Frustrated and ready to give up

Kelly

I'm a first time mom and had/have what I thought were pretty realistic expectations of what to expect from my 5-day old newborn and breastfeeding. The first couple times I didn't think anything was wrong, but by the 2nd 24 hours, I was blistering and now over the last couple days the blisters have scabbed, and resulted in cracked, bloody nipples for a couple hours when she tried to feed. We've since started pumping and bottle feeding with formula supplementation because I'm not producing enough (at least I don't think I am) to support an 8+ lb baby at this point.

Now, if I can get her to latch at all without me or her ending up an emotional wreck and both sobbing when my husband comes in, she feeds for maybe 5 min, 10 at the most, and passes out into a coma that is more powerful than the boob. So then I pump, but she's hungry in a hour, but then I'm empty and the whole cycle starts again. I've waited until she was crying to feed, waited to feed until lip smacking, and every option in between to try and get her to nurse longer. In the hospital she was successfully nursing for 15 min at a time, but that's all gone now

Nursing exclusively isn't an option as I'm the "breadwinner" and will need to work unless I hit the jackpot and can find a job working from home, but I was hoping to nurse way more than I am right now. I have a lactation appointment today, but at this point, I'm so discouraged and frustrated and worried I'm starving my child and never know how much she's actually getting. It seems like a huge mountain to climb to get where we need to be. My mother, who was super successful at breastfeeding and never used a pacifier, which we've had to because my daughter wants to be on my boob all the time, is trying to be supportive, but she's not due to a lot of emotional baggage floating around.

Every time my daughter is not successful in nursing or it takes me and my husband 45 min to get her to latch, I feel like an absolute failure of a mom.