I have decided to give breastfeeding a go and now im nervous

[fernie3]

I have two children already both of them were forumla fed. My first was great no problems great growth no illness etc etc. Then came my second, months of reflux and medications multiple allergies and hospital stays for chest infections and STILL at the age of two intolerances to foods which leave him with bleeding skin on his bottom and constant upset tummys. Obviosuly I know that this could well have been the same whether he was formula or breastfed but after a long hard think about it I have decided to try breastfeeding this one to try to at least minimize the risk and give her every chance of avoiding these problems.

I have posted on here a few times before with my concerns about breastfeeding but as I say after a long think I have decided to give it a go and even if it only lasts a day then its better than nothing.

I am nervous now! I feel like all the other aspects of having a new baby I am confident about with it being my third but this I am clueless about!. I have already spoken to the midwife about it and to the health visitor so they are already aware that I want to breastfeed etc and have offered their help.I have also asked to stay at the hospital for at least 24 hours or until I have managed to feed that baby on my own, which the midwife has said wont be a problem at all. I have also been reading around alot about it.

a few question I had though that I cant seem to get my head around are

1. at the hospital how often do you feed them in that first night - with my other two i just got them a bottle every few hours and gave it to them. If I am breastfeeding do I pick the baby up and try to get it to feed every few hours or do i wait for it to wake for food on its own?

1. I have a terrible tablet swallowing phobia (laugh if you want) would it be ok for me to take my own dissplving paracetamol to the hospital for afterpains since I have heard these are worse when you breastfeed.

1. Do i need to take anything in my hospital bag with me to breastfeed?or just take my breasts lol

and finally (sorry for all the questions!) If my baby wont feed in the first few hours is that ok?

hopefully this all makes sense!

sophie

Message withdrawn

Hey well done you for deciding to give it a shot and lining up help.

1. see how your baby is. if awake and alert keep them close to your skin and let them find their way and feed however often they want to.
2. paracetamol is fine fine fine for breastfeeding
3. a well fitted nursing bra and breast pads will do. and some sort of nightie that gives easy access. I went for t-shirt nighties that I lifted up at the hem, but there are more dignified ways like proper front opening nighties

have faith in your ability to feed your new dc. It may not always be easy but you can do it and it is amazing.

xx

Message withdrawn

Something I always had in mind, and I suppose it's true, is that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby. So if the baby's crying and isn't obviously in poo up to its armpits, pop it on the breast. It may even be every hour. There may be times during those growth spurts when you're wondering where it's all going, but they do give up and nod off in the end.

Ideally, keep them close to you, skin to skin and let the baby have access to your breast so that it can feed whenever it needs to - new bf babies like to have tiny amounts often, and being next to you helps that.

I'd take my own tablets, mainly as then you don't need to ask for anything

Some women leak and some don't - but good breastpads (I liked the Lanisoh ones best) are a good idea to begin with. Remember that at first you will just be producing small amounts of colostrum, and then after a few days your full milk will come in, so you won't leak till then anyway

Good luck !

like you i Ff my first. with my second i just waited for him to wake, which he hardly ever did and was hellish to latch on

with my third he fed in recovery ( was Em CS) and i hassled the nurses to pass him to me to feed every few hours. Obv if you have a normal delivery you will be able to pick baby up yourself. Then i went home the next day so it was ok. he fed like a dream

I've never had any after pains. but i do bleed LOADS

best of luck. i admire you for deciding to Bf with your third - its not easy to go back to being a novice mum

ask for help in latching your baby on in the hospital, as soon as possible after birth. but it takes some babies [and mothers!] a bit longer to get the hang of it son don't get disheartened. Once you get going it is so much easier than making up bottles!

Take some breast pads in case you leak, get a few good breast feeding bras [mothercare] and remember to drink plenty of fluids. Agree that co=sleeping helps a lot.

Good luck!

