If you're nursing, how's it going? Any troubles we could help each other work through?
Most of the time, I am very grateful I have an ample breastmilk supply. I've never had to worry about having enough milk. But damn engorgement really sucks! My boobs are so damn sensitive. DD is 6m and has been waking MOTN b/c of teething for a few days. That handful of extra feedings has apparently told my breasts to make ALL THE MILK. I was literally painfully engorged all day today. I'm currently doing her 11pm dream feed, and I'm STILL engorged from when I woke up at 6am. Jeez boobs, simmer down now!
Oh gosh...I wish I had engorgement problems. I am going on 6 months and am barely making enough each day. This is the longest I've gone. My other 2 I was done at 3 and 4 months due to supply issues (barely pumped 8 oz a day). DD latch has gotten lazy and she's had a shallow latch so I am a little sore. We are going out of town in a month and I don't have enough frozen for the time I'm gone so I'll need to supplement. Hope she likes formula. Makes me nervous!!
an update to that: I exclusively pumped through the weekend to give the nipples a break. I nursed one session today with little to no pain, the second session I cut short and gave a bottle the rest of that session due to some pain and did bottles the rest of the time. Slathering nipples in coconut oil and letting them hang out to open air as much as possible.
Called my OB today to get a script for APNO and see LC tomorrow morning. I'm hoping we can wean from pumping and more breast sessions as the nipples heal and hopefully the reflux will be under control to prevent further damage.
Post by scribellesam on Sept 14, 2015 23:07:29 GMT -5
DS2 is nearly 11.5mo and I'm starting to think about a plan to wean over the next 6 weeks or so. I can't remember what I did with DS1. Night wean first? Or drop a day feed? I have about 10oz of frozen BM, a weeks worth of formula, and WCM. How to combine to make for the easiest switch over?
I think I'm ready to be done but the process is overwhelming me.
We're at 18m and counting. I'm trying to decide when to quit. We're down to 1-2 sessions a day (morning, sometimes evening) and most of the time I'm okay with that, but sometimes I feel like he's really aggressive and angry with me because I won't give in at other times during the day. I know there will be an adjustment period if I force wean, but could I have my sweet kid back in a month or so? I just want to be able to sit on the floor and play or read books without him grabbing my shirt or hitting me when I say no
Mostly I'm really bummed because this doesn't seem to be coming to a natural end. I really wanted weaning to be baby led, but our lifestyle and my current feelings contradict that. I have all the feelings about it.
Post by hbomdiggity on Sept 14, 2015 23:17:10 GMT -5
DS is 12 weeks. Up until this past week I've had a great supply. But either my supply is dipping (scared my period will return) or he is hitting a grow spurt because I am barely keeping up. He went from 4-5 hrs between feelings to 2.5-3. My boobs just don't seem as full as they did before.
My biggest issue right now is with Os bottom lip, he doesn't open all that wide so his latch is not as deep as I would like.
Also he is not loving bottles. We've tried a bunch of different brands and he'll do fine for a feeding or two but then totally reject it the next time and push the nipple out with his tongue and get furious. I need my kid to take a bottle. Help! We've tried Avent, Tommie Tippee, Playtex, Medela and Mam. The ones he will occasionally tolerate are Avent, TT and Mam. I have a fairly fast let down so I've tried faster nipples so it's more like the breast but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Suggestions?
DS is 12 weeks. Up until this past week I've had a great supply. But either my supply is dipping (scared my period will return) or he is hitting a grow spurt because I am barely keeping up. He went from 4-5 hrs between feelings to 2.5-3. My boobs just don't seem as full as they did before.
Is he your first? That sounds right to me-- lots of babies hit growth spurts between 3-4 months and get really clingy. And that's also the time when your body kind of figures everything out so you don't get as much enforcement/full feeling. Hang in there!
Ds2 is 2 weeks and eats like a pig. I'm leaking everywhere--I had an oversupply with DS1 and seems like we are headed down that path again.
