How long would it take to defrost 4oz bags? Do you use hot kettle water, hot tap water or does it need to be only just warm?

We had a disaster the other day, I went out for 40 mins and left a 4oz bottle and Alex guzzled the lot then screamed until I got home. Bless his dad he said 'if you hadn't been through so much to feed him yourself I would have opened the emergency formula' I'm glad he didn't, but if frozen stuff could be defrosted relatively fast I could relax if I leave Alex again.

If you put defrosted milk in the fridge can it be Left for longer than an hour?

Tigs it takes hardly any time at all. When Monkey and I went out for dinner I left the babysitter with a bottle of fresh pumped and a bag of frozen solid milk sitting in warm tap water, by the time P' had finished his first bottle the frozen bag had defrosted, it then just needed to be warmed through with more hot water once transferred into a bottle.

Well I'm back! ;haha: feeding is going pretty well she's bloody greedy now and like to have double helpings. Last night again she fed 5 times between 6 and midnight, then woke herself about 4am. and again at 8:30 (the 4am feed went on for ages).

My problem now is my left breast is not as efficient. I'm managing to get her on it eventually, but I can hear that she's not gulping it down the way she does on the right. So after 20 minutes on the left she pulls herself off but is still hungry, so I pop her on the right. My left nipple is sore and quite cracked, a small part of it is a little bit like and open wound. I'm a little worried about it. What should I do? Does it mean she's not latching on it correctly? I am going to have a shower then leave it out in the air for a while. Should I hold off feeding her from it until it heals or should I just keep on trying?

Thanks

Just keep trying do you have lanisinoh? It works wonders put a lot on after each feeding. Also she might not be latching right you can unlatch her by sticking your finger in her mouth then let her relatch. If it is painful try a different position. My left breast is almost always slower then the right. When I pump I sometimes get an entire ounce or more from the right while double pumping. You can try popping her back on the left when she comes off and do it a few times before offering the right.

When they get older the pop off all the time to take a look around if I switched him everytime I'd be playing musical boobs.

Thanks yeah I have lansinoh, I think the nipple will slowly heal and she had a good feed from the left earlier, about 20 mins and came off with a mouth overflowing, so I know its working at least. Just being called away for a feed but will be back with more questions I'm sure thank for being so helpful

Anytime!!!

Hi ladies - really hoping someone can help.

So, Daniel is 3 weeks old now and exclusively breastfed, but it's not been easy and I keep just getting so disheartened by all of the hurdles. Firstly we had latching problems and the midwife who came out to see me said it looked as though someone had rubbed a cheesegrater on my nipples Buckets of lasinoh and gritted teeth and a bit of repositioning later, his latch is much improved...most of the time.

He is gaining weight really well, though, and is now between the 50th and 75th percentile, and has lots of 'normal' wet and dirty nappies.

Now, I don't know what's wrong with him (or me), do you think it might be a growth spurt, he just completely out of the blue (at night, usually) fights the breast. He headbutts and punches me and pushes away and arches his back and screams bloody murder til he is bright red...it's so upsetting and I feel rejected, plus he's not really much of a crying baby. I really try to meet his needs as soon as I sense what they are and he is constantly in arms, so skin-to-skin or getting worked up isn't an issue. When he does get into this state, I try to calm him first and then bring him back to the breast, where sometimes he attempts a latch but sort of holds the breast with his mouth gaping round it...what could this be? He has the suction of a dyson the rest of the time. Sometimes we use some expressed milk to take the edge of his hunger and then try him again - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I also have all but given up for the time being in trying to get him to go on the left breast...I don't know if it's a problem with my nipple, my flow or with him, but he hates it Sometimes I manage to 'trick' him by sliding him over or using the football hold, but it is such effort and I'm so tired that I've just taken to expressing every other or so feed from this breast to keep the supply up (is this often enough? He feeds every 1.5 hours-ish at the moment) and also to have milk to placate him when he is doing his crazy fussy thing.

