So good being able to share stories like this, makes me feel more sane!! =p Saw my health visitor today and she was fine with me doing both boob and bottle, she suggested I try feeding him every 2hrs during the day on my boob to try and encourage my milk supply to increase if I wanted to breast feed him more. So I am going to give it a go from tomorrow as he has been a grumpy boy today and hasn't got the patience to latch on properly. Had the worst night we have had with him so far last night as he just would not settle, and when he did it would be for one or two hours max and then he would be crying again. After feeds, nappy changes, being winded etc he still was unhappy and would only fall asleep when lying on his tummy on my chest. Gets to the stage were you don't care do you and will do anything for them if it means you can have an hour or twos kip! Keep telling myself that he has only been out of my tummy for 12 days so really shouldn't expect miracles from his just yet. Plus we have been so lucky that up until now he has been feeding every 4 hours so I can't really complain.
Can I ask how early you started putting your lo to sleep at a certain time? We have the moses basket in the living room and basically just put him in when he wants to sleep and when he wakes up give him a feed and a play until he falls asleep again. He is generally having his last feed at around 10:30pm-11pm and then we move his moses basket into our bedroom, settle him down and go to bed ourselves. Don't feel that this is a routine as such as it is basically just what he is wanting to do but I guess he is so young we should just go with the flow at the moment!
Sorry for the waffle - my brain is sleep deprived today so I am struggling a little!!
I was wondering the same thing too Liz about putting Lily to bed in our room on her own. We more or less do the same as you at the moment and she is 5 weeks now. Its really good reading evryone elses posts about b'feeding too, very reassuring. I had prepared myself for feeding more or less every hour or so but she seems to feed in little clusters but then sleeps for a few hours. At night she is usually settled by 1am at latest and then wakes between 3-4 and again between 7 and 8am. I'm considering giving her formula for her last feed cos sometimes ive been sat there with my boobs out for 3 hour plus and she'll be getting frustrated and i'll be getting sore! This only seems to happen before settling at night for some reason. Breast may be best but i agree with you guys - a happy mum is best so we should just do whatever seems right for us and our bubbas!
I don't put Gracie to 'bed' if you will as more often than not she ends up in our bed! I try to go up with her at 10 ish after her last feed and put her in moses basket to see if she'll stay in it! During day she sleeps in her vibrating bouncer; much prefers being reclined than horizontal! Won't put her to bed til she's having an earlier last feed and/or sleeping through. Prob when she goes in a cot too (boys were 3 months old in cot in our room but soon went into nursery!) as it's more definite if you know what i mean!? She's slept nearly all day after her bottle at 10am, waking at 12 and 2 for booba and is still asleep now! Am I in for a rough night?!? As for sleeping on your chest, Liz, my mw said was ok! They're love the contact, heartbeat, warmth etc and I love my sleep!!!
I'm breastfeeding Ella and kind of have a routine which has worked well for the last week or so (she's 3 and a half weeks.) At around 9pm she has her bath or quick wash. Even if she's asleep I'll wake her for this. My thinking is if she's tired then she'll settle quicker anyway! Then it's into her sleep suit and I'll feed her in our bedroom which is quiet with low lighting. She'll fall asleep at the breast and then it's into the moses basket for the night. It tends to be between 10.00-10.30pm by this time. She tends to feed every 3-4 hours so I'm typically up twice during the night at around 2am and 6am. Have a good system working with hubbie where he does the night time change so it means I don't have to actually get out my bed at all during the night. It's good to hear everyone's stories but it's hard cos every baby is an individual I suppose and what works for one won't necessarily work for another. I learned pretty quickly that babies are not logical!!!
I agree campbelly. All babies are different. We have a fairly good routine with Alfie (only because he has to fit in around his big sister) but tonight has gone a bit wrong because he is suffering from wind which is not nice as you can see hes in pain. Usually we give him a feed around 6 - 7pm, wait an hour, give him a bath, change him, put him in night clothes and settle him in moses basket. He'll then have a feed between 10 - 11pm and he'll get up once in the night and up again between 6 - 7pm. Not too bad, so when it starts going wrong its a bit of a shock! Poor little mite is still up now with wind and trying to have a cuddle with hubby. Personally i like routines otherwise my head would be all over the place!!!
