Help with night feeds for 3 week old....

[kateqpr]

I've been BF Poppy quite successfully for the last 3 weeks, but am starting to find the nights really hard. I've been expressing once a day (when i remember of get the chance!) but then worry that i'm draining myself for her next feed, so she;s just hungrier after next feed (if that makes sense. I know this should level out, but that's my worry this week!)

Anyhoo - i just want to ease off a bit at night times, so i don't wake up in tears again in the morning after no deep sleep.

Is it ok to express some breast milk (i seem to only be able to manage around 50 mls) and then top it up with formula to fill her up? How do you do this? I;ve got early baby formula so its not the type you make up, it's all ready made, so do i give this in a seperate bottle? Or just mix it with my own?

Just a bit clueless, but after a chat with the HV, she's convinced me that my sleep is important to keep me and baby sane, so this could be the answer...

My only experience of forumla was when i was in hospital after birth for a week, and Midwives fed her on formula for a few days for me as i was too weak. She was fine, but i did find she sicked up her food a lot more a few hours later, which i didn;t like. This was on Aptimil. Is this normal with formula, or any advice on a formula you'd recommend? I wonder whether in their rush the midwives were just shoving it down her and not giving her a chance to breath and wind properly, hence the sicky bit!

Sorry long email - just struggling today and need a bit of advice from you pro's!

 

[sparkswillfly]

Sounds like we are going through the exact same thing. Meadow has started feeding more in the last few days and last night she got really cross because I didnt have enough milk for her. Luckily I had expressed 4ozs earlier in the day and I gave her that. I havent really slept more than 2 hours at a time she before she was born. Its really draining isnt it!

3 nights ago she went down at 10pm was up at 12.30am 2.30am 4am and 7am. Then fed again at 9am and 11am! The next night I expressed 3oz and gave her a bottle for the first time and she slept 12 -4 which was an improvement. Not sure if it was a coincedence.

Im really confused about the whole supply and demand of my milk and how expressing has an effect on it. I think I have less milk in the evenings as well but she seems to want more then!

I have considered giving her a bottle of aptimil before bed to help her sleep longer. But in all honesty I am scared of formula!

 

[ryder]

Well, most of the super passionate bfers will tell you giving formula will mess up your supply...

But there is also nothing wrong with formula, I think if you perhaps let your OH give a late night formula bottle and you express, I dont see this messing up your supply at all.

I tried bfing for the first couple weeks and as soon as I switched to formula only she slept way better... Just my experience, people claim it doesnt matter, but BM is more watery then formula... So babies do sometimes go longer.

Good luck! Im sure it must be hard.

 

[sam's mum]

Giving her formula won't mess up your supply if you do it all the time. If you were giving her nothing but formula instead of breast milk for a couple of days it would definitely affect your supply, but replacing a feed with formula every day/night won't cause any problems at all if you're making it a regular thing. No idea about the formula making her more sick but it might be worth trying a different brand to see if that makes a difference, just to make sure it's not a reaction to cow's milk proteins or something (if she was given it for a few days in the hospital it sounds unlikely though - some babies do just have days where they're sick a bit more, and maybe that just happened to coincide with you giving her the Aptamil?)

Mixing it with your breast milk will be fine too if you've pumped a bit but not enough for a feed - it's best to mix them together just before she has the bottle.

Hope things get better for you soon x

 

[Freya]

HI there,

I can empathise with your nighttime sleep deprivation!! I agree with Ryder and Sam's mum..... yes, you'll hear that introducing formula will affect your milk supply. BUT if you want to do a combined bf and ff approach, chances are you'll find your milk adapts. The trick will be to give a ff at the same time each day.

I became desperate for a break and introduced a ff as the last feed of the night. It gives me a break as OH feeds my DD as I hop off to bed! It also makes her an extra hour before next feed. My milk wasn't affected at all.

oh yes, not sure if you were told this, but i was advised to pump AFTER bub had fed from me. Otherwise, you're right, you 'take' their milk and they dont get a proper feed. I could never express well anyway, but i kept pumping and managed a couple more 'let downs'.

Lots of luck with whatever you decide! Your sanity and happiness is soooooooooooo important!

xxx

 

[Jemima]

First of all, lovely choice of name for your little girl!

I can really empathise with your sleep deprivation. I was like the living dead for the first few weeks.

I wouldn't say I am a "super passionate" breast feeder, as ryder put it so I would say, if you feel you need to give her a formula feed before bed and this is what you intend to going forward, then do it! But the only advice I can give if you want to try to avoid doing this is to perservere with feeding on demand and you will find that over the next week or so your supply will catch up with her demand. If you have porridge for brekkie, eat lots of good proteins and iron and drink plenty of water, this will help to keep your supply up.

I have to say, when I was feeling particularly exhausted one night, I made DH sleep on the sofabed and I brought Poppy into bed with me. This allowed me to feed her whilst I was more or less sleeping and I felt like a new woman the following day!

I don't know much about formula but I have read that, as it is denser than breastmilk, it can make babies a little bit more sicky but you could always try a few before you find the right one for Poppy.

Good luck. Before you know it, she will be sleeping more and more and you will have survived and come through it!

 

[kellyharrison]

hello - man this feeding business keeps us on our toes! My LO is 3 months old and after just exclusively b/feeding I decided to top up with formula as she was getting distracted and not finishing her day feeds.

I b/feed at every day feed and then I offer her a 3oz bottle (half of the 6oz she should be guzzling at her age - presuming shes getting the other half from me)

The only thing I would say is that night feeds are the most important ones for establishing and keeping your supply - I read in my magical feeding book - so I always just b/feed at night (she gets less distracted too coz shes sleepy so its all good) I would recommend buying this book "what to expect when your breast-feeding...and what if you can't?" by Clare Byam-Cook - this will help you alot. Its ideal for whatever choices you want to make and it tells you the facts of your situation.

On the choice of formula - if she reacts badly to one - try another. I have friends that have gone threw all three top brands until they found the right one for their LO

Hope this helps ??

 

[marley2580]

I agree with taking her to bed, even if it's just for one night to catch up on your sleep or during the day for a couple of naps. It's easy to sleep and feed at the same time and one night won't much up your routine.

 

[Fossey]

I do both and only tend to have less of a supply if i dont stick to my routine. My issue is Liss wont stay on long enough and hasnt since day dot, so she has 10 mins on each boob then has bottle. If you bf during the day with no bottle and ff at night i cant see your milk drying up, it soon adapts in my experience. If i go a day without bf she struggles but then soon goes back to how she was and the milk goes back to normal.*touches wood as so far this has been the case*

 

[caggimedicine]

Harry is 5 weeks old and we've introduced 1 bottle at night time which hubby gives him so I can get at least 3/4 hours straight sleep. Goes like this:

9/10pm: I BF Harry and go to bed
11pm/12midnight: Hubby gives Harry bottle and then comes to bed
1/2am: Harry wakes up (depending on how much FF he's had... not always a lot because he doesn't seem to be a big fan!) I BF Harry from then on

Sometimes it's formula alone, and sometimes it's a mixture of my expressed milk and the formula milk mixed together in the same bottle. He's not a big fan of the FF, but at least it keeps him asleep for another hour or two so I can sleep a bit more.