To stop breastfeeding?

[Tattyteddy2]

Hi, I’m looking for some advice please. I have a DD1 who is 25 months and DD2 who is 2 months. I am currently combi feeding my DD2 with the majority being BF, however she is not sleeping well at all, I am up every hour with her through the night then she sleeps all day. She has breast milk through the night so I can’t help but notice a correlation. I’m unable to catch up on sleep during the day due to looking after DD1. I’m finding it all very difficult as DD1 is also potty training at the moment so I’m being pulled in lots of directions. I’m considering switching to FF so other family members can help out with feeds and hopefully she will sleep better. I went for the 6 week appointment at the doctors last week who made me feel terrible for not EBF so I have been pushing the BF since then and as a result am absolutely exhausted. She has also dropped a centile so I’m in a total panic I just don’t know what to do for the best.

I feel for you. Having a toddler and a newborn is genuinely a very difficult stage of family life - you are not doing something wrong! However you feed, it's likely it would be really challenging. Lots of babies have a reversed sleep cycle to begin with. Have you tried all the advice to get baby sunlight in the day time and keep it noisy - then quiet and dark at night?

On the feeding front, what is the pattern of your baby dropping a centile? Do you mean dropped a centile since birth or since the line they were on when they regained birth weight? Do you mean they've dropped a centile since you started trying to cut back on your use of formula? Babies do not follow a curve line exactly - some fluctuation is normal. If they have dropped the centile quite quickly since you started cutting back on formula, it would suggest that your milk supply had regulated to accommodate the formula milk you were giving. That doesn't mean you can't increase it again, but it would be wise to cut the formula carefully. Calculate how much formula baby has in each 24hrs and cut that total amount by 1oz every few days, keeping an eye that baby's nappies remain the same. This slow way challenges your boobs to create more milk. You can also pump to increase supply but I've always found that a faff and almost impossible when also looking after another child with little assistance.

Ultimately you are you only one who can decide how important breastfeeding is to you. Yes, there are benefits at a population level, but you can't tell which primary school kids had bm and which had formula!