Exclusive Breastfeeding
Before Tate, I had grand ideas of exclusively breastfeeding my son, and the only reason I bought bottles was to fill them with pumped breast milk. But the truth is the pump hasn’t been touched since the first few weeks after Tate was born, and the reason I was using it then was in hopes that it might stimulate my milk production. Tate lost a whole pound in the week after he was born and I felt it was necessary to supplement with formula, and over the next few weeks we were consistently feeding Tate 2 bottles a day. It just seemed that no matter what I did, the babe was left wanting. I followed some of your wonderful advice and have been so happy with the results. After a few changes, he only seemed to need one bottle at night. This was a major breakthrough.
I stopped worrying so much about when he might need a bottle and just nursed him when he was hungry (which by the way, is a lot). One night a few weeks ago, after putting Tate to bed, I realized that we hadn’t given him a single bottle all day. He had fussed and I fed him and it was finally enough. My hopes were modest, but the next day, I was able to meet his needs again. It has now been several weeks with Tate only receiving a handful of bottles of formula (I am not yet producing enough to build a satisfactory pumped supply – hopefully that will be my next victory).
Rock on! I wasn’t able to breast feed my twins, and I wish I could have. So great that you stuck with it. I’m glad it worked for you!
Congratulations! Your determination is paying off. You should be proud. It is no small feat!
I was in a similar situation (my baby also lost a lot of weight in the first week, which scared me so much as a clueless new mom), but am now exclusively breastfeeding, and no longer needing formula to supplement. You will eventually get there-keep nursing Tate and following his cues…it’s so hard but your determination should pay off!
Great job!! My son was 5#12oz when he was born and dropped down to 5#7oz after 24 hours. I chose to supplement with formula, and I am happy I made the choice…he was back to his birth weight within a week. Poor little guy didn’t have enough to lose! I supplemented with one or two bottles a day for the first month, I think. I was able to drop the formula totally by 5 weeks and breastfeeding is still going strong at 6 months!
It really made me happy to read this. I feel like so many women who believe that they can’t produce enough milk really can with the right support and knowledge. It’s great that you were able to bounce back with advice and support, and I hope that more women can have your same experience.
This reminds me of how my daughter was. From when she was 5 days old to 3 months old she had one bottle of formula a day and was breastfed the rest of the time. She would get really fussy right before she went to bed every night and we realized that I wasn’t producing enough milk for her. Around 3 months she refused the formula and won’t even take breast milk out of a bottle now. She has been exclusively breastfed for the last 6 months as she is 9 months now. I am really happy that I stuck with breastfeeding when it seemed like I wasn’t producing enough for her because now I am and it works perfectly.
That is so fantastic!
I’m so happy things are working out for you guys! Way to stick with it! I really believe that if you consistency offer the breast each time he is hungry and pump when he is left wanting most mamas can get their supply where it needs to be. Well done!
Hooray! That is awesome.