Great to get an idea of what other people are doing and to see how different things work for different babies. Think I could do with getting a vibrating chair for my lo as he much prefers being propped up slightly and the movement when being held/ carried by us. Had a better night last night although still not great, lo managed to stay in moses basket until around 4am feed and then would only settle when in with us. I have found putting a hot water bottle in his moses basket for 10 mins before I put him down to sleep at night works wonders for getting him to fall asleep quicker!
We've almost decided to change Philip onto bottles, i definately have mastitis and have got antibiotics, trying to feed him off that breast is excruitiating (sp?), me screaming each time he latches on cannot be good for either of us. So far we've introduced a bottle at about 11.30pm which worked the first night (6hrs sleep) but last night he had me up at 3am wanting a feed, then fed for over an hour, emptying one and having a good go on the other, this morning (6.30am) he had a quick suck then went back to sleep, woke at 9am when we got back from school run and fed at 9.15, 10.15, asking again at 11 so gave him a 4oz bottle which he finished, then at 12 was searching for my boobs again! He went to sleep about 20minutes ago!
As for nighttime routine, i need to start one that gets him in bed earlier, we did have a moses upstairs and downstairs but upstairs he is now in his cot and won't settle in moses downstairs so the last few nights he's been sleeping on one of our chests till i take him up about 11.30.
Tonight i'm going to try the 9pm feed upstairs and see if i can settle him upstairs, but as he usually seems quite awake after that feed it could be difficult. Even a bath doesn't settle him that well, and as for Johnsons Sleepeasy bath stuff, it doesn't seem to work!
If it's any consolation Violet is still waking up during the night and she is 8 weeks and 3 days now!
My evening routine is to go up stairs to bathroom at 7.15ish and she immediately becomes chatty and happy and my other children generally come and play with her whilst I run the bath. The she has a bath - but lies on one of the foam supports and so not really immersed in the water, but she loves it! Then we go into our bedroom to dry, moisturise and dress her then a bit more playing. Then dim all lights and go downstairs together to get bottle heated. Say goodnight to daddy and then back up to our dark bedroom (but TV is ALWAYS on!!) and give her a boob/bottle by which time it is around 8pmish and then wind her and put her into her crib, tuck her in quite tightly but making sure her arms are free, give her a kiss and tell her I love her, then put her musical lullaby thing on, stick the dummy in her mouth, give her crib a couple of rocks and walk out of the room.
Then when I get over my feelings of not being needed !!! I go downstairs and sort out bottles for the next day!
I may need to go back up a couple of times and resettle her, but she only whinges a bit when she drops a dummy and I quite enjoy the run up the stairs as it is good exercise! However Max who is 8 has taken to going in and settling her back down - he is such a good boy!!!
BUT, I am struggling to ger her past 3am - she wakes regardless of whether she has had a dream feed or not! So at 11.30 ish last night she took 4 oz, put her back down and she woke at 3, tried to settle her, it didn't work so bf her, then she threw that up, so settled her in bed next to me and she stirred at 5 for a boob, then again at 7ish. I am finding this quite tiring and need to get it sorted! All I need her to do is go back down at 3am until 6am then that is all the additional sleep I need, plus means I am up for the other kids, rather than a zombie!
I am going to try her with a faster teat tonight and see if that helps her to take more and then settle for longer...or it could be time to move her into her own room as maybe it is us disturbing her at night - hubby snores!
But her room is quite a way from us and means going up and down some small stairs and along a corridor and doing that half asleep doesn't appeal!
I know we will get there eventually but I would just love that last 3 hours sleep to get sorted sooner rather than later!
aaah cally that made me smile, i went the hairdressers for the first time today and it was the first time daddy had been left on his own. I had very mixed feelings when i got back 3 hours later and she hadnt even noticed i'd been gone!
