I can't feed my son
I wanted so badly to be a mom who could breastfeed their baby until they were 1 year old. I wanted my body to be able to do what it was meant to do. Before my son was born I actually started to produce a little colostrum and I was so excited, I thought I was on the right track.
My son was born c- section after getting stuck at 28 hours of labor but every bit of pain and exhaustion melted away when he was placed on my chest. He latched right away and I thought everything was going smoothly. However, no one tells you how stressful the hospital stay is after you give birth. Not only are you trying to heal, but you're doing so with nurses and doctors coming in every few hours...
the baby needing changing...
Baby needing to nurse...
You needing to eat..
but wait you need to pump every 2 hours...
But stay in bed with compression leg wraps attached to your legs...
Need to take your blood pressure...
change your monstrous pad that's leaking everywhere...
Oh its time to pump again...
hey your familie's here without any warning...
On top of all of that my son had moderate jaundice so no matter how often I pumped and nursed him he needed more so we had to formula feed him to supplement. I was crushed. I felt like a failure from the start. Luckily after about 2 weeks he was back to normal and gaining weight. I was nursing him and pumping between feedings to keep my supply up. I think the most I could get from 1 side was 4oz and that was after about 4-6 hours. We were still supplementing but only when running errands or when he was at his grandparents'.
Fast forward a few months and with his growing appetite we had to use more and more formula but I still pumped what I could. At 6 months now I can only get 2oz from BOTH sides at most. I am so heartbroken. I have tried EVERYTHING!! Fenugreek supplements, drink powders, water up to my nose, pumping every 2 hours, skin to skin. Nothing has helped. I don't know what to do.
Is my body telling me that Im done breastfeeding? Id hate to lose that bond my son and I have when he wakes in the middle of the night and I nurse him to sleep with what little I can make. That's when I feel the most helpful, useful, functional.
I wish my body worked like it was made to :'(
Has anyone else gone through this?
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Some people don't produce well with pumping but are making enough milk. We had to supplement with formula for a little while, but then I stopped bottle feeding and just nursed what felt like 1000 hours a day. At 6 months he can start solids, so keep putting him to the breast and also see what theFoods he's interested in
I had a VERY similar story to yours. I will repeat this - FED IS BEST.I tried to EBF for a month and she did not gain weight and continued to loose - despite my efforts with the hospital LC. I’m not sure if it was my pride or the encouragement from the LC that kept me from formula, but I kept trying to EBF. I added pumping, and triple fed to my misery until she was 8W, this helped slightly, but not enough. More LC’s, different strategy: lactation cookies, tea, herbs, different pumping schedule, and finally formula supplementation. Continued to pump until she. Was 12W and never produced more than 14oz. I started to freeze all but 2oz per day and now have a stash of 2oz per day until the end of March (flu season). My Christmas gift to myself was to stop pumping. I’m certain upon reflection that the whole situation gave me PPD. It was truly the most miserable experience of my life.Feed your baby. Fed is best, not breast.My baby loves me so much, and that I feed her formula now doesn’t change that.
I went through this with my first and I felt like a terrible mother for a long time. My first was severely tongue tied and had latching issues. The lactation consultant at the hospital was awful. After 2 days of trying and him screaming in hunger because he couldn't latch and we tried a variety of things the lactation consultant blamed me and finally gave me a pump but I was so bruised from the attempts to latch and I could not produce anything. My son was formula fed and I just felt like the worst mother in the world like I could have done something different. I also had an emergency csection and couple that with it being my first baby I was overwhelmed. My son is 5 and he is smart and strong. Fed is best and as moms we do the best we can and please do not be too hard on yourself.
I have the same problem we had a rough birth my son was dehydrated at home not having enough diapers and dry lips so I had to formula feed he didn't latch until 3 months and he is now 9 months. I still breastfeed but have also had to use formula to supplement all 9 months to keep me going I just think that even if I give him 2-4 ounces of breastmilk a day it is better than nothing that keeps me going and makes me feel better about nursing. Everyday I think it might be our last day to nurse because I have so little milk. Dont worry about not having that connection bc even feeding baby a bottle you look at babies eyes and sing or talk and it is still a great experience.
Putting the baby to the breast is the best thing you can do to increase supply. Pumps are not as efficient as baby. You will never pump as much as baby can get while nursing. Some women just don’t respond as well to a pump either. Also, sometimes breastfeeding supplements can actually cause your supply to decrease. I’d ditch the supplements and try to get baby to nurse as much as possible!
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