"2nd baby due in a month, and want to get bf right this time ....

[Madigan]

With DD, my milk did not come in for literally 7 days. I have never heard of anyone else having this problem ..... I had a c-section (and will this time too) and wonder if that could have anything to do with it.
After that, I bf exclusively, except for a few occasions when I simply did not have any milk and had to give formula. BF for 13 weeks. Baby slept maybe 2 hours at a time max, and I was so exhausted. When I started bottle feeding, she started sleeping ........
I do want to bf this time, but last time it was pretty obvious that I was not producing enough milk, and dd was hungry. Also - I could not express .... when I tried (and believe me I did), only a dribble would come out.
Help!! what can I do to improve things this time round?

Madigan There is no reason to believe you would not be able to sucessfully bf your second baby.

I don't know what happed with your first, but it appears from your post that the context in which you gave birth may have undermined your confidence. I'm afraid there isn't really anything in your post that suggests you weren't able to have fed no.1 with proper support and help.

A c/section makes it a little harder for YOU to feed the baby whichever way you do it. It doesn't affect the way that breastfeeding works, but can make it a little bit more hassle because if you can't easily lift the baby you need to keep asking for help.

After a medicalised birth, the baby might be quite sleepy for the first day or two. After that they go on a mad feed fest. It is normal and good for your supply to feed every 2-3 hours including night time in the early days. I'm sorry, this is hard but very normal and you need to find other strategies for getting sleep.

Often the best thing to do (whilst DP is on paternity leave) is spend as much time resting with your baby as close to you as possible. Stay in bed/bath/sofa with skin to skin contact for hours and hours at the beginning.

If you don't feed often enough (between 8-12 times in a 24 hour period at the beginning your milk will take longer to come in.

If you have begun to feed then it is not possible for you to not have any milk when a baby feeds as it is made to demand as the baby feeds. If your breasts feel empty it just means that there is little stored, but your baby will still get milk made right then.

If the baby slows on one breast or gets a little frustrated at the speed of the flow, simply switch breasts. Do this every the baby slows until no longer interested. This is a great way to build supply.

Expressing in the first 6 weeks is not recommended as it interferes with the relationship between your baby and your boobs. Neither get the correct information about supply and demand. Also expressing is for many a learnt skill with practice and is no indication of milk supply.

Keep the phone numbers of the breastfeeding helplines to hand and phone them if you have any difficulties at all, - even if you are still in hospital. They are the 'experts', overstretched, out of date maternity staff are usually not.

HTH

although it is incredibly tiring, it is normal for a bf baby to need to be fed every 2 hours for some time. Bottle fed babies sleep longer (in theory, not true for all formula fed babies I know) because the milk takes longer to digest. I think accepting you will only get sleep in bursts is part of choosing to breast feed. It's only for such a short time in their lives. Both mine fed often through the night til about 16 weeks when it seemed to magically get better. Is not a long time in hte grand scheme of things.
as snowlight says giving formula or expressing won't help with bf initially, you just have to feed, feed and feed some more.

Madigan, I had exactly the same experience after elective c-section with second pregnancy - 7 days for milk to come in. In first emergency c-section took less time (3 days) It was terrible waiting and waiting, and babies lost weight because nurses didn'tsuggest tiding over with formula (which in retrospect I wish they had, because one ended up with jaundice, dehydrated, and both lost more than 10 percent of birthweight) which I was then slated for aargh.
I think if the same thing happens again you should just keep putting baby to breast to stimulate supply, but if it really doesn't come for days and days demand help from nurses re-top up. You can get baby back onto breast afterwards even if they have had a bit of formula, as long as you perservere.

I think hospitals are very warm and make sleepy babies (often case after c-section) even sleepier, so you have to make a conscious effort to rouse them, undress them when they feed and not rely on them waking up for necessary little and often. It really helps to have someone in hospital dealing with visitors, helping with all little fiddley matters, so that you are just able to concentrate on resting and feeding.

The other thing which I remember from second c-section was that inadequate pain-relief after c-section (a missed out dose) was enough to seriously damage my feeding abilities - so make sure you are not in pain and complain if you are.

But even if things don't go immediately to plan, the best thing is to realise that you can always turn things around and breastfeed for AGES if you want to. I spent a long time obsessing about things that had gone wrong with bfng first baby and determined not to make same mistakes, and in fact ended up with all sorts of new problems that I had not envisaged. That's life really. I think having lots of the right help, and feeding as much as possible in early days and not getting bogged down with housework, visitors etc are the key to successful feeding after c-section.

Thank you all so much for your reassuring messages. Will definitely simply feed feed feed for the first bit ........ last time think I was a bit lacking in confidence, and followed maternity nurse's guidance to feed 3-4 hourly following a quasi-Gina routine. This time, I am just going to feed as much as baby wants for the first few weeks before I even think about establishing a routine.
Feeling brave about it now, but know how hard the lack of sleep can be. As you all say - it is of course worth it. But last time I was beginning to feel really down and crying a lot ........and am convinced that was simply due to lack of sleep.
Anyway - thank you again and will no doubt be on here again looking for more advice in the imminent future!!

See if you can bring the baby into your bed in the hospital as well - that way you don't have to buzz every time you need to feed, you won't need to pick the baby up. If your hospital is certified "baby-friendly", they shouldn't be able to refuse you doing this.

Was trying to find a resource I saw ages ago about comfortably co-sleeping after a caeserean - does anyone know if it?

Hi,

i'm expecting my first child in April, and i'm really unsure on what to do for the best, breast feed or bottle feed..

plesae help me

cici84, why don't you start a new post (If you don't know how to do that click on "Add a message" just under the blue bar which says "Breast and Bottle Feeding") and I'm sure you will get lots of opinions.

Sorry I meant "Start a new thread" not "Add a new message" - you need to be on the page which shows all the message titles.