And everyone keeps mentioning dreamfeeds - what the hell is that?! sorry if its obvious but my head is a shed!
I'd not heard of them either! Went to hosp to 'double double' check her clicky hip wasn't clicky!!! It wasn't! Paed said that it's easier for baby to feed from a bottle, not as much work as boob, so they tend to prefer bottles if had them. May explain why some babies seem to go more for bottle/boob at certain times/days?
definately easier to get my lazy boy to feed from the bottle although he's just had a good bf. he's been on and off bf-ing today and still got through bottles. gotta love bottles - hubby was\starting work late today so he gave lo a bottle this morning and i got 1 1/2 hours extra sleep!!
It's so nice to hear everyone has the same concerns! Amy is 3 weeks old now and I don't think we're anywhere near a routine or are we? She is feeding every 3 to 4 hours (bottle) and sleeps between most feeds. Last feed of the night tends to be about 11ish, then 2ish and then 6ish. She has a really good sleep in the mornings and then is quite alert and active in the afternoon and early evening (when oh gets home!). We're on the look out for a vibrating bouncer as at the moment she goes in her moses basket to sleep between feeds (or our arms). I think she needs a bit more stimulation during the day and if she's a bit more upright in a bouncer it'll be a change for her. She just goes up to bed with us every night about 10.30, but we were thinking about trying to introduce some sort of gentle routine soon.
Due to Amy's feeding problems when she was first born, the health visitor has advised us to keep feeding her every 3 hours so she can carry on piling the weight on and not introduce too much of a routine just yet. She was weighed today and is now 7lb 7 1/2 oz which is great news as she's put on nearly 1lb in 2 weeks - she seems like a little dot to us still though!
Every baby really is different aren't they, so I think we should just continue to do what we think is best and of course ask each other for advice!!
Hurray, Violet this evening had the most out of a bottle ever - 4.5 ozI realised I had some bottles with faster teats and that seemed to do the trick, so am hoping I may get over my dream feed problem by giving her a bottle with a faster teat and she will drink better and settle more quickly and then fingers crossed NOT wake up at 3am.
Rach I have the pink vibrating chair by Fisher Price and Violet loves it...mind you so does our cat so whenever she isn't in it I have to stick her changing bag in it to stop dirty paw prints!!!
Help!! Philip started on right boob at 8pm, by 8.30 it was empty (sagging by my knees kind of empty) but still he wanted more so went on the left (the painful mastitis one!) until 9.10 when that was also sagging by my knees, at 9.20 he started screaming again and searching for food so he now has a 4oz bottle (which hubby is giving him) and he's guzzling that down too, now he may just be a hungry baby but is this normal? It's made me decide to definately swap to mainly bottle feeding, i realise it may be a growth spurt but i can't keep this pace up for long.
Do you think it's ok to give alternate feeds, like first one in morning breast, then bottle, then breast etc? or is it better to bf during day & bottle at night?
Did try expressing for the first time last night and only got 2oz before boobs felt empty, does this mean that's all he's getting from me?
Sorry if this is a bit all over the place, i can't think straight at the minute!
I haven't sorted out which feed is boob or which is bottle, most of the time in the day I bf and then top up if she needs it, her last feed after bath is a bottle and then bf the horrible 3am feed, the 5am feed...7.30am...9.00am then top up with bottle!!!
I think when you express it is hard to get out what the baby can get out. I used to express after Violet had finished and I would still get an oz out, if I expressed without feeding her I would be lucky to get 2 oz a go. So dont panic that he is only getting 2 oz.
Your boobs will adjust to how you feed, for example when I went back to work after having Max I fed him in the morning, then at work all day, then fed him in the evening.
If you feel he is having a growth spurt then what I used to do with Violet was to make up my bottle before I bf and then it was ready to stick in her mouth after her having a boob - which would certainly help you whilst you have a poorly boob.
