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@ElbieKay: I actually tried this last night bc my boobs just hurt too much to face nursing at her 2am feed time. So I pumped for 20 min and got 55ml... And the doc said she should be eating about 60ml per meal. So I added 15 ml from my stash for a total of 70... Thought a bigger meal might make her happy. So I woke her up and bottle fed her the 70ml and she finished screaming/rooting. She clearly wanted to nurse. Sigh. After 10 min I couldn't take the crying so I gave in and nursed her and she was asleep less than 10 min later.
Sigh. So bottle feeding seems like sort of a fail.. I feel like maybe she does want to nurse all the time but it's less about food than comfort? Bc according to the doc 70ml should have more than filled her up.
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@Mae: Have you considered a paci? I was mildly against them but caved when my son clearly needed to comfort suck and my nipples couldn't take it. I was worried he would get addicted but he completely lost interest at 3 weeks. It might be worth considering.
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Also, maybe try feeding her more to see what happens? Most likely the worst case is a fountain of spitup but at least you'll have a better idea of her capacity.
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@Mae: mine nursed all the time when she was a newborn - like most of the day when she wasn't in a deep sleep she was nursing. She still nurses a ton at 11 months. some babies are just really nursy I think. re: one breast at a time - I used to worry about switching them up, but then I decided to abandon trying to do that because I was stressing myself out about time and foremilk and so forth, and just started giving them a quick squeeze to see which one is the fullest and then starting her on that one the next time. I don't think offering one or both breasts matters as much as it seems to in the beginning, so I would do what makes sense to you.
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@ElbieKay: we keep trying to give her a paci but she doesn't really like it. Sometimes she will suck on it for like 5 min but usually just spits it out right away.
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@Mae: just saw your last post about the bottle with 55 mls. I converted it so I could think in oz and saw that is was 1.89 oz. I had a lot of problems BFin because LO had a tongue and lip tie which wasn't diagnosed by the LC that I saw *multiple* times a week at a bf support group and I even paid for her to come to my house. The ties weren't discovered until my LO was almost 6 weeks and by the time I could get an appt, she was 2 months old and she could never recover and learn the correct latch.
In any case, because of her latch issues, I pumped from the beginning and LO was eating 2-4 oz at 2.5 weeks old (every 2-3 hours). By a month old she was drinking 4 oz every 3 hours and my LO is in the 20's for weight percentiles so she's not even a big eater.
http://www.parents.com/baby/feeding/bottlefeeding/breast-milk-in-a-bottle/
So I feel like 55 ml might not be enough to fill her up....regardless of your ped's concerns....mine also wasn't concerned when my Los weight percentiles were dropping but I'd heard from friends that our Ped waits until it's a serious weight issue and then tells moms to switch to formula. I didn't want to go down that road, so I stayed on top of her weight gain from the beginning because I knew LOs latch was off (the pain was unbearable) and I wanted to protect my supply.
Hang in there!
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Maybe try a few different types of pacis? DS only likes the soothie. In the hospital we didn't have it though and I used my finger to give my nipples a break!
Good luck doll. Sending your nipples healing thoughts!
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@Anagram: I'll be so curious to see how the weighted feed goes Monday. I talked on the phone to a lc last week and was worried about my supply but she said babies are so much more efficient at getting milk out that if I'm pumping 50 ml she is likely getting much more. But maybe not if she is having issues!! The pain has gotten so much worse in the last day and it is so frustrating. I feel like what is going on with us has got to be outside the bounds if normal. I don't think I'm just a wuss! I rated back labor contractions at a 7 and I'd rate this latch pain at a 9. Sigh. Breastfeeding is hard.
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@Mae: I had a lot of breastfeeding pain for 8 weeks. Then it magically disappeared. Lots of people said it would get better by 6-8 weeks but it was hard to believe them when I was going through it. I encourage you to hang in there if breastfeeding is important to you, and to consider supplementing with formula if it's just too much and making you miserable. I never started with formula, but in hindsight I'm not sure if that was the right decision given how miserable I was.
I never allowed him to nurse for more than 15-20 minutes on one side due to the discomfort. He would do damage to my nipples so I had to ration time at the breast. But he didn't protest too much if I pulled him off after eating, and he was always a big baby and around 90% for weight so I didn't have to worry about him eating enough. If he'd been as desperate to comfort suck as your daughter seems to be, then I really don't know what I would have done. (Haha, I'm sure that's really helpful "advice"!)
I will say that in hindsight, most of the time that he was upset and we couldn't figure out why, it turned out to be that he was hungry. He did also have some digestion discomfort for awhile. It would start a few minutes after eating and last maybe 20-30 minutes. Things that helped: Bouncing on the yoga ball and bicycling his legs (not simultaneously, in case that was not obvious).
Here is a thread I started when I was still in the throes of my breastfeeding angst. A lot of other people discussed their experiences too so maybe it will be helpful to you:
http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/i-hate-breast-feeding
I'm not sure if any of this is helpful information, but I went through something similar and thought you might
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