I would suggest getting ahold of a good breastfeeding book - the NCT one is great and check out www.kellymom.com

in answer to your questions

1. IME feed every 2 hours at least in the first weeks or so, you need to bring your milk in quick and get your supply going, the more the baby sucks the more milk you will produce, I would always feed every 2 hours or more if awake if they were asleep leave it no more than 3 hours between feeds, I don't know how scientific this is but worked for me.

1. yes of course you can take paracetamol when BFing, I have taken cocodamol after every birth, be warned I ahd no afterpains with the first two, horrendous ones with the last one

1. breastpads and Lansinoh cream

and last but not leat the belief that you CAN breastfeed, your body will make enough milk to feed your baby given half the chance, and very importantly feeding a baby in the first 3 weeks or so is NOTHING like how BFing a 3,4 or 5 month old, it gets a lot better.

Thanks I have never had any leaking at all either during pregnancy or after once my babies were born - will this be different if I breastfeed at first? I am a bit worried since everyone else I know had milk come in even if they forumla fed! I assumed that i just didnt because they knew there was no point lol

I will pack my own tablets then I felt like such an idiot last time telling them I was too afraid of swallowing tablets the midwife actually said to me that I had just had a baby with no pain relief but I would swallow a little tablet which made me feel about an inch high

thanks again!

sophie

you could take numbers of bf helplines with you just in case you encounter any problems or have questions. i found mws in hospital useless with helping me to get bf going so you really can't rely on them, it isn't part of their training.

although the bfc who helped me was a midwife so it isn't universal of course.

Well done you on this!

If you haven't found it already, kellymom might be worth looking at: www.kellymom.com/ - it can be a bit extreme but does have LOADS of useful information on BF.

To answer your first question, the first day / night I think you just have to go with demand.

My DS1 was BF from start, but didn't actually feed for about 3 days! I wasn't worried because I had a maternity nurse (very experienced ex midwife) who was also a BF counsellor and she said it's quite normal.

I am glad your mw and hv are supportive: the ones I had in hospital were fairly useless and despite knowing the support I would have at home I had to really fight to be discharged with my (perfectly content) baby.

Best of luck

have a look here

I'm sure tiktok will come along with some sage advice.

Get yourself a good nursing bra, and good breastpads. See if you can find some good instruction on hand-expressing. It can sometimes be more productive than using a mechanical pump.

The hospital will probably like to see you feeding your baby regularly. I would suggest you try every few hours, if your baby isnt telling you to do it more regularly. It's important to try regularly to stimulate your supply. Little and often is great in the early hours/days.

Good luck

Hi, your baby will let u know when they are hungry, just like when you bottle feed - feeding on demand is necessary to start with. The difference with breastfeeding is that you can't tell how much they've had - u will just have to work out if they're hungry. The great thing with breastfeeding is there is always a ready supply of milk at the right temperature. No midnight runs to the kitchen! Id recommend some decent breastpads and nipple cream (Lansinoh) - use from day one to prevent soreness.

Paracetamol is fine for afterpains - I'm sure they'll allow u to take your own. Afterpains will be worse, I have 4 children - take painkillers, they don't last long. Sometimes u have to really work at breastfeeding - give it your best shot but don't beat yourself up if it's not working out. Sometimes baby may be really tired too after birth - enjoy the peace if this happens!
Good luck!

my tips to are
to 1)
feed whenever the lil ones moves, or try to...because you can't go wrong doing that If they get hungry they can get fractious annd then a Baby might not be able to latch on anymore...but depends on the Baby!
Also, remember if you have drugs in labour/Birthprocess than your child might be sleepier and it would be worth trying to rouse them regularly and latch them on, or try too...

2. Yup, Paracetamol in whichever form is completely fine....

3. second the breastpads and Lansinoh!
   Chocolate might also be good

Oh and it is o.k. if a Baby doesn't feed at first...just try and latch on if the lil one doesn't wake up on its own...as I mentioned before!

