Tentative excitement - could she be starting again?

[mrsjuan]

I've had a pretty rough ride with feeding my DD (now 4 and a half months) All started pretty well but I had no idea what was normal so stressed a lot. When we got to about 6 weeks she became extremely fussy and although she never lost weight, the amounts she was putting on were tiny so by 12 weeks with her weight dropping below the bottom centile line and her refusing most feeds I started giving her bottles of formula whilst diligently expressing 5 x a day to make up 3 of her feeds. She still had a breastfeed in the morning when she first woke up.

Although she still wasn't a very greedy baby she took the bottles well and her weight gain caught up nicely. An unexpected bonus was that she started sleeping through from 10 until 7 - bliss.

However for the past couple of weeks she has been waking in the night and I have been breastfeeding her back to sleep (old habits die hard!) She doesn't fight like she used to and it's lovely .

And now -for the past couple of nights she's played around with her bottle at her 4.30pmish feed and then accepted a breastfeed at around 6pm.

She;s just done the same thing with her morning bottle and had a nice little suck.

I don't want to get too excited but does this sound positive?

I've recently cut down the expressing to 3x a day because it was getting unmanageable so I don't think I will have the supply to be able to completely feed her again even if she wanted to...

God I've rambled on! Just soooo happy that she has had a few nibbles!

Just checking in, although not much to report. Madam has been feeding quite well in the night but not in the day. She definitely prefers the bottles and gets all excited when she sees them which makes me a little bit

I am still getting her 2 bottles a day by expressing which makes me feel less guilty (yes, I know I shouldn't feel guilty but I feel so embarrassed getting her bottle out in public, which is ridiculous because I always hated breastfeeding in public!)

Well done mrsjuan, its great that she's doing well with the night feeds. You just can't win with the feeding in public, can you.

Well done, you sound like an amazing mummy Keep us posted xx

DO keep going- you are doing so well, so determined, well done! You could try doing a few things to help your milk supply (eg drinking fennel tea). You can bring your supply back (it might take a bit of determination).

When you have a daytime feed, is it at all possible for you to get undressed and get into bed with her (or whatever you do at night) maybe to replicate some of the night-time conditions and thus increase the daytime feeds?

What about talking to La Leche League? They might have some suggestions and it might help you to hear a voice.

Here is the number: 0845 120 2918

Keep going

Millimum - I have tried to replicate the night feeds in the day without much success. The best way I can get her to feed in the day is to catch her just as she is waking up from a nap - best results if she's been napping on me. If she's had time to look around it's too late!

I'm taking fenugreek & might try the fennel tea - is it nice?

I think her tongue might be part of the issue - even though she's been checked for a tongue tie, a lot of the issues we had seemed consistent with one and since seeing lots of other babies I've realised that she never sticks her tongue out like they do - she never seemed to do the 'rooting' thing either...I'm rambling again...

Sounds like you are feeling positive! Think that's half the battle...

My experience of feeding two (twins) is that breastfeeding is def supply and demand so am sure that even putting her to the breast will up the quantities.

I know of women who have gone from mainly bottlefeeding to breast, so take it a feed at a time as you never know where it might lead - especially if you are both enjoying it!

www.theshockofthetwo.blogspot.com

Hmmm, fenugreek should do the trick. FOr the fennel tea, ideally get the fennel seeds and make an infusion of those. I quite like it (add honey if you don't).

Putting to the breast as often as possible good advice.

Get another opinion on the tongue tie.

Good luck

An excellent day so far! A couple of decent night feeds and 3 feeds during the day - I have been napping with her so have caught her just at the right times . She has been having her usual bottles but not taking so much which I assume is good.

I'm so proud of her. We will get to six months (and maybe even beyond [wishful thinking] )

just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration, my DD is 3 weeks today and mixing EBM feeds with a few BFs per day, though they feel like struggle every time. (have started another thread on here for advice)
Good to know that things can get better along the line, please keep us updated!

Brilliant news

mrsjuan - i'm off to bed now but need to talk to you, my dd sounds so much like yours - rarely demands food, again no tongue-tie but doesn't stick tongue out. she's 4 weeks old and i had to go to bottles last week as she wasn't gaining weight. anyway, good luck with your dd and i'll write again tomorrow when at least i have 2 hands free!

Aghhh. I thought she was doing so well yesterday that I put her to bed with a little breastfeed instead of her usual bottle. She slept pretty well - waking up for a few feeds in the night but that seems par for the course at the moment. She woke up all happy and smiley this morning but when I changed her nappy this morning it was nowhere near as wet as usual so she obviously hadn't taken very much.

She's such a strange baby! I do wonder how long she would go without milk if I didn't offer. I just hope she likes her food when we start her on BLW (5 weeks to go!)

Hangingbelly & Kath - I read your threads and they sound so familiar. It's such a shame when we want to feed them so much and they don't want/can't cooperate. I'm really interesid that your DD has a similar tongue issue Hangingbelly - I didn't really realise until I met other babies and they were making it so obvious that they were hungry with their little tongues poking out and moving from side to side. The only time I see my DD's is when her mouth's open.

Feel free to ask any questions - it's nice to speak to people having similar experiences. Most people in RL think I'm a bit odd to still be persevering!

How's it going now mrsjuan? I bet she'll really take to her food when you start BLW. I know a couple of babies who were never interested in milk, but love their food. I think they became even less interested in milk once food was on offer though - so you should probably make sure you offer lots of cheese, yoghurt etc to make sure they're at least getting some milk!

Thank you for asking. It is much the same really - she's still feeding from me in the night (I am torn between being happy she's feeding & wishing for a full nights sleep )

Also having the odd feed here and there during the day but nothing substantial.

The health visitor helpfully suggested that maybe she just didn't like milk when we were having problems in the early days! I'm not a big fan of it either to be honest so I'm really hoping that when she can have 'real' food eating becomes more fun for her!