Help me figure out what to do next.

[alux]

Long but please listen.

I've been b/f for 7 wks now and I am at another crossroads. I have been giving DD one bottle of formula at night for 3 wks now so that dh can do this - on wkends when he is home from work and to make the evening routine go faster when he is not here. I have also given the odd top up of EBM at different times of the day - or like on sunday when whe travelled 1.5 hrs by car - one way. DD seems to be refusing to suck on the breast now. She gets frustrated after a short period of time, pops off and screams. Sometimes it is wind, sometimes it seems like she is annoyed about supply and demand. Last night (at 10.30) she wolfed down 4.5 oz of formula in under 10 mins - with a newborn teat - and that included the breaks I made her take to burp. This leads on to lots of burping and possetting between 1 am and 7 am this morning as I am sure we could not clear off all the air she swallowed. Of course I have had the question 'is my milk drying up?' but I have not taken any breaks from feeding that are inordinately long to cause this to happen imo. And since sunday I am becoming more diligent about doing it. I do however have trouble expressing or miss expressing or go past 3 hrs sometimes due to the pressures of life and being a 1st time mum.

I have shed many tears in the past 3 days as I do not want to start with a bit of formula and end up wholly formula feeding.

I want to keep b/f but know that come the first Sept, I am back at work full time and need to also consider that I cannot exclusively b/f then. (to me expressing to take to daycare will not be the answer.) I think the long term solution is that I need to learn to mix feed but I don't know how to start or how to go about it successfully.

How do I get from where I am to getting baby back to accepting my breast without frustration.

For the time being, I still want baby to be happy at my breast.

Alux, ds3 was kind of the opposite of your dd in that he hates taking bottles! I have found that perseverance is the only thing that works in my situation, he will take the bottle when its the only option given to him and he's starving! perhaps your dd is a little young to take this approach, tiktok or mears might advise?

Yes alux, it is definately a first time mums job to worry. If it wasn't about this, it would be something else.

FWIW, I think your atitude towards GF is great - like you, I need routime in my life and found using GF (but as you said as a scaffold rather than like an exam to be passed) gave me back some semblance of control during a period when I felt completely helpless.
When things do "go wrong" as you are experiencing, I followed just the basics - the pattern of feed-wake-sleep rather than feed-sleep-wake, feeding at least every 3 hours during the day, and offering regular naps to prevent overtiredness. It will be easy enough to get back onto the routine that you crave when you have got feeding sorted out.

Babies will often take milk out of a bottle even if they have had enough from a breast already. I think the teat stimulates the sucking reflex (mears/tiktok - I'm sure I'm quoting one of you here so correct me if I'm wrong). So just because she wolfs down a bottle of EBM after having a bf doesn't necessarily mean she was starving and that you didn't have any milk. One thing that GF does say which I think is very good advice is to not assume that every time your baby cries they need a feed - sometimes they just cry, and refusing the offered breast at these times may just mean she's not hungry.

Oh and another who had lots of green poos in a perfectly normal bf baby. Although sometimes - but only sometimes - green poo can be indicative of the baby being very slightly ill with a cold or some other innoccuous infection whcih tehy are fighting off themsleves - so maybe that could explain the grumpiness at the moment as well.

Good luck. And when it all gets too much, just repeat the mothers mantra "This too shall pass"

Thanks Prufrock. I am beginning to realise that I can't see the woods for the trees and need someone with a bird's eye view to tell me what is right before me.

7 weeks is one of those times when babies get a bit weird, give yourself a break - it's not all to do with feeding - it's about growing, realising you are seperate from mum, brain development, heaps of things.

Get a sling or front pack then you can carry her around and keep your hands free to eat and work the remote.