Mixed feeding problems...I feel like I'm winging it and losing it!

[maisemoo]

Hey, I'm having a bit of a rough time with feeding...when my baby was born she latched on well and was sucking away happily for the first day and night (constantly) but by day 2 my nipples were so sore they bled! I was exhausted as I birthed through the night and then she didn't sleep during the 1st night at all... It was then suggested I top up with formular with a cup so she wouldn't reject my nipple. Feeding a righly newborn from a cup was a nightmare!
Finally day 3 a Breastfeeding specialist came to see me and decided my LO is tongue tied which means she's only sucking on the nipple and not the areola.
Anyway, because the midwives thought I had feeding probs they kept me in for 4 miserable days and nights saying they were worried she would loose weight...
So I finally got home and felt much better! To be honest since being home she had had a mixture of bottle formular/bottled expressed milk and some BF. and she was weighed yesterday (6days old) and had put on 100gs!
We have an appointment to correct the tongue tie on Tuesday so fingers crossed that will work.
In the mean time I would like to up my expressing and drop the formular all together but the problem is even if I give her a bottle with the same amount of breast milk and formular, the formular will settle her but the breast milk just doesn't satisfy! I know the formular sits heavier in their tummies and makes them sleep better and I wonder if she's just got a lazy and milk drunk?
I'm also struggling so much with the lack of sleep...as I said I laboured through the night and then my LO had a rough birth and chomped on my nipples for the next 2 nights and I spent 4 nights on a busy loud ward in tears so I'm exhausted and at times when I can't feed and settler her I feel like I'm losing it!
Any advice??

 

[NoodleSnack]

Do you have anyone who can help you? Maybe you can ask another person to give the express bm so you can have a longer stretch of sleep then it would not be that bad even if she doesn't settle as long? If your nipple is badly damaged maybe a nipple shield will help? You need to protect your supply and I'm not sure if expressing alone is enough. Whenever you can, put on lansinoh mixed with bm and leave your breast bare to help it heal faster. I think the first priority is that you catch up on sleep and feel better then you'll be in a better position to get back to ebf if that's your goal. It's still going to be a very hard weeks and maybe months ahead but it really can be done, one day it will become easy and you'll be happy with your decision to stay with it.

 

[Jinnah]

I agree that expressing might not be enough. The only times I've heard of it being enough is if you use a hospital grade pump. You need someone to help you so you can rest! Do you have someone? I would try to breastfeed as often as possible. Make sure you use some lanolin made for breastfeeding on your nipples. This REALLY helped me a lot. Let us know if you need anymore help!