Exclusive breastfeeding support thread

[Reallytired]

I thought I start a thread for those of us who are attempted to exclusively breastfeed up until 26 weeks as recommended by the NHS.

I have two children. A little boy who is seven years old and he had solid food at 16 weeks and a 17 week old baby girl. The weaning guidelines have changed beyond recognition since 7 years ago. My son is healthy inspite of weaned quite early by today's standards.

I need people to tell me to be strong and not give dd baby rice or top ups and that this latest growth spurt will pass.

He feeds every 2 hours during the day, and has a dummy, which only seems to pacify him for a few mins on an nighttime.

Decided to knock the weaning on the head, as I still think he is abit young yet (20 weeks)

dd is 3 and half bless her.

I had 3 hours sleep during the day, and off to bed now, so fingers crossed x

Can I join? Got a 19 week old DS, think we've made it through the growth spurt, but only just. He even slept in until 7.30 this morning! (ok, he was up twice in the night, but that's manageable)
I'm hoping that things are going to stay like this from now, because last week I was going insane from lack of sleep.
I thought that maybe him being a big baby (91st centile, 18lbs last time he was weighed just under 2 weeks ago) was the reason for him being so hungry, but reading some of the posts on this thread it would seem not.
Am I a bit odd for feeling a bit sad about imminent weaning? After all I've grown this baby for 9 months and will have fed him exclusively for 6 months. In another few weeks he'll start on solids and I won't be the only person who can do everything for him any more I've really enjoyed breastfeeding so far, and found it really easy, I'm sad that this is the beginning of the end of it.
Sorry if this post isn't very eloquent, trying to type with a sleeping, happily fed baby lying on my lap

REally TIred - in answer to your question: I cope by cosleeping and when it gets really bad I do naff all round the house.
DO you have any family support? I also tend to go my mother's/Nanna's and get to sit around while they make cups of tea, feed me and provide diversion from the DSs. I also sometimes retire to bed at the mother's with baby abd she looks after DSs.
HTH

Feeling a bit on this thread now. Seems as if everyone is having a tough time... and you'll hate me when I say I've had it very easy with ds2 . I cosleep with hiom from about 3am, which is his first wake-up. We snuggle up and he snacks when he needs it until DH's alarm goes off at 7am. Works a treat for me and wish I'd done it with ds1, who was a little devil!!

He feeds fairly frequently during the day - about every 3 hours ast the mo, more in the evenings.

Answering your question, reallytired: ds1 is 6 tomorrow so it is easier for him to entertain himself (lego/drawing/tv usually) than a younger child and we go out (park/museum/library) every day if I can manage it because it means ds2 gets a long nap in the pram. And the housework... well, low low low down the list of priorities!! But if I pop ds2 on my back in a sling I can get a fair amount done in the day, then just catch up with the rest after he goes to bed at night. Trying to stick to that routine is a sod but is worth it.

No solids yet here. We've let ds2 'taste' banana, cucumber, and apple (i.e. just licking them for the flavour) but only as a 'preview' to the real thing! He's not ravenous IMO so I'm just holding out for now. No rush - BFeeding is ideal for lazy mums like me (no sterilising or thinking ahead!! )

Hi, can I join? My ds is 19wks today and so far exclusively bf. In the last few weeks he's seemed much hungrier and I'm lucky if he manages to go 1 1/2 hrs in the day between feeds (we had been at about 3 hrs). However he is still [sigh of relief] sleeping for 6/7 hour stretches at night although starting to wake up earlier. Although he is still gaining weight he has dropped from the 50th centile (birth to c 9wks) to close to the 25th centile at his last weigh in. I'm not too bothered as he seems healthy generally and I've heard that weight gain in exclusively bf babies does slow down but expecting the HV to suggest formula soon but I will not give in! Although I'm looking forward to weaning I agree with anathemadevice that it will feel weird after been his sole source of nourishment for so long, I'm enjoying bfing too and still think it is amazing that my body has grown and continues to sustain him - nature is a wonderful thing!

I'd like to join too

DS is 14 weeks and I'm hoping to get to that magical 6 months!

We had a v tough first couple of months as he had an undiagnosed tongue tie. I suprised myself by how strongly I felt about exclBF and how stubborn I was but he's never had a drop of anything else. Sorry I know that sounds smug but am quite proud of me and DS for getting through it. It must have been c frustrating and tiring for him and it was v v painful for me. Since he is DC1, I just thought I was being a wuss and cringed through the pain.
His birth weight was 8lb9 (75th centile) and as a result of the tongie tie dropped to 7lb8 and never regained until his tongue tie was spotted and resolved when he was a month old.
Ever since then has been putting on weight well. At his lowest he dropped to 2nd centile but is now 12lb 2.5oz at 14 weeks and between 9th and 25th centiles.

