I failed.... :(

[princess_vix]

I've been breastfeeding Ryan religiously since day he was born...but last night he was screaming and screaming..past few days he's been unsettled.

But his cry was in distress..unforutnately i didn't think..ah food as he'd been on the boob so much that night and just before i'd put him down.
I worried something was wrong as RTyan is never like that and usually so contented..

Then mum made him some milk cos i'd walked away for five cos i couldn't hear him so upset and pparently he glugged it

My boobs aren't producing enough milk for my baby...i feel so friggin awful..like a failure..my baby must've been starving.

so now i'm bottle feeding...so girlys thanks for all your help in here and goodluck everyone with breastfeeding your doing fantasticly well

 

[vicwick]

If you still wanted to carry on hun its not too late? its very rare that a woman cannot produce enough milk!!! Your milk supply will not be established yet so baby just needs to suck as often as he wants to get your supply exacylt where bubs needs it. They pretty much feed constantly for the first few weeks. Up to you hun but if you did wanna carry on you could, just cos he's had formula doesn't mean its the end of BF

 

[Mervs Mum]

^^^^ I agree. You havent failed at all just because you gave 1 top up!!

 

[thelilbump]

i agree with the above posts too.

You're not a failure babe

 

[Lu28]

Oh honey you're not a failure at all! It'll just take a while for your supply to sort itself out. I felt exactly the same a few weeks ago, Aisling was crying straight after a feed and DH suggested we try a bottle of formula and she glugged it down. I got really upset that I couldn't feed her too, it's only natural. But since then my supply seems to have caught up and she hasn't had formula in 2 weeks.

You have to do whatever is right for you but if you would still like to breastfeed, it's not too late. Big

 

[lollylou1]

im not a breast feeder hun but you havent failed. i agree with what they others say about you continuing if you wat to or you could always do both.

good luck hun

Lou
xxx

 

[princess_vix]

I'm still expressing atm..but i think it's the end tbh..i expressed on full bobbs this morning and did both and only got 2 oz.

With formula he drinks atleast 9 oz

But in a good way it'll give me a little more freedom but m still expressing sometimes also

Thanks girls x

 

[thelilbump]

you'll be able to express more as time goes on. I know thta doesn't help in the immediate time tho. I remember when i first expressed i got about 50mls in half an hour! it gradually got easier, i can do about 3oz in my sleep now in about 10 minutes and i'm not a regular expresser!

 

[hypnorm]

I'm still expressing atm..but i think it's the end tbh..i expressed on full bobbs this morning and did both and only got 2 oz.

With formula he drinks atleast 9 oz

But in a good way it'll give me a little more freedom but m still expressing sometimes also

Thanks girls x

Never rely on expressing to tell you how much milk you have. i have expressed in a morning on full boobs and only got 2 oz or 4 if i was really lucky!
it could have been a growth spurt that he was sucking constantly, at 3 weeks your supply isnt regulated its self, you just have to sit and feed as offten as you can, but you haven failed!

Good luck it what ever you decide to do, you could always combine feed,

 

[Mervs Mum]

It's very soon to be expressing hun. Do you know the main reason it's not advised before at least 6 weeks? It's because mum's gte it in their head that they dont have enough milk when they see the piddling amount that they pump. It took me weeks of pumping AFTER BF was established to get 4oz in a sitting - WEEKS!! Do not judge his intake by your pumping. IMO that's what's making you think that you dont have enough. only 1% of ALL women truely cant keep up with demand. Most think they cant because of the strong bottle feeding influence of amounts. Before formula was invented noone had any idea about how many oz a baby took!! Formula is only 100 years old and human babies have survived on BM alone for hundres of thousands of years.

At the end of the day if it's not for you then that's fair enough and your right to stop but IMO it's highly unlikely to be your supply.

 

[ajarvis]

I agree definitely don't go by what you're pumping! With my first I'd feed on one side and the other would just pour milk almost the entire time. But if I pumped I'd only get a couple ounces sometimes 3, but not often! weird, but pumping never matched to what I new he was eating!

 

[Samantha675]

It is soo much easier to get milk out of a bottle than a boob, so that is probably why he ate so much so fast, he is used to working for his supper, and doesn't know the difference between boob and bottle.

As the others have said, pumping will not net the same results that a baby can. A baby was made to nurse, and pumping is an artificial action that your breasts are not going to respond to in the same way.

One bottle does not make you a failure at all love!!!

 

[marley2580]

He's the right age for a growth spurt as well hun.

 

[vicwick]

I just wanted to add too hun that he's probably not used to gettin his milk so fast so he's glugging that formula really quick before he has a chance to realise he's full, when i gave Alfie a bottle at just a couple weeks old (before i met my wonderful peer supporters and LC) he took about 5 oz but my supply is more that enough for him, he's a lottle podger now haha Also BM is higher in calories so bubs actually needs less than he would formula. Hope everything works out for you