Please, a little help and advice??

[Srrme]

Elias came home on the 15th - on a monitor, and oxygen for when he feeds. I have been worrying non-stop. I've been trying to exclusively breastfeed, but he only feeds for 5 minutes at a time sometimes, and I'm worried that's not enough. I'm making less milk than before now that he's breastfeeding, so I'm not sure if I should continue pumping to keep my supply from dropping too low.

He's been very, very sleepy today, and I've had to wake him up multiple times to "force" feed him - I even caved in and gave him EBM in a bottle because he would not breastfeed longer than a few minutes. The Nurse came this morning and said he looked good, but he hasn't acted like this since he came home! Should I be worried that he's too sleepy now? These past few days he's woken me up to feed him, but now all he wants to do is sleep.

He's having multiple wet diapers, and occasional dirty ones (he's on iron, so it takes him a while.) I'm scared he'll become dehydrated at this rate.

 

[25weeker]

My lo used to get days when she was sleepier than usual and I can remember panicking but she would be back to normal after a day or two.

At the beginning it is very stressful breastfeeding as you constantly worry are they getting enough but I promise over time you do learn to relax. A baby gets milk from the breast much easier than a pump so in 5 mins he is probably getting more than you think. Provided he keeps having wet nappies then he is getting enough. Breastfed babies sometimes do not poo as much because the milk is so easily absorbed it doesn't leave much wastage. My lo went every 4 days.

Until I felt confident my lo was getting enough milk I expressed once a day and gave her a bottle of EBM at night but I wouldn't over express as when you stop you will be very uncomfortable. Your lo will work to increase your supply when he needs it.

Your milk works on supply and demand and after a while you lose the engorged feeling but it doesn't mean your milk has dropped. I think after around 10 weeks I stopped feeling engorged and even now I think I would have to go a full day without feeding before I would start to get uncomfortable.

When my lo started solely breastfeeding it took 6 days for her to start gaining weight.

Hopefully tomorrow he will be back to normal and in 6 months time you will wonder where did those days go when he slept loads!

 

[michellebrook]

My DS has just started taking some of his feeds and has not gained any weight in the last 3 days....scares me stupid.
He still needs oxygen for his feeds in NICU...in our ward they release babies on a minimum of 0.1 oxygen which is higher than he has ever needed. How did you manage to get oxygen just for feeds and with a monitor?
All the best

 

[corrie anne]

While you can pump more than baby can eat, when you take the baby to breast, he will eat what he wants. He can be a fast eater. When i first put Avery to breast she only ate 7 mins total and the nurse said that was not good but the pedi said that she is little and she wont eat a lot. I was worried b/c if she did not gain anything from me nursing her than she would not be going home the next day. But sure enough she did. The thing about breasting is there is no measurements so you can never know how much they will eat. My supply went down too but that is b/c we were pumping more than baby was eating. This is very normal and it should not effect your supply in the long run, if you are still worried, i would pump an extra 5-10 minutes on each breast to get you supply back up for extra milk later.