Sorry for lengthy post and also for troubles that others have had/are having. Will be great to go through this with some others for support.

I have had a busy day. We went to my parents and I took my son swimming while my parents fed the baby. DD has fed almost non stop today, however we did do quite well last night. She had one feed at 4.30am. (She went to sleep at 8pm and was awake at 7am)

However I am finding it hard to sleep as sometimes she has lot of feeds in the night and sometimes just one. I find that breast engorgement wakes me up.

Like WelliesAndPyjamas my daughter has had a few licks of banana, lettice, apple, but she hasn't yet swallowed any. Her poo is still yellow like an exclusively bf baby. My daughter had been trying to grab food of my plate. However she also grabs hair, my son's power rangers and anything else that looks interesting.

Good idea, my DS is 6 mths on the 5th Sept. And he is ebf, I find it dead easy. Done it with my other two as well. I think night co-sleeping is my secret of coping, throw the cot out! I never used a dummy I like to ensure that I am the dummy so I always have plenty of milk supply.

Hoppity - I find that reassuring as that's pretty much how I'm coping with DS (my first). I'm cosleeping and no dummy. I do have his cot shoved up against my side of the bed with the side off. Our mattresses our almost level which is quite good but he normally just sleeps there for the first couple of hrs each night max.

DS has been really windy yesterday and today. He's been struggling to shift it and crying in pain. I've been using infacol before feeds, massaging his tummy clockwise and flexing his knees towards his chest. Any other ideas?

"I've been using infacol before feeds, massaging his tummy clockwise and flexing his knees towards his chest. Any other ideas? "

Skin to skin contact can help or listening to soft gentle music. Try some of these suggestions

I find that ds gets wind up best if he is held in an unright position and gently bounced up and down - might be worth a try.

Has anyone else had trouble with biting yet? Yesterday my ds started trying to bite really hard on my nipple while feeding (ouch!) Has anyone got any ideas as to how best to stop this? My books say conflicting things - one suggests that you should say no and take him off the breast, the other says you mustn't do this as it may put him off feeding but should pull him in so that his nose is covered by the breast and he can't breathe so he'll stop biting automatically. Your advice welcomed - don't want this to get into a habit!

I favour the "no and then take them off the breast" I would then put the baby down and ignore the crying for a couple of minutes. The main thing is not to shout or over react.

The important thing is that it does not become a game. If you scream react too much then your baby will do it again.

Thank you for your suggestions.
Reallytired - that site looks v interesting and useful.

I'm pleased to report though that this afternoon has been much better. He was grizzly but better around lunchtime and after lunch I took him for a walk for just over an hour. He fell asleep and stayed asleep for another hour after I got home
When he woke up he was back to his usual happy self. He's currently on his rug on the floor having rolled onto his side and trying to roll onto his tummy!

cassell - I had been wondering what I'd do when DS gets teeth. Hopefully I have a way to wait yet as he's only 14 weeks but I'll take all tips! Good luck on getting through it.

reallytired - I hadn't thought about it becoming a game... I'm going to try the no option when he tries it again.

essence - he hasn't got teeth yet just v hard gums, really not looking forward to the teeth... glad to hear that your lo is happier today!

I fed DS1 until he was 2.8 years so by then he obviously had a full set of teeth. When he first got teeth he did experiment with biting a few times but I would react by calmly removing him from the breast. He soon stopped biting, and teeth made no difference to the feel of breastfeeding, I promise! Someone told me on here to try very hard not to scream or shout in pain, in case it turned into a game.

Anyway, why am I here?

DS2 is 15ish weeks and EBF. I'm aiming for 26 weeks as I didn't make it with DS1, as he was mix-fed from birth due to c-section, poor support and some other relevant factors. Oddly it has been pretty easy this time, even when I was tandem feeding both boys. DS2 slept through from around 8 weeks or so but has now starting waking up at around 4am for a quick feed. I'm happy to do that as I was pretty engorged by that time anyway.

Hi! How is everyone today?

We've had a busy couple of days. Met up with NCT mums&babies for lunch yesterday and then Then we met up with 2 mums and babies from my MN ttc thread. The last time we saw eachother we were pg and now we have 3 gorgeous babies!!
Finally we had a pub dinner with both sets of grandparents. MIL&FIL go home to Ireland tomorrow.