Post by redpenmama on Sept 14, 2015 23:26:40 GMT -5
DS will be 21 months this week, and we are still going strong. He is asking for it less, and I am just going with it. I don't think he will self-wean before I am ready to wean, but I hope that we can get down to sleep-associated nursing between now and then. I intend to wean him by the end of the year, when he turns 2. I'm a little burnt out on it, to be honest, and we'd like to start TTC by next spring, and I still haven't gotten a period, so I will likely have to wean to jumpstart my fertility.
My biggest issue right now is with Os bottom lip, he doesn't open all that wide so his latch is not as deep as I would like.
Also he is not loving bottles. We've tried a bunch of different brands and he'll do fine for a feeding or two but then totally reject it the next time and push the nipple out with his tongue and get furious. I need my kid to take a bottle. Help! We've tried Avent, Tommie Tippee, Playtex, Medela and Mam. The ones he will occasionally tolerate are Avent, TT and Mam. I have a fairly fast let down so I've tried faster nipples so it's more like the breast but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Suggestions?
we've had great luck with dr brown's bottles.
are you warmig the bottles? perhaps try whatever you arent doing regarding temp of milk.
My biggest issue right now is with Os bottom lip, he doesn't open all that wide so his latch is not as deep as I would like.
Also he is not loving bottles. We've tried a bunch of different brands and he'll do fine for a feeding or two but then totally reject it the next time and push the nipple out with his tongue and get furious. I need my kid to take a bottle. Help! We've tried Avent, Tommie Tippee, Playtex, Medela and Mam. The ones he will occasionally tolerate are Avent, TT and Mam. I have a fairly fast let down so I've tried faster nipples so it's more like the breast but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Suggestions?
we've had great luck with dr brown's bottles.
are you warmig the bottles? perhaps try whatever you arent doing regarding temp of milk.
We are but I'm pretty sure they're not body temp. We've also tried cold and room temp.
I've heard good things about Dr. Browns. I've just been avoiding biting the bullet on buying more bottles.
Post by turtlegirl on Sept 15, 2015 0:22:33 GMT -5
DD is almost 3 weeks and overall things are going pretty well. My engorgement has settled down a bit, but I still leak quite a bit, so I always have to have nursing pads in and have double them up overnight.
We've done bottle feed twice now and she seems to do okay with it. It's our anniversary on Sunday, so my mom and step dad offered to watch all the kids so DH and I can go out to dinner alone. So hopefully she'll take a bottle easily for my mom.
DD is 8 weeks and fairly attached to me most of the day unless she's asleep. Things are going well though I think for the most part, but I have been using a nipple shield to feed her and it's kind of annoying (for me).
It started because she had a bad/shallow latch and wouldn't stay on, then we had to bottle feed her pumped milk her first week due to borderline jaundice. I got her back on my boob with the shield which was great, and she's gaining weight great. But it's annoying for me to always have it, placing it and replacing it when she bats it away accidentally. I keep trying to give her my nipple alone and she won't do it. Either refuses altogether, or tries a few times, sucks, unlatches, or sits and cries or screams at me.
I'm going to ask about a referral for a dentist at our 2 month appt next week because I think part of it is her lip tie. Lactation consultant said she has a little of both lip and tongue tie, combined with my short nipples and isn't sure that work done on DD will ultimately help, since she still opens up wide when latching, but has encouraged me to keep trying without the shield.
Any suggestions or support on that would be great.
My biggest issue right now is with Os bottom lip, he doesn't open all that wide so his latch is not as deep as I would like.
Also he is not loving bottles. We've tried a bunch of different brands and he'll do fine for a feeding or two but then totally reject it the next time and push the nipple out with his tongue and get furious. I need my kid to take a bottle. Help! We've tried Avent, Tommie Tippee, Playtex, Medela and Mam. The ones he will occasionally tolerate are Avent, TT and Mam. I have a fairly fast let down so I've tried faster nipples so it's more like the breast but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Suggestions?
DD hates bottles too, the only one she tolerates are the Munchkin Latch ones. She's still fussy but will take the bottle at least.
Post by longtimenopost on Sept 15, 2015 1:44:57 GMT -5
DD is 2 weeks. My supply came back well (just weaned sister when I got pg, so no engorgement-yay!) I'm a little worried about her latch because she takes in a lot of air and isn't a great burper, but she's gaining well and not having spit ups and more importantly, my nipples feel fine so I'm just going to KOKO.
