Feeling a bit down today

[Lizzie Lou]

Pointless post really but I'm feeling a bit down today

Molly had lost over 10% of her birth weight by day 9 so I have been expressing after each feed for 10mins using a double pump and then topping her up with 2 1/2 oz of formula. On sat she'd put on 85grams which was great and was due to be weighed again today but when I called mw she said to come in tomorrow and speak to their feeding expert as I might have to be given a drug to increase my milk supply I don't know why this is bothering me as it must be a good thing to be able to sort it out but I just feel a bit like a failure that because I might need drugs to help me.

 

[Mervs Mum]

You are not a failure You can judge success till your finished

Hopefully the feeding advisor will have some good advice for you hun x

 

[Samantha675]

Love you are not a failure at all, you haven't even been BFing for 2 weeks yet. You both are still new to it. It takes a lot of work, and time for you both to be good at it. I wouldn't worry so much about weight gain, and focus more on dirty diapers, and how she is acting? Do you get plenty of wet and dirty diapers? Does she seem satisfied? Right now she is sooo tiny that even the littlest change can make a difference on the scale. Such as if she had a poo before or if she nursed after. I didn't bother weighing Brenn for the first 5-6 weeks. I just looked at his diapers and his behavior. You are doing just fine!!!

 

[Lu28]

You're doing really well hon, good luck with the specialist

 

[Shifter]

Jack lost 14% of his birth weight by day 6, he soon started to pile on the ounces though and we haven't looked back since. Losing 10% of birth weight is totally normal and is what "they" expect. Like others have said, the important indicator of health is the nappies and contentedness, not what the scales say. You can do it.

 

[Lizzie Lou]

Thanks

The thing is that I musn't be making enough milk for her as before we started topping up with formula, she wouldn't sleep without being cuddled - she's quite content for 3 hours or so now so she must've been hungry I guess I'm just worried that the amount of formula she's getting seems to be increasing (started off with 1oz per feed and is now at 3oz) but my milk doesn't...I really don't want to ff it just seems like such a pain and I love bf'ing soooooo much.

My bf'ing booklet says that stress doesn't effect milk supplies but I wondered if you ladies agree with that? Only ask as yesterday my expressing amounts were really up after finding out that Molly had put weight on the day before but after talking to the mw this morning and her mentioning taking a drug to increase milk, I'm back to expressing half a teaspoon We also have a lot going on at the moment which is making life pretty stressful and wonder whether all this has an effect?

 

[Always&4ever]

Your doing so well honey!

 

[Mervs Mum]

Unfortunately tops ups are a slippery slope as far as your supply is concerned. Every time you give one you are not giving the correct signals to your boobs. You are telling them that they are producing enough when they arent. The more you top up the more you slide towards FFing. FFing is fine if thats what you want. Combining works well too for some mum's - I've done that at times when I've struggled to pump. BUT if you want to exclusively BF you cant give regualr top ups.

When my baby was 10 days old I had slipped into more and more top ups. I was convinced that my supply was low and I couldnt satisfy her. I went to a BF support group and talked to the LC. She told me that I was doing everything right but I needed to ditch the top ups if I wanted to EBF. So we went home and thats what we did. I didnt give her another I just kept putting her to my breast. About 12hours in and she was crying and I felt empty. I just wanted to satisfy her I yelled at my hubby to GET ME A BOTTLE!! but fortunately he had been with me at the BF group and he knew that if I did I'd be back to square one. So he took the baby and walked with her etc while she cried and I took a rest had a bath etc and an hour or so later I started again. Putting her to my other side and giving my boobs the signals to up the supply.

I never topped her up again.

It was a tough 2 days but it was worth it. I know its hard and it's up to you how you want to manage it but every top up tells your boobs that they dont need to make more - in fact it tells them to make less.

Hang in there honey - you are at THE toughest time but I promise you if you give your body a chance it will come through for you.

 

[thelilbump]

just as the others said really. sending you some