how do I get my boobs to work !

[itsababslife]

DD arrived at 4am this morning. She had a go a feeding at about 9am and seemed to suckle on each breast for about an hour in total on and off. She's been asleep for most of the day and now wants to suckle again - she must be hungry by now.

My problem is I don't think i'm producing any colostrum or milk - have had no leakage and have tried with hot flannel, massage and breast pump, but nothing comes out.

Do any of you have any advice ??

Congratulations!

You may not get leakage and their first feeds are only a few drops as much as a teaspoonful at most. Their little tummies are only the size of a walnut.

Let her feed as much and as often as she likes. This does 2 things. Makes sure you don't get engorged and also is sending messages to your body to make lots of milk. This if you like is the practice few days with your little one before your milk comes in in earnest at about 3 days when you can end up feeling like dolly parton!

Any Q's please ask
All the best

meant to add my DS didn't feed at all for the first 24 hours but then seemed to feed non stop for the next few days!

Thanks Queenfee, that's reassuring... its a bewildering new world !

Congratulations on the birth of your DD!

My milk didn't come in until I was back from hospital so it was at least day 2 or 3. I worried so much that my DD hadn't had anything in her first 48 hours as she only suckled for a little bit and it seemed so ineffective. But the hospital did a blood sugar test and she was fine.

So keep on keeping on and get real-life help too, if you can. When are the community midwives coming to see you?

Thats ok. Do a search on here and you will find lots of info on breastfeeding. There are also some other good websites like La leche League and Association of Breastfeeding Mothers and NCT for lots of info.
Websites are handy because with a newborn all your most pressing questions come up at 3am!

Congratulations!

Just keep doing what you are doing. Don't go by what your breasts feel like. I think it's perfectly normal not to see/feel any colostrum/milk at first (I didn't). As QueenFee says, you'll know soon enough when milk production starts in ernest.

Pretty soon you'll be squirting DD in the eye with the best of us.

A thousand congratulations - enjoy your first few days with your new bundle and try not to stress too much!

Your DD sounds like my first son (he was 2 yesterday!), who I'm pleased to say I managed to Bf for 9 months after a couple of weeks difficulty (or so I thought). I think the problem is that when a baby is taking colostrum it doesn't actually seem like they're getting much so it's easy to think they're not feeding, but in my experience the best I can say to you is to keep offering the breast whenever you can. I never had leakage in the early days but I think this is because the colostrum is so thick and you don't have the let down reflex as strong as when your milk comes in.

My son seemed to sleep for the best part of the day, so whenever I changed him I offered the breast and even a couple of sucks was enough to keep him going, often only minutes at a time - at times I stripped him off and wiped a cool flannel on his head to get him to wake for a feed as i was worried he wasn't feeding. My sister is a midwife and was able to encourage me and help me avoid reverting to a bottle, which I was tempted to do as I felt he wasn't getting enough, but you should rest assured that your little one will be getting plenty of good stuff each time she feeds (sounds like she's really good already), even if only for a very short while. Your milk will then arrive in a few days and you'll be a dab hand!

I'm currently feeding my 2nd son (5 mth), and I can assure you it'll get easier in time and you'll be glad you carried on - or else you'll find an alternative and be just as happy . Whatever happens, you and your little one will be absolutely fine - just use the help that's there and ask your midwives to assist you when they call round, and have faith that your body knows what it's doing!

Good luck and best wishes to you both x

My milk took about 4 days to come (after c-section). Even when it did, ds didn't latch on properly, and eventually lost so much weight the hospital staff wouldn't let me go home. I think that first week was the worst five days of my life! I was desperate to breast feed though, and I think there is nothing wrong in giving your baby some water in a bottle while you try and sort out latching or milk-arriving issues if it stops you going out of your mind with worry (post-pregnancy hormone cascade does nothing to calm you down!!). Once your milk does come in, make sure you find someone who knows about latching issues - my mum was a midwife, and once she helped latch ds on at about day 6 or 7, there was no turning back. Still going strong at 2 years!

Please keep posting here for advice if you need to! Good luck and congratulations!

congrats itsababslife!

what's the nappy situation like? is she pooing and peeing?

