Breastfeeding contradictions and enough food?

[redxlondon]

I gave birth to my boy on the 7th. He had periods of cluster feeding or long sleeps. At hospital, I was told off for letting him sleep for 5 hours without a feed. I stayed two nights post section was was honestly just spent and didn’t wake up to wake him up. I’m now setting alarms for every three hours at home.

He can have a good latch but is struggling more and more. I’ve started expressing and just given him a bottle of breast milk. He had formula for his feeds last night as I’m finding recovery tough and he just wouldn’t latch.

Midwife visited yesterday, day after I got back home. She said I should top up breastfeeding with 30mls each feed to help clear borderline jaundice.

I’m just so confused - breastfeeding is rarely perfectly established from day 1 it seems. But if he’s not latching well or struggling to wake up - then he doesn’t breast feed at least ever 3 hours. So what other option is there but formula?

Feeling lost…

Is he ever fully alert, or does he always struggle to wake?

Have they told you to put him in the light to help clear the jaundice?
Is the jaundice enough that they’ve tested his blood?

I’d really recommend seeing a breastfed consultant or going to a breast feeding support group. My daughter struggled to latch and I left hospital combi feeding but once I got some support from these I dropped the formula and pumping and was just able to exclusively breastfeed. The advice the midwives gave me was mostly wrong and I’m so pleased I got some proper advice in those early days because it made my breastfeeding journey so much easier. Those first few weeks are tough but it absolutely gets better!

I was also told to express bottles to top up but ended up with oversupply which cased its own issues. I also felt very stressed and overwhelmed by constant weigh ins.. Looking back I am not sure pushing me to be express was anything other than trying to get baby to weight to discharge us from. midwife care as they were very busy. I do think waking every 3 hours until birth weight is reached makes sense. My sleepy boy reacted to stripping him to his vest and singing.. Once he reached birth weight there was no stopping him and he is feeding and packing on the pounds now!

Yes, so his basket his by the window. He’s had a blood test and two light tests, below the threshold but borderline so just need to get some food in him to flush it out they’ve said.

I really struggle to wake him. He has alert moments during day but it’s a struggle to get him to wake when he doesn’t want to.

I definitely want to / will, just not sure how I can make it there while still recovering from section on Wednesday. Or when I’ll be able to make it out.

When I strip him he cries bloody murder so that’s then difficult to get him to latch. But I’ll try that again today and some skin to skin to settle him.

Sounds very like my DC2 was.

How are you feeling OP? I suddenly realised I was also very drowsy (more so than just lack of sleep) and concluded we were both feeling the impact of the post section painkillers. Got much better once I started to dial those back but until then I did end up having to wake them for feeds and it was a real effort to keep them awake long enough for a decent feed.

I didn’t top up any feeds at all but being my second I was a lot more confident in my own decisions than I would have been with my first.

To add, DC2 was much smaller than DC1 so not sure if that made a difference as I didn’t have the issue with DC1.

My little one was a bit like this to start. He would wake to feed but then fall asleep at the breast before extracting almost any milk.

I expressed milk and would give him a little of that or formula in a bottle first and then move him to the breast (after about 10-20 swallows of milk). It made a big difference because then he was alert enough to latch properly and get a full feed rather than falling asleep or getting upset.

He's still breastfeeding now at 20mo!

During the first 3 weeks my daughter would never wake up for a feed at all even when she was rooting for a feed she would stay too sleepy to latch. We had to strip her down to her nappy to wake her up for a feed whenever she rooted during the day and every 3h overnight.
Once she was 3 weeks above birth weight and following her line I switched the overnight alarms to 4h but she was reliably waking every 3h and then every 2h and then endlessly and how i wished i could go back to the days of having to wake her every 3h!

Have a look and see what's available to you locally, I know our NHS feeding team offer home visits for those that can't make it to our groups x

I paid for a private consultation, which I know isn’t an option for everyone but it was worth every penny. It was around £75 but she came 36 hours after I sent the email and visited at home. She then called me to check how I was getting on and if I needed extra support. I followed this up with visits to the breastfeeding support group when I felt up to it.