K is 11 months and change and nurses every 2.5-3 hours during the day and once MOTN. H started doing night wake ups around Labor Day to help with night weaning as it was getting to be 3x per night wake up and she just wanted to latch and go right back to sleep.
I have no plans to fully wean soon. I don't think she's ready and I'm willing to nurse until she's 2. I would like to gradually cut back to just morning/nap/bedtime nursing after her birthday in October.
Also, we sign "milk" before she nurses and just last week she made the sign to me for the first time to ask to nurse and then clapped when I unhooked my top. It was really cute!
Thankfully going so much easier than the first few months. Minimal clogging, hallelujah! DS will be 7 months tomorrow.
Just trying to decide when to quit. I'm thinking year end-ish at this point. i have a freezer full of milk, so we should have more than enough to get past a year old. It would be nice for him to have breast milk through another winter, but I just really don't want to pump that long. I need to get my life back.
DD2 is 3 months. This is my second week back to work and so far so good. Like last time, my body doesn't respond well to the pump and I really don't have time to pump more than 10-15 mins at a session, but milk seems to stop flowing consistently around the 10 minute mark. I pump usually for 3-5 more minutes and try to get a second let-down but no luck so far. Seems to be the same when nursing DD so it may be that I'm drained at that point. I have a hard and fast let-down in both instances. DD still chokes much of the time because of it, which I feel bad about. Not sure of my goals at this point. I nursed DD1 until her first birthday and she had no formula until I started weaning at about 10 months. But I was teaching then and was able to stop pumping at 9 months. She was only in daycare once a day 9-12 months so I just did formula when I ran out of frozen milk. This time I have a FT job and no summer off. Plus my job is way more demanding so pumping has already proven to be tough to fit in throughout the day. Making it work the best I can. I just think I will have to supplement sooner this time.
I do think I may have a slight case of thrush again, so sjh722 I feel your pain. Grapefruit seed extract is awesome. You should buy some and add it to your rinse cycle and use it in DD's mouth and on your nips. I made a solution of 15 drops to 1 ounce of water. I use a qtip to wipe DD's tongue a few times a day and wipe my nipples after each feed. Works really well. Eta edited for typos. I should really not type during MOTN feelings haha
Post by polarbearfans on Sept 15, 2015 4:55:48 GMT -5
I have a bad oversupply and forceful letdown :/ block feeding got it under control but then baby decided she needed to nurse constantly and it's back worse than ever.
We had an appointment with the lactation consultant yesterday. Her sucking did not get evaluated properly because in 10 minutes, even with me pulling her off several times, she took in over 5 ounces (weight was after two large spitups!). Had I known my oversupply was back in such a bad way I would have pumped prior. I had her nurse from the same side as early so it was less full but both sides filled fast. It didn't seem like she was gulping or getting a ton but apparently she did.
I woke up today in so much pain from the engorgement. Apparently my body goes all in. Want less supply, ok no milk for anyone; want more, enough milk for 20 babies. I'm hoping for a good middle ground. The problem is she doesn't suck well which was the whole point of the appointment yesterday. To do some CST and work on helping her learn to work her tongue post-revision. Because she got so much milk she was a screaming baby the whole time and very little was accomplished.
DS is 11 months. My plan is to quit nursing during the day over the next several weeks (so that I can quit pumping at work) and keep nursing morning and night. But most days she still nurses 3-4 times during the day, so I'm not sure how it will go.
I cut back to pumping 2 times at work yesterday. I've had supply issues and have been obsessive about not running out of milk before her first birthday, but I finally said screw it, the worst case scenario is we introduce WCM a week or two before she turns 1, which is no big deal at all. So that was kind of freeing.
Post by water*drop on Sept 15, 2015 5:54:05 GMT -5
DS is just shy of 4 months. It's going okay. He's DD's polar opposite in every way, so it's been really weird. She was so attached to nursing, and he will only nurse when he's starving. He also doesn't like bottles (so I guess they have that in common), but he weighed almost 16 lbs at 2 months, so obviously he's getting enough despite me feeling like he never eats. Right now he's super congested, so that makes it even worse because he's so fussy at the breast on the rare occasion that he even wants to eat. I nursed DD until she self-weaned at over 2.5,but now I'm having to really fight to want to keep nursing at all because I feel like DS just doesn't want to do it. *-) I think I'm just subconsciously prepping myself for him to self-wean really early, and I'm having all kinds of feelings about it.
polarbearfans Hang in there! I'm on the app and can't see how old your baby is, but I had major oversupply and forceful letdown with DS. He also had a tongue tie revised at five days old.
