Breastfeeding

Help Please!    My daughter is 3 weeks old and I am having the hardest time with the breastfeeding.  At first she was doing ok. Well day 1 at least but in the hospital she had jaundice and they decided to supliment her with formula. Well after that it went down hill. They did not feed with a bottle but with a cup. Well after that she wanted to nurse all the time. I mean hours at a time with no break inbetween. I found myself walking around with her on my boob all the time. I would put her on at 7 pm and at 11 my husband would say is she still eating. Well she was!  She would scream if I took her off and she acted as if she was starving. Well we told the pedi and her decided she has reflux and put her on medication. Week later no help! Then we went back to the pedi and he decided she cant suck properly and wants me to pump and bottlefeed and continue supplimenting with formula. ( I have always supplimented because she never seemed to be getting ful) Welll I have A medela pump in style advanced and When I pump I only get 10-15 cc per breast. i have neverfelt engorges or had leaking(unless feeding) or felt a let down ( whatever that means) I am formula feeding more that breast because i  cant get ther milk out. I really want to breastfeed and I know not that all the issues are me not producing. I am taking fenugreek. But what should I do. I am so stressed about this. I am a failure!!

Sounds like she may be hitting her 3 week growth spurt.  How is your liquid intake?   You may have to drin****il your eye balls are floating.  Try not to stress out too much that will not help your milk let down.   I know it's hard to let them nurse ALL the time.  I went through the same thing with my daughter.  I would nurse until I couldn't handle it anymore then I would give her a couple of ounces of formula.  She also had reflux.  The doc explained that she probably wasn't hungry, but was burning from the reflux and drinking something would immediately help for a few minutes.  It's a vicious cycle.   I took fenugreek and later tried regalan.  Neither really helped alot.  Once I went back to work Hannah was mainly a formula baby during the day and I nursed her at night (with a formula bottle at bedtime).  I eventually quit pumping at work because it was so stressful to see how little milk I was getting.  Surprisingly, my milk did not dry up and I continued to nurse for several more months.  I weaned Hannah when she was 11 months old.  Although I think she would have happily continued nursing until she was in college lol.
Don't feel like a failure.  Even if you can't continue to BF you have given your baby a GREAT start to life!
Amy

I had some of the same problems with my son.   Before I knew it I felt like I was either BF or supplementing with formula ALLL the time.    My son would want to suck all the time!   I finally gave him a pacifier because the laxatation nurse told be I had an extremely sucky baby. 
Have you talked to the laxation nurse at the hospital??? They are so helpful.     
You are not a failure!   You are trying your best,  that's all you can do. 

Hi,

Sometimes I found it helped with the "let down" to have the baby on one breast and then pump the other side at the same time.  I always had trouble pumping and never got really more than an ounce from each side.   It was like that for both of my babies.

Perhaps a hospital grade pump would help? You can rent them usually at the hospital you gave birth at. La Leche League can also be a resource.

I was able to successfully nurse them each for 1 year. They never really had any formula, they wouldn't take a bottle very easily.

You are not a failure, breastfeeding is hard especially in the beginning.  It does however get much easier with time.

Good Luck,

Thank you!!!

What ever you do DO NOT give up. I have been there. This is what helped me out.


Drink lots of water, propel water if you like flavored better. Before you start brest feeding go to a place a quiet place take a few deep breaths and blow them out. some times soothing music helped me. then continue to put the baby on your breast.  A let down feels fuzzy almost. it could feel differant to you but thats what it felt like to me. I always watch when i was breatfeeding my baby. watched her suckling and looked at her face and hands help her lil feet. this always did it for me. if you want to pump too wait 30 min after feeding then pump. 30 min later your baby should be almost ready to feed. then 30 min pump again this will help you build more millk supply. when you pump watch your flow if it seems to be getting real slow to drops pump for about 5 more min then turn it off. This also has helped me in my journy. I hope this was some help to you. You can all ways call and talk to your breatfeeding nurse at the hospital or WIC office.   Im not sure how you feel to using a passafire but it did save my poor sucked on too much boobs.

Also after i was done breast feeding my baby i would rock them for a lil while and rub their backs and talk to them softly about the day and what mommy or daddy was doing if there are other sibblings them as well.

Again i hope this helped out. And good luck

Have you seen a lactation consultant?  I had SO much help for so many issues from ours--she works at the local hospital.  I could not have worked through the many problems without her assistance and reassurance.  Good luck!