Rather than just rely on hospital/MW/HV support and advice (they aren't oalways very well trained or up to date) I would recommend you try to get to a BF support group in your area, such as those run by La Leche League. They always welcome pregnant mums. Or at least get hold of the numbers of your local BF counsellors in advance.

Good luck with everything

yes tpl is right...mw's/hv's often just go with it because of policies of breastfriendlyness....but, that sadly doesn't always mean they have the knowledge to support you...

I wouldn't worry too much about not having any leaking - my DSis bfed both her children and never leaked. She said the only way she knew the babies got any milk was when they possetted it back up again .

Hope it all goes well for you.

poledra...the leaking is rather individual...with es it was part of the reason I gave up bf....because I just soaked my clothes through despite constantly changing the breastpads...but with each child it adjusted itself a bit better....but I always leaked a fair bit...

Oh leaking - I never have. Plenty of milk, nothing to worry about.

and op...you may or you may not...but leaking does not mean anything in relation to be able to bf...iykwim

and sorry poledra....I thought you just went randomly on about leaking there, lol....I blame new mn...not the wine ...didn't mean to be abrupt

I leaked tonight and DD3 is 6 1/2 months old

1. I would suggest feeding the baby or offering a feed every 2-3 hours especially if you are concerned about your milk coming in, the more skin to skin contact you can have the better. I also fed as often as possible in the early days as had paranoia about jaundice. Offer the first feed as soon as you feel ready after the baby is born. Basically whenever mine were awake they had a boob shoved at them!

1. I had quite bad afterpains this time in the first few days, only for the first few minutes of each feed though. I was taking paracetomol and diclofenac but I had c-section.

1. I would second nursing nightshirts with easy access, lansinoh and snacks - I was really hungry in hospital this time.

I also co-slept in hospital this time, I asked the midwife to put the side of the bed up and arranged DS so I was confident he wouldn't fall out, we both slept better that way.

Good luck!

Loads of good advice on here already, so just a couple of things from my experiences (2 x bf ds).

1. If you put him on your breast straight away for lots of skin-to-skin your baby may try to latch straight away, or after a wee while. But may then sleep for hours after the trauma.

1. Afterpains may be more like strong discomfort and you can tell yourself that it's actually really good for you as your uterus will already start to contract. With my ds2, who fed almost all the time from day 1, I could almost feel everything schlurping back into place - v strange.

1. Definitely take night things that aren't a hassle to open up. Even if you may be in for only one night, you may well be quite sweaty (night sweats are something no one ever tells you about bf-ing, but a v small price to pay). 2nd time around, I used cotton re-usable breast pads (after washing of course) which were much less irritating than paper ones. And Lansinoh cream (from mothercare or online) is a great nipple cream if you're not allergic to lanolin.

1. For both of mine, the 1st night was the hardest to get through as, not only was I shattered and still recovering physically, but both babies were still totally nocturnal and wanted to feed most of the time when all I had was colostrum. So, v tough but, if you can make it through that, you should tell yourself you're amazing and keep going. Ask the mw if the hospital cot can be placed at an angle: having the baby's head higher than its feet can help to relieve trapped wind, if that's an issue.

Best of luck and do contact NCT/kellymom if you have problems at the beginning.

thanks for all the advice! my baby is due in three weeks so hopefully i will get to try it all out soon! (i hope so getting impatient now lol)

sophie

Everyone has a different experience. Here are my answers based on my experiences (bf 2 babies).

1. Both mine fed constantly all night that first night. Con. Stant. Ly. Obviously no milk in yet and they sukled for comfort allllll night. This might not happen to you, but it's fine (if fecking knackering) if it does.

1. I have never felt even the smallest twinge of afterpain.

1. Lansinoh maybe? I found the constant suckling made me sore and the Lansinoh helped.

1. It is, but I'd be inclined to cuddle them close, have lots of skin to skin and encourage suckling if you want the best possible chance of bfing working.