Thanks everyone! This is babslife's hubby here but don't let that put you off. Thanks so much to everyone for the reassuring advice. We had the midwife round this morning to give dd an MOT. Mw said that dd is clearly feeding because she was calm, contented and a good colour. Apparently the right kind of poos are occurring too - we've had 4 loads of molasses so far.

On a seperate note, dd has spent pretty much all of today asleep! I know she has to recover from the birth - is this quite normal for day 2?

Thanks - m

Yes.
How lovely, a brand new baby!
Congratulations.
Just needs to have lots of skin to skin and lots of suckling.
Twill come.

I never leaked a drop or actually saw any milk really, but figured a body clever enough to make a baby was clever enough to feed it.

I couldn't tell at all at first whether any milk was going in - colostrum is like that I think! I was suddenly aware when the actual milk came in though - on about day 3-4

Newborns generally sleep a lot, so yes, that is normal. Congratulations to you both.

Help! Hubby here again. MW round today and concerned about the lack of wee/poo from dd. We have been struggling to breastfeed right from the start. MW now says that it's all-or-nothing - we need to breast feed even more regularly (every 2 hrs) to maintain production and to keep dd fed & hydrated. But we cannot make dd feed, and when she does seem to be 'interested' (rooting), she fights off the breast screaming and then sucks her fists frantically, and is then asleep in seconds!!!!! We then have to agitate dd to reawaken her causing more and more distress until dd is screaming so hard it makes me cry thinking about it (this post is 30mins after the last feeding attempt)

Wifey is at her wits end and so am I. She is in tears of frustration and fatigue.

We have been trying to express today using a hand pump on MWs advice, and in the afternoon managed to express about 12cc, about 10cc of which we managed to feed to dd using a syringe on MWs advice.

DW has tried to express again but only managed to hurt herself, mentally and physically, even more and could not express anything.

Now we are wondering how to get through the night without a trip to the 24hr for some FF.

Please help! We so much want to BF.

Hi.
Sorry things are still tough.
It can take a while to sort it all out.
It is important to get proper advice from people who know what they are on about.MWs aren't always the best people to do that (although some very good).

Have you contacted one of the breastfeeding support organisations, who are really excellent? All listed in this excellent blog (on right hand side) run by an MNer.
Hoiw breastfeeding works

The stress and anxiety are cntagious.Everyone picks up on them.Has she tried lying down in a dark quiet roo with baby by her side?

In a warm bath?

With a rugby hold?

Just holding her calmy on her bare breasts?

I assume you are dealing with all other domestic issues and tending to her every needd?

What kind of pump have you got?
Remember, you won;t express loads to begin with.Remmember the baby's stomach is only the size of a walnut, so she only needs a tiny amount.

Thanks Moondog -
We've not contacted a BF org yet. We have seen HV who runs the local BF support group and she came round yesterday to see how we were feeding dd. She suggested the 'rugby ball' and it seemed to work for us then - but dd was in the mood to feed.

DW has tried lying on her side on the bed to feed but with the shape of breast and the geometry of it all it was all wrong.

We have not yet tried to feed in the bath, but we have (and always do) tried to feed skin-to-skin.

And the answer to the last question is yes, but that's just my opinion.

The pump is a tommy tippee manual one. MW said to try 'breast shells' too - but I could not find any in local shops this afternoon. Has anyone else here used breast shells??
Thanks again
M

p.s. Moondog - how much is a tiny amount? By feeding her 10cc this afternoon could we have filled her up completely?

How much is 10cc? Is that a full syringe (one of the tiny ones they give you)? If so, a full one would be a feed, yes, but she will need that regularly. Don't panic, I had the same problems with DS and it is awful, but we got the hang of it eventually. Unfortunately I had already started topping up (necessary but did compromise BF) but if you can express enough to keep her going whilst also working on the latch ina calm, relaxed way, you should be able to avoid formula. Get dw to give hand expressing a go, I think at this early stage it's more successful. I expect her milk is coming in about now so there may be more to express. She will need bigger feeds once it's milk rather than colostrum, the HV told me at 5 days DS needed 60 mls 6 times in 24hrs. He didn't take quite that much but it's a good aim (if you are still expressing of course) and I carried on putting him to the breast as well. We clicked the latching on at day 10.