I have no experience of breastfeeding so don't know if I'm doing something wrong...any advice and support would be so much appreciated. Formula just isn't an option for us, even if I end up exclusively expressing I am determined to stick at it and at the moment I'm just trudging through to that distant-seeming 6 weeks when everyone seems to suggest things will improve.

I'm sorry for the essay there's a lot to get off my chest, and as with many things it always seems worse in the dead of night.

Thank you so much for your time and help

You remind me of me

Molly has never been great with her latch. Bit of a lazy one, she has her days when she'll just tickle the nipple a bit until the milk flows and then swallows and fusses and wonders why there's no more when she won't work for it. I usually find this is worse in the evening and also when she's going through a spurt.

As for rejecting you and not sucking sometimes, it does sound like very typical growth spurt behaviour if he's fine for the rest of the time. 3 weeks is a biggie, almost as bad as the one we hit at 12 weeks which lasted until she was about 16 weeks! She screamed all evening for the first 2 weeks and I really started to question/doubt myself. It's a struggle I know, and sometimes you'll wonder if you can go on or if you're even doing the best thing but you are, I promise and it does pass eventually.

So, yes you're doing everything right. This is all normal as are your feelings of confusion and doubt.

My advice is, rant at OH whenever possible. Mine is the only reason I'm still BF'ing and I am and always was of the mindset "no formula, ever". He can also sometimes rock her to sleep when it gets too much... if Daniel is fussing for hours etc. then he'll also be getting overtired so if you can get him to nap for even 30 mins he should be calmer and more willing to feed when he wakes. OH has spent hours on and off rocking Molly before.

Big , you can do this! x

WTT -- sounds like a growth spurt to me! Otter used to have punching matches with mine for hours on end. Don't worry about overfeeding her, you aren't. Otter actually took 7 ounces of EBM in one feed once when about 8 weeks old. And, of course, you can't really overfeed from the breast. Anytime you worry you are overfeeding, remind yourself of Otter. For the first 14 weeks, he fed every 1-2 hours, around the clock, an average of at least 16-18 feeds per day. From 14 weeks until 7 months it was every 2-3 hours, an average of 8-9 per day. He's still thriving, not fat (but certainly chubby!) and the doc has always been very happy with his growth.

E -- FE gave you great advice, so I won't add much! She's right, you are doing everything right. Work on that left boob as much as you can, preferably when he is calm and more willing. If the fighting and back arching doesn't let up within 5 days or so (that is all the longer a LONG spurt will last), then look for other signs of reflux, just in case it is that. But it is much more likely his 3 week growth spurt.

Tigger -- When I am in a real hurry to defrost the EBM, I take it directly from the freezer, put it in a cup (still in the bag), set it under the tap, turn on the warm water, and let the water run continuously into the cup the bag is in. I don't make the water so warm it will overheat the plastic bag, but warm enough that it thaws the milk fast. It takes about 5 minutes or less to get the milk ready to feed that way.

And if you put defrosted EBM in the fridge, it will keep for 24 hours. So, if you have frozen on hand, no worries that OH will have to break into the emergency formula. It was very good and sweet of him to think of all your hard work and resist it!!!!!

GL -- What is with left boobs?!?! Mine is slower than the right one, too! Oph, is right, keep nursing through it. I had cracked, bleeding, blistered nipples (both!) for about 3 weeks when I first started. I used Lanisnoh like crazy. After every feed, anytime I felt it wear off, and even before a feed when they were really bad. It won't hurt LO to put it on right before a feed. Also, Oph was right about trying to relatch. The latch probably isn't all that great and that is what is causing the cracking. However, it could just be normal for early days. Otter's latch was always really good and I STILL got the cracked-blistered-bleeding thing for those early weeks.

I'm sticking up for left boobs, my left has (until this week) been my best boobie it only let me down this week as it has a blister on it - ouch.