfortunately, nhs midwives and health visitors generally don’t receive very much training on the mechanics of breastfeeding or how to properly remedy problems new mums run into.
Theres nothing wrong with formula. If you want to give your baby formula, that’s fine. But if you want to exclusively breastfeed, the formula replacing breastfeeds and not pumping to replicate that feed will add to an uphill struggle with your supply.
Have you heard of power-pumping? It might help give your supply the kick up the arse it needs. Also highly recommend spending as much time skin-to-skin with baby, baps out, just letting baby latch, feed and comfort sucking as they please. All of that gets the right hormones flowing for your body to keep the milk factory in production.
But of all the above advice, reaching out to an IBCLC is the gold standard of breastfeeding support ❤️

You can do any combination you like.

The most important thing for breastfeeding is consistency and your nighttime feeds. What you remove at night and the frequency is the main thing which dictates supply.

I think ideally you need some RL support. Have you tried co tacking one of the BFing Helplines? The BFC should be able to talk this through with you and tell you if there is any RL support in your area.

Has LO been checked for Tongue Tie as this can sometimes hinder them getting milk.

I’d also have a read of How might I increase my baby’s weight gain