How are you getting on Itsa?
Breastshells fit in the bra and catch milk that leaks (often when feeding off other side) |You can save up all the leaks for a feed.

Boots sell them I tihnk.

Hi, (hubby posting again) -

What a difference a day makes!!!

As I was posting last night I was looking after dd and had just managed to calm her down. She finally settled after 30 mins screaming her lungs out, like someone turning off a switch it was that quick. I took dd upstairs and dw had also calmed down. I handed dd over for a skin to skin hug whereupon dw simultaneously started dripping milk freely. Dw expressed some and we collected this up into a 5cc syringe. And what follows is what worked for us if anyone else listening is at that 3 day stage about to give up BF.

We wet dd's appetite with the syringe and as normal she was asleep after a couple of slurps (maybe 2cc). We thought 'better than nothing' and were about to call it a day when for the first time dd woke up after feeding, frantically rooting for dw's breast. And for the first time I was able to take dd's hands and place them around the breast without dd fighting.

We fed dd with expressed milk using the syringe throughout the night, about 20cc in total I think (not enough, I've learned today!)

Today, mw came round to weigh dd and we were expecting for her to have lost a lot of weight but as it turned out she had lost exaclty 10% (so the syringing must have helped). We went through our feeding technique with mw, and mw was out of ideas - in her opinion it is not something we are doing wrong, but rather dd is too frustrated and not strong enough to keep on trying. The situation is not helped by dw's un-

So, mw presented this strategy for us:

1. Try to attach dd for a maximum of, say, 4 attempts per feeding session.

1. Then try the syringe. MW suggested around 30cc if we had not managed to feed at all from the breast, maybe 20cc if we'd managed a 5 minute breast feed. Problem is still that with dd, she falls asleep after a few cc and after 3 or so attempts we just cannot wake her up enough to want to feed. So if this is the case, try...

1. Bottle feed using the expresse milk. MW suggested that to try and prevent the suckling instinct from being spoiled, to rythmically withdraw the bottle teat from dd, to encourage the sucking reflex.

So, happy that we had a plan that didn't involve FF, I headed off to Boots and came back with breast shells and nipple shields. Got funny looks from the girl at the counter.

And when I got back eveything was different! DD was alert in between feeds and a lot stronger. Also she seemed less willing to fight us off as we positioned her onto the breast. DD has fed deeply (about 15 - 20 mins each feed) throughout the afternoon and evening, and for the first time this evening has let us know when she wants feeding - an hour before we had planned.

Long post, sorry, but we're both just so relieved dd is feeding, getting stronger and is more alert during the day. And she's been pooing for Britain all day too. Never thought I would be so grateful to own a bag of pooey nappies...

M

Glad to here things are improving. You and your wife sound like you are doing a wonderful job.
I found this article useful when I had a sleepy little one:
www.mothersmilkboutique.com/index.php?page=infotopics&topic=120

That's really great news.
Yes, so many of us know how things can turn in a night.
You sound a lot more confident and much calmer.

Would still recommend a call to a breastfeeding counsellor just so that you feel reassured about being in touch with people who really know this field.
If milk is dripping freely,let the baby sniff and nuzzle and lap in her own time too, insead pof necessarily rushing to catch it tp put ina syringe.

JKeep us updated.

Woulkd also no worry about planning feeding.
Unrestriced access to bare breasts is what is really needed at this stage,to let all the hormones kick in and work their magic.

Incredible result! You are lucky - if you can express enough to give her while you are working on the latch you will never need to give formula, and her milk supply will be boosted. Just carry on expressing, trying the breast in a very chilled out, calm way, and you will get there

(and also a bit as I couldn't express)

COngratulations! Your DD may now feed for hours & hours - not a problem, just go with it. My DD took 6 days to get the hang of feeding, but then didn't seem to want to stop for the next 6 weeks. Get Lansinoh cream too.