Breastfeeding problems of a ftm

[ece77]

Hi ladies,
I am a ftm with a 2 week old. I wanted to ebf for at least 6 months but lo is making everything so hard. Our problems are:
- She wants to stay on the boob for hours at a time. It is tiring for both of us as she seems so sleep deprived at the end and me and my boobs are so sore.
- Sometimes after such a long feed, she refuses to take the boob/s although she wants to continue drinking. She takes the boob, spits and cries and cries. I check and it seems there still is milk but she somehow cannot get it.
- If she falls a sleep magically, she just wakes up either when we're trying to put her to her crib or like half an hour later. She only sleeps longer in the bouncer (day) or in our bed (night).
- She has a poor latch and no matter how hard I try I can't fix it. It looks like she may have an upper lip tie. But I'm not sure. Will see her pediatrician for that.
- She will neither take a paci or a bottle which is not that bad. But I'd just love to see her take one when she seems so inconsolable.

So any advice would be greatly appreciated....

 

[azure girl]

Are you sure she doesn't just want to suck, when DS spits out the milk and keeps sucking I just give him a pacifier, I am not his paci. Sounds like you need to see a lactation consultant and express your concerns.

 

[hans2009]

I would definitely make an appointment with a lactation consultant ASAP. Pediatricians are great but most don't know as much about breastfeeding as you would think.

If he's spitting out the milk, he probably doesn't want to eat, he just wants to comfort suck. Have you tried different types of pacifiers? Another option would be your finger but that can get awkward if he wants it for a long period.

As for how long he's nursing, sessions will get shorter. My son is 12 weeks and he will nurse for 5-10 and be full but for the first few weeks, it would take him at least 45 minutes to nurse.

My son needed to be swaddled to sleep until just a couple of weeks ago. They are used to being in your womb and aren't ready to have all the open space quite yet!

Good luck and don't give up! It's tough but it does get easier!!

 

[Shandelion]

Have you tried different pacifiers? My son rejected the original pacifiers we were bought, and he used to nurse 2+ hours at a time. I found some by MAM that he likes and I can give those to him for comfort now. I did have to be pushy; he wasn't going to be fooled by fake boob!

 

[Ingodshand]

My son had both a tongue and lip tie that we had revised and it made a world of difference. I would also recommend cst therapy to help with his palate. Mine will not take a pacifier so i just let him hang out at my breasts. It is his favorite place. It will get better!!!

 

[Kelskiii]

Sound like comfort feeding my LO still tries it at 5months. My LO was constantly on the breast from birth comfort feeding. I didn't know it at the time I thought she was hungry & I was so sore. It's hard at that age to distract them from just sucking, it took me a good few months to distract her. My LO wouldn't take a dummy but would take a bottle so helped on an evening with an expressed bottle, which she still wanted to suck in me afterwards but we just had to distract her.

Sorry no good advice but I know how you feel. Like others said different dummies/teats are different shapes & LO might prefer a different one.

 

[patch2006uk]

Seeming starving but not latching is a classic sign of wind. Try burping more thoroughly and stand up and bounce her a little when she behaves like that how's her weight gain and nappies? If they're ok and you're getting lots of wet abd dirty nappies, then everything sounds normal. It won't last forever, and things will turn a corner eventually. Keep going-you're doing fab!

 

[ece77]

Thank you all ladies. After a long afternoon of crying, we just couldn't bear to see her like that and went to her pedi. It seems like she's colicky. Pedi says we'll have to wait until 3-4 months and things will start to get better. In the meantime, he gave some gas drops and suppositories if things got worse.
I just can't stand looking at her little face, trying so hard to pass wind, and getting so frustrated when she can not

 

[irish_cob]

Is she refluxy at all? My baby has reflux and she wanted to feed all the time because the milk going down is soothing to the gullet when it's hurting from the acid, but then she would be too full and vomit, which hurt so she'd go back to feeding and/or screaming and it became a continuous cycle til we got her on ranitidine at 15 days old. She still feeds and comfort sucks a lot but isn't in pain and screaming and feeding frantically and being sick any more.

 

[TCK_Runner]

I think it's gas as well. Emma occasionally does what you're describing but it's gotten much better with time. I would say however that it took her until 8 weeks to be able to latch properly all the time (mouth bigger I guess) and for her to burp or pass gas without too much pain (_use the drops!!!!). She has figured out how to do it herself by bringing her legs up when it hurts her tummy.

The first 6 weeks of this were by far the roughest and now I rarely dread feeding... She also takes bottles and pacifiers, but I give her ones that resemble a boob the most -- nuby bottles and cherry pacifiers. She hated the orthodontic ones we tried at first, plus I noticed her latch improved with the boob and nipple shaped ones.