Get more than 2oz of formula into edith, in the evening she uses my to suckle so we have been giving her the odd bottle but i cant get more than 2oz in her, others can but unfortunatley its usually just me to see to her.
during the night my BM isnt substantial enough as we arent getting more than 3 hours and after the first night feed it gets less and less between them.

I am shattered and i need the break from BF for a while but its catch 22 if i cant get more than 2oz in her she still wants feeding sooner. she also wont sleep longer than an hour so she clearly isnt full enough but then spits out bottle/falls asleep on breast

after spending from 3.30 on the sofa i am at the end of my tether and am heading for breakdown

Oh hunni, I don't have the answer for you unfortunately but lots of and some suggestions/ideas?

First of all a huge Well done!!! for getting this far with bf hun - I had given up 2 weeks ago at your point and I had an easier time of it by the sounds of things. Having a toddler and a newborn is stressful enough without the sleep deprivation and the god awful frustration of feeding. You are doing brilliantly hun! Unfortunately these little people are very clever and know Mummy has the 'good stuff' so she is probably taking the formula until her immediate hunger is satisfied and then thinking hold on a minute what's Mummy doing? I want booby! You also have the predicament that if you give formula at a certain time of day your (.)(.)s wont produce as much at the same time so unless she suckles it wont increase

I tried to mix feed like you are and it just didn't work for me . Hannah was/is a suckler like Edith and my nipples were in bits and once I introduced a bit of formula my milk went down slighlty meaning she needed to suckle more and had me in tears a few times I was shattered, moody and felt like I was losing the plot I felt I wasn't giving Thomas the attention he deserved and when he did get my attention I was very short tempered and telling him off for silly things , it was also affecting my relationship with Paul because everything he did was wrong (wether it was or not) we were falling out over everything and he was getting blamed for my frustrations. I was crying a lot and basically just a mess, I turned into somebody I didn't recognise and I didn't like and looking back all I can say is "poor Paul" . Anyway, I gave up bf and switched to bottles and have to say it's the best decision I have made. We instantly got into a brilliant routine, I was less stressed, my hormones settled down and I started to enjoy my kids a lot more I also found the kids behaviour improved - Thomas had less tantrums and Hannah was a lot more settled, less screaming of an evening and was sleeping through the night (11 hours) within a week - I put this down to my stress not affecting them. Now I am not for one minute suggesting you give up bf hun - you ae doing fabulously and if you want to carry on you have mine and all the BANDA ladies' support, that was just my experience hun and wanted to show you that you are not on your own and some of us know what you are going through (hope it doesn't sound patronising ).

Does Edith have a dummy hun? If she is a suckler she might benefit from one. Although I have a suckler (even now at 5 months old - 4 months since quiting bf - she still has to bury her head in my right boob and suckle to get herself to sleep during the day. I have a permanent wet patch on my top ) and she wont take a dummy. She HAS to have something to her face to suckle to get to sleep, thankfully a primarni blankie works just as well as mummy's boob now so she goes to bed with a blankie curled round her head so she can turn her head to the side and suckle. Scared the crap outa me at first because she has a habit of pulling it over her face but she is fine and like the security of it

With regards getting her to take more formula from you I really dont have the answer but Hannah very rarely took more than 2oz in the night herself. She did sleep a bit longer though. Are you sure she is definately waking hungry hun? I know she went 6 hours without a feed the other day so she obviously can go longer, do you think maybe she is just waking naturally and needing the comfort to get back off?

Could it be a growth spurt? If she was going longer last week and now waking more frequently for feeds?

Oh hun - I wish I had the answer for you. I'm sorry Ive rambled on and gone off on a fair few tangents but in the hope something might be useful or just help you feel less alone.

You know where I am if you ever need to chat hunni.



xx

Debs, she has a dummy but its the same cycle, suck spit cry, refuse to suck, cry some more, suck spit cry its just going on and on, i have LOADS of milk, she gets frustrated in the evening with the milk supply but it is there, have read that its slower. the bottle isnt even replacing feeds as such cos i find myself giving bf top up just to settle her and even if she has a bottle at 8pm, she still gets a bf top up before my bed time
Last night she had bottle messed about took 2oz at 9 sleep at 10 then up again at 11 and had bf. slept then bf at 2.30 then was up again at 3.40 screaming and rooting, but her belly was soft so no wind, wouldnt have the dummy so we(i) took her downstairs, changed her made a bottle up but 2oz was all she took til 8.30 then another 2oz bottle and more suckling to settle her.

I think i feel so bad today just because of the lack of sleep, i will get there eventually i just need to sleep

hey - i know exactly how you feel i had a very similar nightmare with elijah - i am just heading out of the door but wanted you to know you are not alone, and i will try and get back later on with some helpful (?!) advice

I really feel for you hun, ava fed every 1.30 to 2 hours until 17 weeks, it's so draining and i really don't know how you're managing it with having Alice as well.

