Im a FTM and my DS was born in october 2023.
And just so many things went wrong - firstly, he had to be an elective section due to his estimated size and my GD the dr told me they didn't recommend a vaginal birth for me, id had a really hard pregnancy and on bed rest from 32 weeks due to what they thought was a rib condition at the time- i will come back to that- he struggled to feed at the beginning. we really struggled with position, due to my big boobs, although we found a way to sort of make it work, rolled up muslin and nipple shields but it has never been without a lot of stress.
he initially lost quite a bit of weight in those first few days, I fought so hard, worked with q lactation consultant and breastfed around the clock and he put the weight on. We soldiered on for a few weeks more and I ended up with right sided upper abdominal pain absolute agony keeled over for hours, 111 send an ambulance and were rushed to hospital in the middle of the night with my 6 week old baby and terrified DP to be told the rib pain Id been experienced wasnt anything to do with my ribs but actually gallstones. They discharged us at 3am with no cabs with carseat adaptors and we had to wait in the waiting room til morning for a family member to wake up and come and get us
I was put on an extremely low fat diet to manage the pain and i soldiered on with the breastfeeding as it had been my dream to feed my baby like this i then started loosing weight rapidly, im talking over a stone a month, my babies poop then started becoming mucusy and the dr suggested CMPA so I had to restrict even more from my diet with 0 guidance. The weight continued to fall off to the point now ive lost 5 stone in just 4 and a half months.
My baby was then weighed at 4 months and had dropped multiple centiles so I agreed to top up with formula unwillingly and hes taken to the bottle so well and gained so much weight I feel so guilty for trying to make it work for so long. My confidence has just plummeted and I think I want to give up breastfeeding now as he's so happy with the bottle and is refusing the breast now. I also cant cope with the weight loss and it needs to slow down. Im still on a long list for surgery with symptoms getting worse even from low fat meals and heard nothing regarding a nutritionist for myself and just feel totally unsupported during this difficult time. Im at my wits end. Also amongst all this my partner had a mental health crisis and was made redundant from his job hes still struggling massively and I carry most of the weight of looking after baby and running the house even in my bad condition. I just don't know how I can get more support I wish that things had been different