Also even a couple of feeds a day means that he is getting all the antibodies and good stuff so even if you can try to do a few feeds a day he will still be getting loads of goodness and best of all I am sure it stops them getting constipated as purely bottle fed baby's can.
Thanks Cally, i'm feeling crap at the moment and just don't know what to do for the best. the little monkey has just finished off that 4oz bottle and is almost asleep on hubby's chest! Will try that, will give him another bottle if he wakes before midnight, if not will bf the middle of the night one and hopefully will wake up tomorrow feeling a bit more postive about everything!
Thing is a couple of weeks ago i knew he was ready for a feed before he woke up as the one due to be fed from would be HUGE and heavy, but now i struggle to know which one it is, working it out by remembering which last feed was from.
Do bf babies get constipation? He hasn't had a proper poo since lunchtime yesterday and he usually has 2 really big poo's a day, he's very farty but nothing else so might he be constipated?
Why do things always crop up at night when you can't ring health visitor or dr's to ask?
Violet can still go 2 or 3 days without a poo - midwife said she knew of a bf one that went 9 days without! But Iwould watch out when it happens as Violets tend to go from her chest down to her knees - a pure poo explosion!
Violet is so noisy when she does a poo - not just the grunting but the poo coming out is the most comical wet fart sounds and can silence a room!!!
As far as I know a bf baby wont get constipated, just purely formula fed ones - I know that a formula fed baby can be given very diluted orange juice in a bottle to aid constipation, but wouldn't have thought that he is constipated if getting bf as the fore milk is a drink anyway - which is what formula babies dont get.
Hope that makes sense...sleep deprivation tends to kick in around now when I want to go to bed! Wish my hubby would give Violet a bottle - he does the sleeping on the chest bit though!
Obi, dont worry too much about how much you are expressing. Your baby is far better at emptying your boobs than a piece of plastic. I expressed 8 times a day for 3 weeks while my LO was in hospital. Throughout this time i got to know what my average supply was. I noticed my milk supply wasnt that good if i was tired or stressed. One day I was crying all day and could hardly get 1 oz. Try to relax and either have your LO near by or look at a photograph to help stimulate your hormones and i used to massage my boobs before expressing which helps your let down reflex.
Replies
Saw my health visitor today and she was fine with me doing both boob and bottle, she suggested I try feeding him every 2hrs during the day on my boob to try and encourage my milk supply to increase if I wanted to breast feed him more. So I am going to give it a go from tomorrow as he has been a grumpy boy today and hasn't got the patience to latch on properly. Had the worst night we have had with him so far last night as he just would not settle, and when he did it would be for one or two hours max and then he would be crying again. After feeds, nappy changes, being winded etc he still was unhappy and would only fall asleep when lying on his tummy on my chest. Gets to the stage were you don't care do you and will do anything for them if it means you can have an hour or twos kip!
Keep telling myself that he has only been out of my tummy for 12 days so really shouldn't expect miracles from his just yet. Plus we have been so lucky that up until now he has been feeding every 4 hours so I can't really complain.
Can I ask how early you started putting your lo to sleep at a certain time? We have the moses basket in the living room and basically just put him in when he wants to sleep and when he wakes up give him a feed and a play until he falls asleep again. He is generally having his last feed at around 10:30pm-11pm and then we move his moses basket into our bedroom, settle him down and go to bed ourselves. Don't feel that this is a routine as such as it is basically just what he is wanting to do but I guess he is so young we should just go with the flow at the moment!
Sorry for the waffle - my brain is sleep deprived today so I am struggling a little!!
L xxx
Its really good reading evryone elses posts about b'feeding too, very reassuring. I had prepared myself for feeding more or less every hour or so but she seems to feed in little clusters but then sleeps for a few hours. At night she is usually settled by 1am at latest and then wakes between 3-4 and again between 7 and 8am. I'm considering giving her formula for her last feed cos sometimes ive been sat there with my boobs out for 3 hour plus and she'll be getting frustrated and i'll be getting sore! This only seems to happen before settling at night for some reason.