Are you expressing your milk yet, it'll help your supply and maybe give you a break if someone else can do it, Ava wouldn't take a bottle from me as Debs said she was distracted by the booby and refused point blank yet as soon as my hubby offered she'd take it.

Can you maybe introduce a bottle of formula just for her last feed just to give you more of a break, one bottle won't make a big difference to your milk supply.

With regards to dummies, it was a lifesaver for me because even between feeds ava would still never leave the booby, I had to try a few different brands to get the ones that suited her best, I used the avent orthodontics.

You're doing so well, I don't think many people appreciate how hard and emotionally draining bf is. big huggies xxx

Oh hun! I wish I could help! If i lived closer I would take her off your hands for a few hours (+ebm) and let you sleep

Just plucking ideas out of thin air - how is her mouth? Hannah had thrush at a week old and struggled to suck for more than a few seconds at a time - like you say - suck, spit, cry!

Things do always seem worse when you are tired too. I am such a moody cow when I'm tired and feel like the whole world is against me (remember the other day? :/ lol) and end up waking up a bit and feeling a bit for moaning so much. However that is not to say that the way you feel is wrong! It's an awful feeling and I can completely sympathise - I have no other suggestions hun but am sending you more

Sorry for being crap! lol

Hope Edith gives you a break soon hun - just remind yourself that it wont be like this forever - there is a light at the end off this tunnel and like I said earlier - you are doing brilliantly!

xx

I have zero advice on BF'ing (ive never done it), but just wanted to say that Jess is a really Bizarre feeder, and ive stopped wondering what the heck is going on anymore...I just let her get on with it!

She barely feeds at all between 8pm & lunchtime the day after , sometimes even later (i may get a max of about 5oz in during that time), even then shes slow till about 3pm, and then 'cluster feeds' till 7-8pm

I know this isnt what Edith is doing, but just wanted to say that these babies are sent to try us. I panicked because she never feeds 'x hourly', but she is a little tubster, so is doing Ok like this.

She is a proper moaner, and not a great sleeper.....a dummy works well for us too (try diff ones, it took us ages to find the ones she likes - MAM ones for us)

I just keep telling myself....not long till weaning

i said i would come back with helpful advice! well, i've come back, not so much advice though - all i can really do is remind you that it doesn't go on forever and you are most definitely not alone. Edith has a really tiny tummy so maybe she just can't manage any more (elijah has never refused food and will still eat away until he is physically sick, he just doesn't know his limits!)
having an hour sleep between feeds is pretty standard i think, i remember posting on ab at my wits end feeling like my milk wasn't good enough or something because my baby wanted to feed so much and loads of people said he might just want to feed that often...he did eventually grow out of it but (sorry to say) not until about 3 months, by which point i was beyond tired.

so that wasn't very eloquent, but what i'm trying to say is that your milk might be great, and in good supply, edith might just need to feed little and often for now. not helpful for you really, but it doesn't sound like there is anything fundamental to worry about....its awful and i remember it very clearly having a baby who feeds every 60-90 minutes for over half an hour, and won't sleep unless he was being held...i don't think i slept more than 45 minutes for the first 3 months of his life - but cling to the knowledge that it won't go on forever, and whatever you do and provide will be perfect for your daughter

(on a seperate note, if she is really fussing have you checked her mouth for thrush? it was one of the first symptoms of eli's thrush, you will be feeling painful too - the other thing is it could be reflux, but it might just be the way your little girl is just now x)

I think its just the way she is everyone, she has started taking formula and last night had 9 oz over a 4.5 hour period, but still wouldnt settle, we ended up sleeping on the sofa and i just had to cuddle her and let her cry it out.

she sleeps wonderfully in the morning, yesterday she even slept for 2.5 hours in Alices cot but from 5pm she doesnt/wont sleep which culminates in her being overtired by our bed time.
have got colief and she doesnt seem windy, she does cry before a poo tho but not constipated so dont get it

Ah well, i just need to get used to it, no-one ever said having a newborn was easy did they

^ sounds exactly like elijah, you have my sympathies

arghhh please don't scare me about what it is like with 2!

Unfortunately I don't have any advice, but I hope her feeding improves.

Ros

I dont think its having 2 Ros, dont worry too much, its just Ediths temprament.

We are changing her milk to C&G as she had just short of 500ml (2X cartons) between 4 and 10 lastnight and still didnt sleep very well, we went at 10.30 and she was awake again at midnight, adam got her to sleep about 1 and she was up for BF at 3.30 and 6ish.

she is in Alices cot again this morning and has been in ther for over an hour now without a peep

oh, we started with aptamil but doesn't get anything just now - when we changed to hipp organic he was much happier to take more though (but didn't change much overall)