I am still feeling confused about nursing. A lot of the time, particularly in the second part of the night... and I'm feeling worn down because of it.
So, when does your LO nurse? And how long does it take? I read some of LLL's "the womanly art of BFing" before she was born and all of those times they say "offer both breasts at each feeding" and "expect to nurse 30-40 minutes 8-12 times a day" and so on... and I have had to ignore that entirely for us.
Because of my oversupply and strong letdown, my LO has rarely nursed for more than 5-10 minutes at a time
. My milk is starting to slow somewhat so in the daytime it often gets to what I would imagine a more "normal" supply is like, and then we have some really nice feedings that last longer, don't make a big mess, and don't end in frustration for both of us (although sometimes DD drops her latch and gets mad because she has to work for the milk rather than it just gushing into her mouth - but I just keep relatching her and it seems like practice and patience will help that).
At night, though, I am still feeling engorged and SO confused and frustrated. She sleeps from about 8pm to 2 or 3am, which is great! Then wakes up hungry and I go in to feed her. The problem here is that I have so much milk by that point, that it gushes out and she has to do the gulp-gulp-gulp thing to keep up, and I think she conks back out before she's actually full. Plus she is probably getting all foremilk, which makes her gassy and hungry again a little later.
Sometimes I try to pump off the "extra" milk before feeding her but of course that is frustrating to both of us too. Then I'm saving that milk for when I need babysitting, but I wonder if it's going to be all foremilk and make her unhappy and gassy then...
So this morning I fed her at 4am (thanks for sleeping 6 hours, baby girl!
), but she couldn't really settle back, so I ended up feeding and comforting her again at something like 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30. Now it's 10:30 and she's down for a nap, and no wonder. I'm exhausted! I feel like she's not getting enough good milk at once to keep her full and content! And I have been going to sleep at 10pm but think I will have to start going to bed at 8pm for a little while because I am SO TIRED in the morning with all of those feeds and frustrations.
I just find myself thinking more and more that if she was taking formula or rice cereal (if this were the 1950s!) she would be sleeping beautifully... everything I've read about oversupply, either I'm already trying (block feeding and sage tincture, which work great in the daytime) or don't help ("express some milk into a cloth diaper before feeding" - something that I have to do already since she pops off every few seconds when the milk is so strong).
I know she is still small, but at 7.5 weeks, shouldn't things be evening out a little more by now?! When will her stomach catch up to my supply so that she can latch on, nurse and nurse for more than a few minutes, and then be full or go back to sleep?
I also rarely feel like I know for sure if she's hungry or not. So I constantly offer and she constantly nurses a little bit. Sometimes she gets too much and barfs all over me. Sometimes I think she's not hungry and then she's starving. Is that just how it goes? I"m not trying to impose a schedule but I am wondering why her cues seem more and more confusing to me as time goes on...
So, when does your LO nurse? And how long does it take? I read some of LLL's "the womanly art of BFing" before she was born and all of those times they say "offer both breasts at each feeding" and "expect to nurse 30-40 minutes 8-12 times a day" and so on... and I have had to ignore that entirely for us.
Because of my oversupply and strong letdown, my LO has rarely nursed for more than 5-10 minutes at a time
. My milk is starting to slow somewhat so in the daytime it often gets to what I would imagine a more "normal" supply is like, and then we have some really nice feedings that last longer, don't make a big mess, and don't end in frustration for both of us (although sometimes DD drops her latch and gets mad because she has to work for the milk rather than it just gushing into her mouth - but I just keep relatching her and it seems like practice and patience will help that).At night, though, I am still feeling engorged and SO confused and frustrated. She sleeps from about 8pm to 2 or 3am, which is great! Then wakes up hungry and I go in to feed her. The problem here is that I have so much milk by that point, that it gushes out and she has to do the gulp-gulp-gulp thing to keep up, and I think she conks back out before she's actually full. Plus she is probably getting all foremilk, which makes her gassy and hungry again a little later.
Sometimes I try to pump off the "extra" milk before feeding her but of course that is frustrating to both of us too. Then I'm saving that milk for when I need babysitting, but I wonder if it's going to be all foremilk and make her unhappy and gassy then...
So this morning I fed her at 4am (thanks for sleeping 6 hours, baby girl!
), but she couldn't really settle back, so I ended up feeding and comforting her again at something like 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30. Now it's 10:30 and she's down for a nap, and no wonder. I'm exhausted! I feel like she's not getting enough good milk at once to keep her full and content! And I have been going to sleep at 10pm but think I will have to start going to bed at 8pm for a little while because I am SO TIRED in the morning with all of those feeds and frustrations.I just find myself thinking more and more that if she was taking formula or rice cereal (if this were the 1950s!) she would be sleeping beautifully... everything I've read about oversupply, either I'm already trying (block feeding and sage tincture, which work great in the daytime) or don't help ("express some milk into a cloth diaper before feeding" - something that I have to do already since she pops off every few seconds when the milk is so strong).
I know she is still small, but at 7.5 weeks, shouldn't things be evening out a little more by now?! When will her stomach catch up to my supply so that she can latch on, nurse and nurse for more than a few minutes, and then be full or go back to sleep?
I also rarely feel like I know for sure if she's hungry or not. So I constantly offer and she constantly nurses a little bit. Sometimes she gets too much and barfs all over me. Sometimes I think she's not hungry and then she's starving. Is that just how it goes? I"m not trying to impose a schedule but I am wondering why her cues seem more and more confusing to me as time goes on...
which ended up waking her up a lot more... and she seems to do really well in her crib, for the most part, it's just the early morning feeds we can't get right. I do bring her to bed around 6 or 7am and we do okay, but I still wake her up every time I move and vice versa.
She gulps and pops off over and over. DD2 doesn't spit up like DD1 because I've discovered a great secret--I sit her on the baby bjorn potty right after a gulping nursing session (or I hold her with her knees bent, hands under her fat thighs, over the sink) and that EC position gets out all of the gas! She belches like a man, hiccups, and then sharts out foamy gas bubble filled poop. After 5 minutes of that she's happy and relaxed. I so wish I had thought to try that with DD1!!
