breastfeeding issues

[mariiinaa98]

my baby is two weeks old, initially we were doing combined feeding, breastfeeding, pumping and formula feeding until my milk supply fully came in.

i have tried to wean her off the formula and put her on the breast solely, occasionally pumping. however, she looks like she’s hungry all the time. she will be on the breast and fall asleep after 15 minutes, wake up and go again for another 15 minutes and fall asleep again. she will do this for a good two hours and will not be put down for a nap. she will instantly wake up and want to feed again.

i offered her formula as was worried she might still be hungry and not getting enough at breast; she took the whole 2 ounces and fell asleep right after and has been sleeping satisfied for over an hour.

am i just not producing enough?

Hello, this is just from my own experience of breastfeeing, my dd would do this exact thing and my midwife/health visitor told me it was baby cluster feeding to get my supply up. She would literally feed around the clock constantly for the first few weeks maybe even month. It was really rough but we carried on and now she is 16 months and still bf along with solids. Congrats as well 😊

Breastfed babies cluster feed - it’s their way of increasing your supply to meet their increasing need. It will settle down once your supply regulates - it doesn’t necessarily take weeks if this worries you. It took about 10 days for me, feeding every 2.5 hours. The best indication of whether a breastfed baby is getting enough milk is the number of wet and dirty nappies. There is lots of great support on La Leche League. If you can, I’d recommend trying to get on your local WhatsApp group if you can’t get to a meeting in person. Believe in yourself and your amazing body. You can do this xxx

Try a nipple shield. Personally for me it was wonderful!!!
I think the first few weeks they feed on demand and your body will get used to it. Keep your fluids up as much as possible.

I loved breastfeeding 🤍

This time now is all about cuddles, boobing, cuddle naps. The best xx

It sounds like you need to see someone who can help work out what is going on.
That pattern is typical of babies who aren’t getting enough to eat on the breast usually because they’re not good at getting the milk out or sometimes because of low supply.
if it’s an occasional pattern for a few hours a day that can be cluster feeding which is normal but that constant eating round the clock is almoat always hunger.

A local specialist feeding group or a lactation consultant would be great to see.

You need to 1) see a lactation consultant to check the latch is ok and no tongue tie and 2) ditch the formula and the bottles for now, entirely.

Formula feeding in the early days would have sabotaged your supply. You're supposed to keep baby on the boob. So you might not be making enough milk for her now. And the way she increases your supply is by cluster feeding. There might be a tongue tie, or there might simply not be enough milk and she has to work extra hard to increase supply.

Mine cluster fed for 10-12 hours a time for days. Around 2 or 3 weeks that settled to cluster feeding in the evenings only.

I know you're trying to get some more sleep by introducing formula and pumping so early on but it doesn't work very well. If you want to breastfeed, just breastfeed. You'll eventually sleep again.

I don't mean to be harsh at all. Formula is a perfectly good choice, babies thrive on formula too. But I think if you want to BF, you just have to commit and be realistic.

Why did you think you needed to feed formula while your milk came in? You would have been producing colostrum to begin with which is nutrient-dense and full of antibodies and vitamins and would have sustained her perfectly well for the first few days. Her suckling and cluster feeding stimulates milk production and you should be confident that you will produce enough to satisfy her.
I should imagine all the pumping and feeding formula is just confusing things and I bet you aren’t getting as much sleep as you thought! If your DH or others want to help out then they should be doing everything round the house and leaving you to look after your baby and sleep when she does.
As Desert Rose says, forget all the other stuff and just breast feed. It is always instantly available wherever you are, free, doesn’t need messing around with sterilising and measuring, and contains everything your baby needs.

100% this. I’ve breastfed three, and for those first few weeks you honestly just have to go with it - put your baby to your breast whenever they’re awake, essentially, and don’t bother trying to count feed lengths and intervals or measuring the amount she takes. The purpose of this very frequent feeding is to establish your supply, and using formula really tends to sabotage that.