I feel like I'm doing this wrong.

[prettybirdy27]

My LO will stay on the breast for an hour or more. She takes breaks in there, and we'll switch breasts once or twice just to make sure. I almost never break the latch, I let her do it once she's done.

The problem is that she never seems to be satisfied at the breast. Even if she turns away from both breasts multiple times, and even if we're at it for over an hour at a time, she'll always start hungry scream-crying shortly after we're done. Then I'll mix up some formula and give her that, and she's almost immediately happy.

Why is she never satisfied at the breast? I don't understand at all. I feel like I'd have to have her nursing for 24 hours straight to satisfy her, but it gets really discouraging when she turns away from the breast multiple times.

Am I doing something wrong? I'm okay with supplementing her with formula; we're doing mostly breast milk but we've talked it over with my doctor and decided we're fine with mostly breastmilk and supplementing with formula. But I don't understand why she'll keep turning away if she's not satisfied. She'll turn away from each breast half a dozen times during each nursing - she'll turn away, and I'll wait a few minutes for her to start rooting around and giving hunger cues and then put her back on.

I worked with a lactation consultant for four hours the day we left the hospital, and she told me that I'm just plain behind in my milk production and she told me that's generally bad news. When I sit down to pump, which I do at least twice a day, I get usually 4 oz out of the right and 2 oz out of the left. However I just pumped for longer than usual and I still only got 3 oz out of one and 1 oz out of the other. Does that sound normal? The LC told me that I'm just plain behind in my production. Could that be why she always turns away from nursing - there just isn't enough milk there to keep her satisfied?

The LC also said something to me that scared me a lot - she said if the baby isn't getting what they need from you, they waste more energy trying to nurse than they get from your milk. I'm afraid I'm exhausting her. We have plenty - more than plenty - dirty and wet diapers, so I know she's getting enough input, it's just that at least 1/3 of it, maybe more, is formula, after I've tried sometimes for hours to nurse her.

Basically - is there something I'm doing wrong?! Help!

 

[lau86]

my LO is the same, she can seem very fussy too but a lot of it is them cluster feeding to increase your supply. As long as they're gaining weight, weeing and pooing it's fine. How much you pump doesn't indicate whether you have a good supply or not, I never get much out when I pump but I fed my first two at the breast pretty much exclusively so I must have had enough milk.
If she is turning away, could she be gassy and need burping?
Doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong to me! With the formula, even if she is having 1/3 formula I'm guessing she wouldn't be gaining weight if your breasts were really not producing enough? I imagine if you wean off the formula you would be fine but that's all your choice. She probably seems satisfied after having the formula as its a bit more heavy on their stomachs.

 

[ElmaWG]

I agree with everything lua said. The amount youre pumping sounds reasonable for such a small baby, and babies get get more milk out than a pump anyways. My son will often turn away from the breast when he has gotten all the "easy" milk. You could call it laziness. I think it must be frustrating after a let-down when the milk flows so freely, for them to have to work for it. When DS fusses towards the end of a feeding like this, I will manually express a little into his mouth, and tasting the milk usually gets him latched on and actively sucking again. Might be worth a try for you.

 

[staralfur]

Sounds totally normal. My LO was basically feeding 24 hours a day at that age! Sounds like you're pumping quite a bit as well.

Just keep her on the breast whenever you can, she's trying to build your supply, so the more she sucks the more you'll produce. They often get fussy if the milk isn't coming out as quickly as they'd like, but keep trying to get her to latch on.

It will calm down once your supply regulates and things will get easier and less stressful.

 

[stormcloud96]

I'm new to this whole thing, but if it helps, mine will also bounce off and get fussy especially with my right boob, she prefers the left... Anyway one time after feeding just to check I got 100 mL out of my right, and both of them leak all over the place, so I don't think it's lack of supply necessarily or even how easy it is for them. It can be so many different things... it seems anyway.