Ok - tell me the truth - when did breast feeding get 'easier' for you?!

[mrsjuan]

DD is now nearly 5 weeks I stll don't know if she's hungry or tired when she cries so she ends up with a boob in her mouth for most of the day unless we go out & she falls asleep in the car. She is cluster feeding every evening which has been great the last couple of nights because she's slept for 5 or 6 hours afterwards .
But I still don't feel I know what I'm doing so I'm curious to hear when others actually found it clicked and got easier and how that happened!

I've got a sneaky suspicion that it doesn't get easier and it's all just a ploy to get us to BF for longer!

2 months with ds, 2weeks with dd. Stick with it

it took about 3 months for things to get easier for us, we're now at 8 months, still bf & loving it!
Am so glad I don't have to faff around with bottles/sterilisers etc, especially as we're off on holiday next week!

Stick with it, sounds like you're doing just fine... and it's the perfect excuse to eat more chocolate

hello
hang in threre! I had nightmare with weight gain issues for DD ( v slow) so it was very hard T the start but at 6 weeks it got easier and suddenly around 9 or 10 weeks
It became a breeze

Re long feeds DD always fed for an hour each time 30mins per breast and this has only just reduced to 45mins at 12 wks. I really enjoy feeding time. Good excuse to watch tv or MN! You may need to accept it takes time, it will seem easier then I'm sure.
The big thing that helped us at 4 weeks was starting the day at 7am regardless of the night pattern. I am not doing a GF routine but it helped to set her body clock for nights. We now do bath @5.45, feed @6 then bed at 7pm. As well as 1st feed of the day at 7am. In no time at all she started better night sleeping. But every baby is diffenet

It really does get better, at 12 weeks my DD is amazingly smiley, giggly and a total pleasure even at 3am!

anout 8 weeks...currently feeding 12 week old ds.

With dd I gave up at 17 weeks as I wanted some "me" time

This time around I bought an electric breast pump, and I can express 5oz easily and ds takes it no problem from a tommee tippee back to nature bottle/teat and it means I can go out, ride my horse and have a drink

I plan to do it for a year [fingers crossed emoticon]

Keep going. I found the first 8 weeks agony, so can understand people giving up, but I was determined to keep feeding ds so pushed through the pain barrier....its a breeze now, although it doe help that he sleeps 7 til 7 with only one feed at 5am

After 4 weeks using nipple shields and many an anguished post on here, it got better. I fed him for 13 months.

After two months it was easier, after 3 I was glad I wasn't faffing around with bottles.

Also I found it hard to adjust mentally to how much feeding I had to do - but then realised that for a couple of months my job was to feed dd, so I thought of it like that, my main function! Also the cluster feeding became more of a generally cuddly evening and I quite missed it when she stopped.

Good luck, you've done the worst bit!

I honestly cannot remember most dates but...

There was definately a point, after a few weeks - couple months, that the long, long feeds changed to much quicker - 10-15 min jobs. That was such a relief, especially in the night. He was almost certainly taking in as much milk, if not more, but just got better at it!

At 11 weeks he slept for 10-11 hours straight during the night! YAY! For two days!Then he went back to waking several times for feeds again.

Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that meant that I got my cycle back at 4 mths and that lead to supply issues once a month (more about that later).

At 5 mths he bit me on the nipple (OUCH!!!), after cutting teeth at 18 weeks.

Thankfully, I returned to work at 3 mths (very part-time for only 2-3 hrs a day) so from 5 weeks started expressing and giving one feed a day from a bottle to get him used to that.

To cut a long story short, with working etc, I had to maintain a constant over supply (about 10 ozs a day - which I froze), so that once a month (when my supply fell by 10ozs/day) I just had enough (didn't like to give him thawed milk, although I know it is fine - I was just obesssive!). Then once a month I went on a two day 'pump marathon' to get my supply back up. I hated it!

I fully intended to BF until two but when he hit 12 mths and I found he would take a bottle of whole milk - that was me done with pumping! Over the next couple of months my supply fell to the point where I just stopped.

So, in summary (sorry!) - YES - it does get easier - feeds get shorter etc (still will have growth spurts when need feeding more often - I fed on demand) and follow some kind of pattern, until they change again at least!

However, if I were to do it again I would not:

1. let him sleep through at such an early age - it messed with my supply and brought my cycle back and was so short-lived it just was not worth it!

1. Not work (and therefore not have to pump - the other trouble with that was as he was used to a bottle he would reject me if I was 'too slow/not enough' once a month so the whole pump marathon thing started!)