Breast may be best but i agree with you guys - a happy mum is best so we should just do whatever seems right for us and our bubbas!
Won't put her to bed til she's having an earlier last feed and/or sleeping through. Prob when she goes in a cot too (boys were 3 months old in cot in our room but soon went into nursery!) as it's more definite if you know what i mean!?
She's slept nearly all day after her bottle at 10am, waking at 12 and 2 for booba and is still asleep now! Am I in for a rough night?!?
As for sleeping on your chest, Liz, my mw said was ok! They're love the contact, heartbeat, warmth etc and I love my sleep!!!
We have a fairly good routine with Alfie (only because he has to fit in around his big sister) but tonight has gone a bit wrong because he is suffering from wind which is not nice as you can see hes in pain.
Usually we give him a feed around 6 - 7pm, wait an hour, give him a bath, change him, put him in night clothes and settle him in moses basket. He'll then have a feed between 10 - 11pm and he'll get up once in the night and up again between 6 - 7pm.
Not too bad, so when it starts going wrong its a bit of a shock! Poor little mite is still up now with wind and trying to have a cuddle with hubby.
Personally i like routines otherwise my head would be all over the place!!!
Had a better night last night although still not great, lo managed to stay in moses basket until around 4am feed and then would only settle when in with us. I have found putting a hot water bottle in his moses basket for 10 mins before I put him down to sleep at night works wonders for getting him to fall asleep quicker!
xx
As for nighttime routine, i need to start one that gets him in bed earlier, we did have a moses upstairs and downstairs but upstairs he is now in his cot and won't settle in moses downstairs so the last few nights he's been sleeping on one of our chests till i take him up about 11.30.
Tonight i'm going to try the 9pm feed upstairs and see if i can settle him upstairs, but as he usually seems quite awake after that feed it could be difficult. Even a bath doesn't settle him that well, and as for Johnsons Sleepeasy bath stuff, it doesn't seem to work!
My evening routine is to go up stairs to bathroom at 7.15ish and she immediately becomes chatty and happy and my other children generally come and play with her whilst I run the bath. The she has a bath - but lies on one of the foam supports and so not really immersed in the water, but she loves it! Then we go into our bedroom to dry, moisturise and dress her then a bit more playing. Then dim all lights and go downstairs together to get bottle heated. Say goodnight to daddy and then back up to our dark bedroom (but TV is ALWAYS on!!) and give her a boob/bottle by which time it is around 8pmish and then wind her and put her into her crib, tuck her in quite tightly but making sure her arms are free, give her a kiss and tell her I love her, then put her musical lullaby thing on, stick the dummy in her mouth, give her crib a couple of rocks and walk out of the room.
Then when I get over my feelings of not being needed !!! I go downstairs and sort out bottles for the next day!
I may need to go back up a couple of times and resettle her, but she only whinges a bit when she drops a dummy and I quite enjoy the run up the stairs as it is good exercise! However Max who is 8 has taken to going in and settling her back down - he is such a good boy!!!
BUT, I am struggling to ger her past 3am - she wakes regardless of whether she has had a dream feed or not! So at 11.30 ish last night she took 4 oz, put her back down and she woke at 3, tried to settle her, it didn't work so bf her, then she threw that up, so settled her in bed next to me and she stirred at 5 for a boob, then again at 7ish. I am finding this quite tiring and need to get it sorted! All I need her to do is go back down at 3am until 6am then that is all the additional sleep I need, plus means I am up for the other kids, rather than a zombie!
I am going to try her with a faster teat tonight and see if that helps her to take more and then settle for longer...or it could be time to move her into her own room as maybe it is us disturbing her at night - hubby snores!
But her room is quite a way from us and means going up and down some small stairs and along a corridor and doing that half asleep doesn't appeal!
I know we will get there eventually but I would just love that last 3 hours sleep to get sorted sooner rather than later!
And everyone keeps mentioning dreamfeeds - what the hell is that?! sorry if its obvious but my head is a shed!