I worked with a LC on block feeding and it helped. There was a big improvement in my supply regulating at 8 weeks and things got much easier at 12 weeks.
He was routinely feeding for just 5-6 minutes and getting 4oz at weighted feeds. He couldn't do much comfort nursing because he'd get too much and spit up
Some days I feel like I'm over it and other days I still enjoy it. DD is still super in to it and will suck for an hour if I let her. I'm not sure whether to try to wean before baby 2 arrives. I am theoretically open to tandem nursing, but I also had oversupply and engorgement issues when DD was tiny so IDK if nursing two at once would send my boobs into overdrive or what. We still have a few months to decide I guess!
DS is 2.5 months old. I was dealing with oversupply a few weeks ago, so I stopped pumping after nursing and did some block feeding. My supply has gone down, but now I worry it went too far down. DS has been sleeping longer stretches at night (knock on wood), so I've also been nursing less in the MOTN. He went 7 hours the other night and I wasn't engorged at all. I think I'm going to start pumping once a morning so I can freeze some milk.
DS3 will be two weeks tomorrow and we are doing well. We had some trouble initially with cracks and bleeding, but I've been using a nipple shield and am healed now. I think I'm going to keep using the shield for a few more weeks until he's bigger, then work on ditching it.
I have a ton of milk right now, and I've been pumping 1-2x/day and putting it in the freezer. I have 33oz so far. I bought the Spectra S2 and I actually look forward to using it, that's how nice it is. I hope to be able to donate some milk this time around. One of our big downtown hospitals has a donation program for its preemies.
Post by undecidedowl on Sept 15, 2015 7:45:59 GMT -5
DS2 is 10 months old. We are doing ok at moment. Nursing has been much more painful this go around due to his bad/weak latch and tendency toward biting. It's a good thing @supergreen and I already have all the biting tips because DS2 bites alll the time, especially during his endless teething.
As far as pumping, I'm kind of over it although I remind myself the break at work is nice. I have tons of milk in the freezer even after donating so I'm not sure how much longer I will pump. I'll probably still go to at least a year so that I can donate a bunch more.
DS is 11 months. My plan is to quit nursing during the day over the next several weeks (so that I can quit pumping at work) and keep nursing morning and night. But most days she still nurses 3-4 times during the day, so I'm not sure how it will go.
I cut back to pumping 2 times at work yesterday. I've had supply issues and have been obsessive about not running out of milk before her first birthday, but I finally said screw it, the worst case scenario is we introduce WCM a week or two before she turns 1, which is no big deal at all. So that was kind of freeing.
You may not be interested, but I was able to continue nursing during the day when I was with DS and not have to pump at work. I'm not sure how much milk he was getting but he seemed satisfied and it was easy for me. I just slowly weaned off the pump during work days and continued nursing as usual when we were together.
DD will be 8 months next week and we're still doing it. Though to be fair, I'm starting to feel like I'm done. I cannot lose any weight while breastfeeding - I've even put on 6 lbs since my low point PP. WTF body. I feel pretty confident it's the breastfeeding, b/c every time I try to exercise or eat less, my supply dips pretty significantly. Also I hate pumping. HATE IT.
But I know I'd feel terrible if I quit, so I'm sticking with it for now. She definitely gets comfort from breastfeeding, especially falling to sleep and for her MOTN/early morning feed, and I'd hate to drop that. Plus now she can actually use her hand and put my boob in her mouth myself and that's just lovely. And I love the bonding time. So I'd like to get her to 12 months and then start weaning. Also I want to get pregnant again ASAP and we need to do IVF to get there, so I couldn't nurse her through that.
Also she's really dropped off on her intake, but I'm trying to bring that back up. I think it's a little too soon, but the girl just loves food.