Mumsnet Breastfeeding Club

[Llondbol]

Hi!

I can't find a thread for breastfeeding chat; so thought I'd start one.

I'm a new Mum to Jac (10/4/19) and he's my first baby. I haven't made it to a local breastfeeding group yet, so would love the chance to chat here. It was a difficult start and I still have so many questions...

Anyone want to join? Introduce yourself - I'd love to hear from you 😁

Hi OP! Fab idea. How are you finding breastfeeding?
I am mum to a DS who is 7 weeks old ☺️
He is also my first baby.
I have found it so rewarding to breastfeed, but out of all of the mums I have met, I am the only one not using formula!
We had so many problems getting him to latch at first but he soon worked it out!

Great idea. I'm quite far along my bf journey with DD, 9 months. It is a comfort as well as nutrition and the best way to get her to sleep. I used to worry about trying to get her to fall asleep alone but feeding to sleep works for us and is very natural. I used formula in the early days from day one as advised by drs in hospital due to jaundice, then it was great for dh to do the midn feed and I got sleep. However mixed feeding had a few issues so we moved to exclusively breastfed at about 2 months. dd just started childcare and isn't interested in milk from a bottle there so when she work she has 3-4 feeds (5pm, 8pm (occasionally midnight) 5-6 am. At home I still feed on demand/ offer her periodically but as she's on food HV said it's fine to be dropping day feeds. Hope I can answer questions.

Great idea 😊
Currently feeding my 3wo DS but have fed my other two, dd4 & Ds2.5 for two years each including feeding through pregnancy and tandem feeding. It's a way of life here!

I'd like to join! I have a 13 week old. Very rocky at first as I lost a lot of blood and no Colostrum came in! Kept pumping and trying to latch him and eventually we got milk!!! Woooohooo! Haha. Going well since then.

Hello 👋🏻 can I join? My story is a bit different and will totally out me...
I stopped bfeeding DS (10 weeks) at 4 days and moved to formula as we had a bit of a time of it at delivery and I was struggling to recover.
But it was playing on my mind so at 7/8 weeks I made a plan to relactate and now we feed both ways. Still using formula as I don’t have enough milk but hopeful it will continue to increase over time!

Good idea OP. I have an 8 month DS. He’s been breastfed since the start and still going, but I went back to work full time at 16 weeks so I’m pumping during working hours.

I'm in! I'm currently mumsnetting while feeding dd2, 6 months. She's ebf, and a right old greedy piggie. I bf her sister until 18months, hoping I can do the same thing this time too.

embrace We feed to sleep here too, both dd1 and dd2, and it never caused an issue. I love feeding them into a good night's sleep. 🤗

Hello, I’m still feeding DD 22 months (at bed/nap times and night wakings).
Just to say that you can normally find breastfeeding threads in the Infant feeding topic.

What a great idea ☺️ I'm sat feeding my 11 week old DD. We had such a rocky start and went through mixed feeding, exclusively pumping and finally at 8 weeks to exclusively breastfeeding. I love it and am so proud of DD that we got here.

What do people here enjoy about breastfeeding?

I love that it means we can go out for as long as we like, be spontaneous (to an extent!) and not worry about having enough food or clean bottles 😃

Hi, I'm breastfeeding my girl who is 2 (25 months).
I really struggled at the beginning, ended up mixed feeding for a few weeks, paid for a lactation consultant and used nipple shields for 4 months until she knocked them off and feed without.
So if anyone is struggling I'm happy to talk about my experience.

For me, I loved the closeness that breastfeeding gave me with my baby.
I had pnd- only recently come off medication- and I felt that bf helped me to bond and feel that I was necessary (which sounds silly, but it's honestly how I felt).
It's also so handy, daughter cries- boob, daughter is angry- boob, daughter is overwhelmed- boob. You get where I'm going with this right? Boobing is so the way I parent right now

Hi everyone /waves/

I have DS 22 months and I feed him at nap time and night time. I feed him to get him to sleep. It's how we've always done it. Just feels natural tbh.

Slightly worried about returning to work and getting him off the feeding to sleep? Don't want to stop really but I feel like there is pressure to do so with his nap at least, if I am to return to work.

@Queenfreak so true, I didn't feel like her mum till she started feeding. Like anyone could give her what I was able to offer. Feeding 100% helped us bond 🌸

I have a 5 day old baby girl, she is currently feeding every 2 hours roughly. So far so good but initially toe curling stings! Using Lanolin and that’s helping a lot. She is defo a night baby!! Trying to EBF to around 6 months so taking it a day at a time. With my first DS it hurt so much and I stopped after 4 months as went back to work earlier but does seem better this time.

It's also so handy, daughter cries- boob, daughter is angry- boob, daughter is overwhelmed- boob.

Yes to this! It's also really handy to have as an option if they are ill. Dd1 ended up in hospital for 3 days when she was 11 months (mystery viral infection) and she wouldn't eat but she would feed with me. It meant that she got some calories and nutrition over those days but also a lot of comfort during a shit time when she was ill and scared. I was so, so glad I could still give her that.

Yay! People wanted to join 😁 Need to turn my notifications on!

Just feeding Jac... we were every 2.5 ish hours after about a week; but this past week has been tough and it's more like he's snacking. Been on and off constantly since I tried to go to bed at 11pm 😭 Is everyone else feeding on demand like this?

Feeding on demand is the normal/most common way to breastfeed, babies need little and often and will stop when they have enough.

I'm currently awake feeding my 18 month old who is never normally awake at this hour so I've no idea what he's at. Fed ds1 until he was 2 years 2 months, he weaned when I was 4 months pregnant with this guy.

Love this.
1DC almost 9mo
Ebf
Ftm
I found it so painful at first but now it's second nature however DC has got two teeth now and occasionally bites when bf for comfort. Trying to tell DC "NO " an AP way

@Llondbol sounds like cluster feeding to me. It will pass.

DS used to go through phases where it felt like every 10 minutes he wanted to feed and he'd be like it all day/night.

You can't get anything done really. You just have to stay put (preferably in front of the TV with a whole host of snacks at your disposal 🤣)

@PatricksRum God the new teeth... Haha I remember that 🙈

I used to whip the boob out when he bit. He didnt like it (obvs because he wanted to feed) so he'd grumble. That, accompanied with a firm 'no, that hurts Mummy' seemed to get the message to him? Then I'd put him back on 😊

Morning ladies, just found this so hiya!

5mo, Mixed feeder (weight and diagnosed low supply), IBLC’s on speed dial, nipple shields/SNS/Medication (pretty much used every thing now)

It’s getting better! Baby is finally putting on weight consistently, but god those first few weeks (months!) felt like hard work especially the 10 week cluster feed!

@Creas35 @PatricksRum @MrsGrannyWeatherwax just a little well done you for sticking with bfing when it's been hard ❤️

DD has been soooo good this morning and slept 9-5.30 last night!!! But she's going to wake up and want to feed just as my boss arrives for visit. She's an ex nurse with 4 kids so nothing she hasn't seen before but I find it easier to whap them out in Costa than at home with one person 🙈

Thank you for this thread - BF can be a bit tricky to navigate on here. If you promote it you’re anti formula but there’s not as much support for when it’s hard (at the start) just “give up” which a lot of people (myself included) don’t want to do!

I’m bf-big DD2 - 11 weeks. I bf DD1 to 15 months. Love BF. Easy, portable, instant - and I say that as sometime who has had struggles both times at the beginning. It’s just the best - and you can do it one handed 😂

Mine has just reached the fun “distracted” phase and keeps scratching and kicking me! Not going to lie, the scratching hurts baby laughs sometimes whilst doing it!