Went to hosp to 'double double' check her clicky hip wasn't clicky!!! It wasn't! Paed said that it's easier for baby to feed from a bottle, not as much work as boob, so they tend to prefer bottles if had them. May explain why some babies seem to go more for bottle/boob at certain times/days?
Amy is 3 weeks old now and I don't think we're anywhere near a routine or are we?
She is feeding every 3 to 4 hours (bottle) and sleeps between most feeds.
Last feed of the night tends to be about 11ish, then 2ish and then 6ish.
She has a really good sleep in the mornings and then is quite alert and active in the afternoon and early evening (when oh gets home!). We're on the look out for a vibrating bouncer as at the moment she goes in her moses basket to sleep between feeds (or our arms). I think she needs a bit more stimulation during the day and if she's a bit more upright in a bouncer it'll be a change for her.
She just goes up to bed with us every night about 10.30, but we were thinking about trying to introduce some sort of gentle routine soon.
Due to Amy's feeding problems when she was first born, the health visitor has advised us to keep feeding her every 3 hours so she can carry on piling the weight on and not introduce too much of a routine just yet.
She was weighed today and is now 7lb 7 1/2 oz which is great news as she's put on nearly 1lb in 2 weeks - she seems like a little dot to us still though!
Every baby really is different aren't they, so I think we should just continue to do what we think is best and of course ask each other for advice!!
Rach & Amy
xxxx
Rach I have the pink vibrating chair by Fisher Price and Violet loves it...mind you so does our cat so whenever she isn't in it I have to stick her changing bag in it to stop dirty paw prints!!!
xxx
Do you think it's ok to give alternate feeds, like first one in morning breast, then bottle, then breast etc? or is it better to bf during day & bottle at night?
Did try expressing for the first time last night and only got 2oz before boobs felt empty, does this mean that's all he's getting from me?
Sorry if this is a bit all over the place, i can't think straight at the minute!
I haven't sorted out which feed is boob or which is bottle, most of the time in the day I bf and then top up if she needs it, her last feed after bath is a bottle and then bf the horrible 3am feed, the 5am feed...7.30am...9.00am then top up with bottle!!!
I think when you express it is hard to get out what the baby can get out. I used to express after Violet had finished and I would still get an oz out, if I expressed without feeding her I would be lucky to get 2 oz a go. So dont panic that he is only getting 2 oz.
Your boobs will adjust to how you feed, for example when I went back to work after having Max I fed him in the morning, then at work all day, then fed him in the evening.
If you feel he is having a growth spurt then what I used to do with Violet was to make up my bottle before I bf and then it was ready to stick in her mouth after her having a boob - which would certainly help you whilst you have a poorly boob.
Also even a couple of feeds a day means that he is getting all the antibodies and good stuff so even if you can try to do a few feeds a day he will still be getting loads of goodness and best of all I am sure it stops them getting constipated as purely bottle fed baby's can.
Why is nothing flipping easy!!!!
Thing is a couple of weeks ago i knew he was ready for a feed before he woke up as the one due to be fed from would be HUGE and heavy, but now i struggle to know which one it is, working it out by remembering which last feed was from.
Do bf babies get constipation? He hasn't had a proper poo since lunchtime yesterday and he usually has 2 really big poo's a day, he's very farty but nothing else so might he be constipated?
Why do things always crop up at night when you can't ring health visitor or dr's to ask?
Violet is so noisy when she does a poo - not just the grunting but the poo coming out is the most comical wet fart sounds and can silence a room!!!
As far as I know a bf baby wont get constipated, just purely formula fed ones - I know that a formula fed baby can be given very diluted orange juice in a bottle to aid constipation, but wouldn't have thought that he is constipated if getting bf as the fore milk is a drink anyway - which is what formula babies dont get.
Hope that makes sense...sleep deprivation tends to kick in around now when I want to go to bed! Wish my hubby would give Violet a bottle - he does the sleeping on the chest bit though!
Good luck