Breastfeeding advice

[readyforroundthree]

I had my baby on Monday afternoon via ELCS.
She has a tongue tie, the same as her brothers did and I pretty much formula fed them straight away as neither could latch and then by the time we had the tongue ties snipped my milk had dried up.
The whole pregnancy I said I would bottle feed again, but now she's here I'm more open to giving breastfeeding a go.
The problem is she can't latch, however, I've been referred by the feeding clinic to have the tongue tie snipped on Friday. I'm unsure on the following and would like some advice:

1. I have been lent a pump by the hospital, however, my milk hasn't come in yet and I'm unsure if I should be pumping now or waiting for it to come in. I'm assuming it will probably appear tomorrow or Thursday as my nipples are tingling every time she cries and tomorrow will be day 3.
2. One of my nipples is so incredibly sore where I've been trying to feed her for two days with no luck, is there anything I can do for this other than nipple cream?
3. By the time the tongue tie is cut on Friday, it will have been 4 days of her being bottle fed, how easy is it to switch over to the boob? I'm worried she won't be happy having to put in the work and will refuse the breast.

Any other advice you could give me would be amazing. Third child but completely inexperienced about how to breastfeed and it seems so overwhelming.

Firstly, massive congratulations on the birth of your baby! Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I don't have any experience of tongue tie, but I did breastfeed DS until he was almost 3 and a half, so I can offer some insights on the breastfeeding side of things...

Are you still attempting to breastfeed at the moment, or are you formula feeding until the tongue tie has been resolved? If the latter, I would say that even if your milk hasn't yet come in, pumping (whether by machine or hand) might be a good idea to encourage production - assuming no complications, your supply will be driven by demand (I.e., baby feeding / attempting to feed). If baby isn't currently feeding, it's a good idea to ensure that your breastfeed are being stimulated and encouraged to produce to prevent the drying up issue you experienced previously.

As for pain, I know they say breastfeeding shouldn't be a painful experience, but it often is, if you don't have access to a lactation consultant who can help you establish a correct latch. As far as I'm aware, we didn't have any latch issues, per se, but I can tell you now, it was still bloody painful for a good couple of weeks or so. I had blood blisters on my nipples, and the initial latch was pretty excruciating at the beginning of every feed, however, your nipples do eventually toughen up and desensitise to it, so it might just be a case of persevering through it (unless it is making you downright miserable and you are struggling). I personally just used lansinoh, but I have seen some people using the old cabbage leaf method - not sure exactly what's in cabbage leaves, but some sort of compound that supposedly helps with pain relief.

Finally, just wanted to say that feeling overwhelmed is very, very normal - for "the most natural thing in the world", it really doesn't actually come naturally. But, if you can eventually establish breastfeeding, it can be a lovely experience. Well done for giving it a go - in the end, though, just make sure that you do whatever feels right for you.

Wishing you all the best, whichever path you take 💖

Silver cups for your nipples. You can get them on Amazon. DD (2nd bf baby) also had a tongue tie and my nipples were shredded. I used a heap of cream and put the silver cups on top. The cups stop your nipples sticking to your clothes/pads/rubbing and help them heal faster.

I also used nipple shields for some, though not all feeds for the first week with DD. To help with the pain. You might also find shields handy if your baby has been bottle feeding, to encourage them to latch. But definitely practice without them too, taking them off part way through a feed when baby's less hungry and more relaxed can help.

I'd definitely be at least hand expressing colostrum for now if you can, to help with your supply? Apparently rubbing the colostrum on your nipples can help them heal too.

Congratulations ☺️☺️

Another vote for the silver cups, silverette I think?
If have the cash and can find someone, get the tongue tie snipped privately asap.

Lanolin will help the pain on your nipples. My MW told me that nipple confusion is not as prevalent as a lot of people say so try not to worry about that. If you get into a position where they take a bottle and the breast that’s pretty ideal.

If you can get yourself down on a breast feeding clinic, I would. The one I went to was fantastic.

Good luck.

Huge congrats - another vote for silver nipple cups and a lanolin based nipple cream. I use lansinoh - couldn't live without it.

What a lovely message, thank you.
I'm just using formula in a bottle for now, but this evening when I was in the shower I tried hand expressing and I found it quite easy to do. Once her tongue tie has been cut on Friday I plan on trying to get her on the boob and the feeding clinic said they will help me try and establish a proper latch straight away.
I'm trying to stay really open minded and not put pressure on myself because I think that's when things go wrong, so I will definitely take your advice on board, thank you.

Thank you!
I will get some nipple shields tomorrow, I've heard good things about them.
I did actually hand express this evening and it seemed to be fine so will keep doing this until my milk comes in.

In an ideal world I would love to be able to have her on breast and bottle but so many people say it confuses them, so that's good to know. I believe the clinic where she's having it snipped has a breast feeding team so I'll be going there straight after to try and establish a latch.

Another vote for silver nipple cups, best of luck to you and congratulations on the baby ❤️

Definitely keep hand expressing! Even if you do bottles while your nipples heal just keep your boobs feeling needed!!

you can do this OP!

I'm still going and pumping every 3 hours, which is the furthest I've got at this stage. My milk supply is increasing so I'm just hoping the tongue tie can be sorted today. Exclusively pumping is not for the faint hearted! Thank you for your words of encouragement.

What I did is I breast fed while her father bottle fed. (Bottle fed either expressed milk or formula.)

She quickly associated each parent with a different feeding method. It means you can eat, shower and in your case give some attention to your older children while someone else can feed her.

Then just before she started weaning I could feed her by either method and she didn't care.

Just be aware you may not be able to change the nipples on the bottles you use as she gets older to faster flowing ones. I tried that and she was unhappy.

Also I found that my DD preferred own brand bottles with their nipples from Boots and Asda rather than ore expensive brands.

You will need to experiment and let your baby guide you.

I should add my DD is not the only child in my extended family who was mixed fed so I had some guidance on doing that. We just needed up to date info on preparing bottles which we got from other parents who only formula fed.

Good luck.