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[Flower_Girl]

Ah right, guess my milk probly flows pretty fast to start with then as it really squirts out when I'm expressing. Poor Thomas is probly struggling to swallow it

What can I do to try and help Thomas with my overactive letdown? Would expressing some milk off before a feed help?

Thanks

 

[Mini1980]

Hi ladies, I need some sleep advice. I was blessed with a good sleeper. Since birth she has always slept through the night. At the moment she sleeps from 10.30 - 7.30. I am trying to get her to sleep earlier so I can actually get in the bath and eat a hot meal. Last night I tried putting her to bed at 8. She grissled slightly but then went over. I dreamfed at 11 but due to my husband watching rubbish wrestlemania and making noisevshe woke up at 4 again wanting fed. I had to wake her at 9am this morning as I could smell her nappy (eugh!) She is 13 weeks today. I have just put her to bed at 8, do you think I should dream feed at 11 again or just wait for her to wake and want fed? What would you do? I think the 4am wake up probably wouldnt happen again tonight as rubbish crap is not on the tv.

 

[lynnikins]

Ah right, guess my milk probly flows pretty fast to start with then as it really squirts out when I'm expressing. Poor Thomas is probly struggling to swallow it

What can I do to try and help Thomas with my overactive letdown? Would expressing some milk off before a feed help?

Thanks

yes expressing a bit just to get the worst of your letdown done with might help

 

[lynnikins]

Hi ladies, I need some sleep advice. I was blessed with a good sleeper. Since birth she has always slept through the night. At the moment she sleeps from 10.30 - 7.30. I am trying to get her to sleep earlier so I can actually get in the bath and eat a hot meal. Last night I tried putting her to bed at 8. She grissled slightly but then went over. I dreamfed at 11 but due to my husband watching rubbish wrestlemania and making noisevshe woke up at 4 again wanting fed. I had to wake her at 9am this morning as I could smell her nappy (eugh!) She is 13 weeks today. I have just put her to bed at 8, do you think I should dream feed at 11 again or just wait for her to wake and want fed? What would you do? I think the 4am wake up probably wouldnt happen again tonight as rubbish crap is not on the tv.

what time is her second to last feed before bed, id try putting her to bed 30 min or so after that feed then doing the dreamfeed about 10.30 and see how you go from there , it will probably take a few days for her to get used to it

 

[Mini1980]

what time is her second to last feed before bed, id try putting her to bed 30 min or so after that feed then doing the dreamfeed about 10.30 and see how you go from there , it will probably take a few days for her to get used to it[/QUOTE]


Thanks She cluster fed tonight. On and off from about 6 for the last 2 hours. My boobies were aching when she finally stopped feeding at about 8.

Most of th time its at about 730pm and lasts until about 810 then she sleeps on the sofa until 10 when we change her take her upstairs and I feed her then put her in bed awake. She would wake at about 7.30

Since she was sleeping regular at about 8 I thought it would be best to be in bed. I would rather do a dream feed as I dont want her waking very hungry with an achy belly

 

[Nervous_1]

My LO sounds very similar to your LO in terms of feed times and I do a dream feed somewhere between 11 and 12pm so it could work quite well with your LO too Be prepared for it to take a few days to work though, and remember that sometimes no matter when/how much you feed your LO they can and will wake up at stupid o'clock!

 

[Flower_Girl]

Ah right, guess my milk probly flows pretty fast to start with then as it really squirts out when I'm expressing. Poor Thomas is probly struggling to swallow it

What can I do to try and help Thomas with my overactive letdown? Would expressing some milk off before a feed help?

Thanks

yes expressing a bit just to get the worst of your letdown done with might help

Ok, I'll have to try this.

I Can't take much more of this we really need to find something that works as Thomas has been screaming pretty much non stop for the last hour since he started to feed, he's screaming and now I'm crying, no-ones very happy here at the moment

 

[lynnikins]

he will be probably doing his 6wk growth spurt too atm hun so it might be a few days before things properly calm down but hopefully expressing a bit so the flow isnt so fast will help and you can always give it as a mini topup to give yourself a break. try to get your OH to take him out of the room for a bit if he gets a bit much i found at 6wks then when Lo's get themselves too worked up being around Mum and boob doesnt always help the situation.

 

[Flower_Girl]

he will be probably doing his 6wk growth spurt too atm hun so it might be a few days before things properly calm down but hopefully expressing a bit so the flow isnt so fast will help and you can always give it as a mini topup to give yourself a break. try to get your OH to take him out of the room for a bit if he gets a bit much i found at 6wks then when Lo's get themselves too worked up being around Mum and boob doesnt always help the situation.

My OH is working away which is what is making this so much harder

Thomas has been screaming on and off all night so i resorted to expressing him a bottle which he has just took no problems so its clearly my flow that he doesn't like
Any ideas if the flow calms down or am i going to have this problem from now on?

 

[lynnikins]

your supply should be close to stabalising soon and as he gets older he will likely handle the letdown better, theres always the option of latching him then when you feel your letdown then taking him off and catching any spray into a bottle to keep for later then relatching him when the rush of milk has eased

 

[pinkclaire]

Flower girl I was going to say this sounds like 6 week growth spurt. I can remember James latching, relatching, fussing lots and lots! Its a really hard time on the BF calender, I promise that if you just keep going you will reap the benefits soon.

