Hi! First time poster here.
I have a 4 day old girl and am starting to get worried about the amount of breast milk she is taking. She struggled to feed at first (with midwife help) and then after a brief period of 10 - 15 minute feeds she started to take a couple of gulps and then fall asleep at my breast. 5 mins later, she'd start crying again so we'd repeat the process. After 6 hours of trying in the hospital, with her having fed in total for less than 10 mins, the midwife tried her with some formula, which she gulped down and slept soundly for the next 4 hours.
We're now home and the problem has persisted. We had a visit from the community midwife who said that the baby is lazy (how you can be lazy at 4 days old I don't know) and that I need to keep persevering an putting her back on the breast, even when she's crying. Again I tried for 8 hours last night and into the early morning trying to put her back on the breast, with either her taking a few gulps and falling asleep or plainly not wanting to go on by pulling away and crying. In the early hours I had to give in and made a bottle of formula up, she took the lot and has now slept for 5 hours.
I've not slept since the birth, save a few catnaps here and there and really really want to breastfeed properly but at the moment just cannot see it. I'm hoping that my milk just hasn't come in fully yet and she'll take it better after that. Failing that, I just fear that I'm going to have to switch permanently to formula
I know it's early days, but this is my first child and I just can't bear to see her go hungry and also develop negative associations with breast feeding by me forcing her on all the time.
Sorry to go on, but I am wondering if anyone can offer me any hope!??
Thanks.