ok ive had a really hard time breastfeeding, some encouragement to cheer me up?

[TheNatty]

my little boy will be four weeks on tuesday.
over the past month i have not had much fun, please tell me it gets better!
this is my third attempt at breastfeeding, and i really dont want to stop but it feels like one thing after another.

the first 2 weeks we had problems with latching on causing me to have awful cracked nipples that bled so much i had to express one side for a week in order to get it to heal.

we then had some nipple confusion to deal with as i had to indroduce a bottle to give him the expressed feeds.

now he is finally feeding well and in a good position, i have thrush.

PLEASE tell me thats it now! i am just waiting to develop mastitus to top it all off

I can't believe she made you agree to formula feeding for 14 days though!

Hope you feel better soon, I remember the agony well. Especially as my dsil just kept saying "Well it IS painful, you just have to get used to it!" (Never having had thrush you see )

OK nats, i had the same problems as you except i also got mastitis. Funnily enough, it was the mastitis which "cured" me of all the other issues as you are encouraged to bf a lot in order to heal yourself. My DS will be 1 this month and i'm still bfeeding. In fact i love it...weird to think that i was in agony and hating it for the first 6 weeks. my advice is Lasinoh cream by the bucket and stick at it. YOu can do it!!! Good luck!!!

Hiya natty. We're in the same position you and I. I totally know how hard it is to stop thoughts of sodding it off and buying a tin of formula are at 4am when your boobs feel lke they're gonna drop off!

What keeps me going is the principle that I'm doing what I was made to do and if the millions of women before me could do it then so can I.

My mum is also a fan of the bottle it's really rubbish isn't it being harped on at right when you need support!

These boards are fab for support, do keep posting whatever you do you're doing a great job x

So glad you got the meds, thrush HURTS. Hopefully this is the beginning of things getting easier for you with the breastfeeding. Watch out like a hawk for blocked ducts (feel like little solid lumps in the breast, will be tender to the touch) and you'll avoid mastitis.
I'm not sure about that formula feeding for 14 days business though...maybe just covering her arse.
Anyway, best of luck!

Well done for getting so far and getting the medication off the doctor. It sounds like you've got good info on the medication but if you want to check further ask again on here and I'm sure someoen can help.