feeding Mainly a description of my experience this last month to give those who are struggling with BF an idea as to how I coped with it.
When William was born (scary c section due to placenta abruption and him in distress and needing help) he struggled to latch on. We persevered but 30 hours later he had low blood sugar (and showing signs of GBS) and was given formula (aptamil) via a cup from a midwife. His blood sugar still wasn't rising so off he popped to SCBU for two days (mainly because of GBS thing - which was negative!) to have formula and BF from me when I was on my feet - 48 hours later.
William continued to struggle to latch on and WWIII nearly broke out between MWs on postnatal ward and nurses caring for the SCBs on SCBU because the latter suggested nipple shields. For 6 days, William was breast-fed and everything was going okay. He was putting on weight.
By the time we got home a week later, William wanted to be on the breast from 5pm until midnight, sometimes later (at one point 3:45am). He would fall asleep and 10 minutes after being taken off (despite attempts to rouse him) he would scream to be back on. I calculated that he was being fed up to 14/15 hours a day some days! I was beside myself with physical and emotional tiredness. In desperation, we even tried to give him formula (at 3am!) but we were all distressed (including Dad) that it didn't happen.
2 weeks after his birth my mum came down for 2 weeks. She was an absolute God-send. The day she arrived, I was crying every hour. I was so, so tired and BF was obviously not working. He was gaining weight but in doing so, he was sending me down the path of PND! Mum suggested combination feeding. So I did. I got a breast pump (used one in hospital and encouraged!) and decided to express and give via bottle since mixing with formula.
Since then, I have never looked back. So much so that William is now exclusively bottle fed. We tried SMA but he seemed windy on that and have gone back to aptamil as he had it in hospital and he is so much better. I gave up the expressing. I was getting 50z in 30-40 mins but it meant that I couldn't leave the house for any length of time if I wanted to cos I needed to express.
Now I express only morning and night as advised to miss out a 'feed' to give up the milk to avoid mastitis. So far it is working as was doing it 4/5 times a day!
One MW told me that it was too early to express (at 2 weeks of age) despite it being encouraged in hospital, William liking it and at the time mixing bottle feeding (formula and breast milk) with actual breast feeding!
William was weighed yesterday. He was born 6lbs 6oz and at one month of age weighed 8lbs 9oz - exactly on the 9th percentile as he was at birth! So William is definitely not worse the wear for it!
Breast feeding is hard. If you want to do it then do it and get as much support as you want and need. If you don't want to do it, don't. it isn't for everyone. Remember - lots of children are formula fed and they turn out just fine.