Honestly, stick with it. I still feel a bit sad that I stopped so 'early' (14 mths) - it kind of felt wrong not BFing him for at least a year after that.

Opps - the 'thankfully' in the returning to work was because he was used to a bottle and therefore I could give my poor nipple 24 hrs off from a baby potentially biting it again. mercifully he never did it again, I still maintain putting him back on after that was the bravest thing I ever did....

About 12 weeks, and she started sleeping for seven - eight hour stretches then too.

Started out with loads of problems - tongue tie, thrush, bad latch, feeding every hour (it felt like!) for the first month.

It started getting much easier after the tongue tie was snipped (9 days old), learnt how to feed her lying down (good for my post-labour recovery), got rid of the thrush (about 6 weeks), she started sleeping for three hour stretches (about 5 weeks old).

Now (16 weeks) it's a doddle, and a pleasure, and I feel a million times easier than formala/bottle feeding.

I do wish I'd known how hard it would be in the first place though. I did skin to skin after the birth and everything, and thought bf just 'happens' automatically. I didn't realise it's a skill that has to be learnt.

Good luck and persevere, it's worth it!

First baby and loads of start up problems, it got easier by 3/4 months.

Second baby it was easy from the start but the frequency of the feeds slowed down between 6 and 8 weeks.

I struggled a lot, with all kinds of problems, can't remember exactly how long but things were getting easier some time after the 5 month mark (remember feeling a bit depressed before this as lots of people told me it would get easier by 3 months and then expressed astonishment that I was still having a terrible time).

I had been desperately fixating on getting to 6 months, then by that time it was (finally) so much easier and I decided not to stop after all.

18 months in and I still BF her at bedtime, so glad now that I stuck with it.

Baby 1: 8 weeks.
Baby 2: 2 weeks.

Keep going. You'll get there.

I think it was about 5mths for me to be honest, but my advice would be to back away from this thread!! I was so obsessed with thinking it would all magically get better at 6wks, then 12wks etc, that when it didn't I was gutted! Don't set yourself any goals, just take it a day at a time and you'll do fine. If you can, get to a bf-ing group, best thing I ever did!

6 weeks, then I was in love with doing it.

With DS1, I used nipple shields to heal the initial bruising and it became easy after about 2-3 weeks.

With DS2, it was easy from the start.

With DD, she had tongue-tie (cut at 9 days old) and the first month was hideous. Let down was excruciating. After the tongue-tie damage healed and the let-down got better (about 4-6 weeks) it became easy.

by about 6 weeks, I realised that I hadn't thought 'I think that formula would make my life easier' that day, that's when I realised it was getting easier. Though feeds were still about 45 mins to 1 hr.

By 12 weeks feeds were shorter and now at 15 weeks I'm so glad I stuck with it, no faffing around with bottles, sterilising, getting caught out going out without enough bottles etc.

I think the main thing for me, was coming to terms with how long it took at the start and how much I had to persevere with it, thought that it would be easy, natural for both of us, it's not!

The best quote I saw was "successful bf is 10% technique and 90% stubborness". That sums it up for me, I just stuck with it, just 'one more day', I'm so glad I did, I'd have regretted it otherwise.

Don't give up until you're really sure, you are likely to regret it otherwise. To repeat everyone else, you're doing great and the hardest part is over!

10 weeks

About 12 weeks I think. Am at 5 months now and just been to Spain for a week, was actively pleased there as it was so easy, no bottles etc. But I would agree with above who said back away from the thread as I was waiting all the time for it to get easier and it didn't for such a long time! Don't think I will ever love it tho - I do it cos its good for her and she likes it.

Probably about 8 weeks, I struggled at the beginning and was pushed into giving formula top ups but phased those out between 5-6 weeks. Bottle feeding involves a lot of hassle taking stuff out, washing up, sterilising, preparing feeds etc and I can actually use my hands more, eg reading or MN, bf than I could bottle feeding (ended up ff ds1 which wasn't what I wanted and I hate the hassle). Continued and real mix feeding is the hardest work of all.

The hardest part at that point wasn't feeding for me, it was worrying about his rather slow weight gain - that began to pick up.

At 5 weeks spending a lot of time feeding is normal, and I dealt with it by doing things or going out to places where I could just carry on feeding in more interesting surroundings (for me).

I hope that soon it starts to seem easier for you and that at some point you won't be able to remember exactly when it clicked. I'm not promising that will happen for you, but it did for me and I hope it will for you. Good luck.