DS's wind has been much better the last couple of days thank goodness

DD had her four month jabs today and has been very grumpy. I ended up giving her calpol as she had a temperature. She took the calpol off the spoon and loved it. It seems strange that seven years ago most babies were being weaned.

My seven year old has been a little swine today. He went round a friend's house and misbehaved.

hi all, I'd like to join in if that's ok. DD is 18wks and EBF, I'm not exactly aiming for the 6month mark, just as near-ish to it as we can manage, - happy to start weaning at 23wks if she shows signs, but equally happy to wait till 28.

i have a DS 2.6 and struggle with the entertaining in the day too, some days better than others, trying to take each day as it comes - we got out to the beach this afternoon and DS had a great time, whilst DD slept in carrier, so that was good news all round.

DD pretty settled at night, only wakes for one feed, but maybe 2 nights out of 7 we'll have extra feeds, seems to have moved on from the recent growth spurt I'm hoping.

Hi again - I joined the thread and disappeared, sorry. DS (20 weeks) is now waking up EVERY HOUR in the night and I am desperate and zombie-like. I bf him to get him back to sleep, and he seems hungry each time as he is feeding for about 10-15 mins.

By "night" I mean 9-6 which is the longest he will believe it is bedtime (sun-down to sun-up)

Any tips for survival? I am determined not to give formula, and can't understand co-sleeping. DS will only sleep swaddled, so I don't think co-sleeping would work (if I understand it correctly). I once tried feeding him lying down on the bed and we couldn't get it to work at all.

Is anyone else in such a mess? I really can't cope and don't know what to do....

SlightlyDoolally, don't know how to help but I just vwanted to say you're not alone in the zombieness! DS decided that 2am was a perfectly reasonable time to wake up 3 times last week. I was beginning to wonder if it was possible to die of tiredness. It has got better over the last couple of nights though, hope it does for you too. Maybe keep trying with the lying down to feed? It took us ages to get the hang of it but we got there in the end.
On top of that his daytime naps have gone completely mad. He used to nap at around 10am for 30 mins or so, then have a big nap (couple of hours) at about 1pm. For the last week he's been up at 6.30 and not sleeping again until nearly midday (well, maybe a 10 minute nap at about 9am, if I'm lucky). His main nap has moved further and further back to the point that he's asleep now and it's nearly 7pm.
It's not that he's not tired, the poor thing is exhausted, but he's completely forgotten how to get to sleep. I used to feed to sleep while lying in bed in the afternoon (so I can sleep too), but he's feeding til he's nearly asleep, then waking up and showing no signs of tiredness for around half an hour, then getting tired and grumpy so the whole cycle starts again. If anyone has any tips on how to encourage babies to settle I'll be eternally grateful.

SlightlyDoolally - poor you
I do co-sleep with DS although I never thought I would and he doesn't like to be swaddled. Don't know if despite that I can help with co-sleeping queries?

If you don't want to co sleep in the stricted sense you could put your baby in a cot right next to the bed so you can reach your baby without getting out of bed. I have taken the side of our cot so its like co sleeping. My daughter has her own bed covers and there no reason why I couldn't swaddle her if I wanted to.

slightlydoolally sounds just like my night with DS also 20weeks!! He is napping just now but we had a bad night-up Ilostcountofhowmanytimes for a feed and straight back down again. One nipple is really tender today, as it's had no time to recover! I'm trying to be chilled out about it and hope that it will pass. Mind you, up til now, he's woken every three hours anyway (ever since 2nd set of vaccinations) so I think I am a bit hardened. Who knows why it's happening, but it will hopefully, pass, sooner rather than later....I feel really funny about giving him solids anyway (I am very proud that I've made him grow so big and lovely!) and as I plan to do BLW think it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference if he was weaning.

Maybe he is getting too big for swaddling? Both my boys move around a lot in their sleep, and like to keep their arms up above their heads. Perhaps it is time to try a grobag?

We co-sleep, although DS2 starts off in the crib and I move him into the bed for a feed if he wakes.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I have tried him without the swaddle, but he still startles himself awake (during his few blissful asleep periods!) and looks relieved to be swaddled again. I have bought a peke moe sleep sack which looks to be a sort of half-way house (marketed at swaddle houdinis) and am waiting for it to arrive.

My mum thinks if I am feeding him so often then I will get too tired to produce milk, so may as well put him on formula now. Is this right? I thought I would produce more the more I fed?

And does tiredness cause milk to dry up?