I know how you feel, MY OH is away a lot and its tough. Have you got anyone who can come round? Obviously they cant feed him, but they can look after you. You need decent meals, and lots of fluids to keep yourself going xxx

 

[JellyBeann]

I agree with the growth spurt, Ollie went through his and was constantly feeding (although we co-slept, so it wasn't so draining on me) But see if you can get somebody to come round, even if it's only to cook you a meal or do some housework for you, don't worry about asking for help, you need to be healthy so LO can be healthy! x

 

[Flower_Girl]

Thanks ladies

I've expressed 2 bottles of milk off 1 breast since 5.30am as he was feeding off the right and the left felt like it was going to explode :-| Is this going to cause me more issues than it will solve though? I am concerned now that it will increase my supply and drown my LO even more when he is feeding

I am going out to visit a friend this afternoon which will eb a welcome break from being stuck in the house and as she has 2 LO's I can have a good chat to her about whats going on with Thomas as well. My OH will be home tonight (fingers crossed) so I will get looked after later which will be nice

I hope this does all settle down as I really don't want to stop breastfeeding Thomas, last night was a nightmare though as he screamed on and off for 3 hours which had me in tears feeling like it was my fault

Strangely he BF fine during the night, which I found very confusing! Fed off the one breast but no fussing or crying at all, very confused mummy here! I am just about to feed him again so fingers crossed there is no crying from my lil munchkin x

 

[Nervous_1]

Thanks ladies

I've expressed 2 bottles of milk off 1 breast since 5.30am as he was feeding off the right and the left felt like it was going to explode :-| Is this going to cause me more issues than it will solve though? I am concerned now that it will increase my supply and drown my LO even more when he is feeding

I am going out to visit a friend this afternoon which will eb a welcome break from being stuck in the house and as she has 2 LO's I can have a good chat to her about whats going on with Thomas as well. My OH will be home tonight (fingers crossed) so I will get looked after later which will be nice

I hope this does all settle down as I really don't want to stop breastfeeding Thomas, last night was a nightmare though as he screamed on and off for 3 hours which had me in tears feeling like it was my fault

Strangely he BF fine during the night, which I found very confusing! Fed off the one breast but no fussing or crying at all, very confused mummy here! I am just about to feed him again so fingers crossed there is no crying from my lil munchkin x

Your supply won't increase as a result of you expressing, your brain just received signals to say that the milk is required thats all And it is - you can now freeze it for later use!

Maybe your LO fed better during the night because there were less distractions. This is certainly the case with my LO - nice slow feeds without too much wind during the night but during the day he is the total opposite and frequently unlatches himself.

Finally, and most importantly, you are not a bad mummy and crying is totally normal. I still cry during some feeds and LO is almost 14 weeks now, it's just hormones still flying around.

 

[pinkclaire]

Thats great your getting out, I'm sure the distraction will really help you both! Try and just think about the next 24 hours rather than ahead of that as it is a difficult time. It wont last forever and you'll be able to look through with pride you got threw. I cried about everything for months at night! Dont beat yourself up its not your fault

 

[Flower_Girl]

Thank you both

Thomas has been quite bad again tonight He has so much wind gurgling around his lil digestive system I am almost certain that is the problem for him

Could it be that when he feeds its triggering his digestion straight away which is what is causing him the discomfort and making him get upset and cry? Me and OH think its colic/wind as he has done the same with a bottle of expressed milk as he does on the boob, poor lil man

Would it be worth giving him something like infacol to help with his wind? I was told they have to have that before each feed though and as he feeds every couple of hours I worry I'd be overdosing him on it!

 

[polaris]

I tried Infacol with my LO and it didn't help at all but other people swear by it so it is worth a try. I can't remember now but I think there is a guideline as to how many times a day you can give it, possibly 8 times a day but that could be wrong? Does anyone know? Thomas was feeding 15 or 16 times a day at that stage I think, so I didn't feel comfortable giving it before every feed. But as I said it didn't work for us, it did help him burp but it seemed to increase his digestive discomfort at the other end. We also tried gripe water which did sometimes seem to help a little bit. I also really increased the amount of time I spent winding him (up to an hour sometimes). It might help to try to feed him in a more upright position and keep him upright for 20 minutes after a feed, because a lot of windy babies have a touch of silent reflux which can be extremely uncomfortable for them. Also try lots of different winding positions as different ones work better for different babies. Is the wind disturbing his sleep as well? When my Thomas was very bad with wind I sometimes had to sleep him on his side because he just wouldn't settle. I also raised the head end of his basket a bit which definitely helped.

 

[JellyBeann]

I never used Infacol, so I don't know! I found that if I winded him then layed him down and sat him upright almost immediately afterwards, that used to help bring wind up!

 

[lynnikins]

Ive just checked my bottle of Infacol and it says just before every feed one dropper full or that for older babies you might need to double the dose. we used it for the first couple of months, what you have to do is use it then their bodies get used to it so you have to stop using it for 3-4 days to let their system's clear then start again,

 

[Nervous_1]

I don't think there is a limit to the number of times in a day that you can use it as it goes straight through their digestive system. I used it all the time with my LO til he was about 2 and a half months old and was starting to burp by himself.

I agree with the laying LO down and then sitting LO back up again fairly quickly - works wonders!