Hello. First time poster here! A little about me:
My LO (Hannah) is 6 weeks old.
Her first few days on this earth were not the greatest. At our hospital, the nurses were adamant that I needed to BF, although she was not really getting anything when she did. They told me "don't worry, you will have your milk any day now and that will fix everything. I tried pumping, hand expressing, and BFing a screaming baby ALOT for 2 days, until finally, a doc who could see how frustrated and sleep deprived me AND DH were from dealing with a baby that cried for pretty much the entire first 2 days of her life were, and suggested that we supplement with formula. Lo and behold, little Hannah slept most of the third day. However, this did NOT set the stage for a wonderful BFing experience.
This, compounded by the fact that I did not get my "magical" milk that would solve all the problems of the world on that fated 3rd day, nipples that were too short and flat, and a baby that proved to not really want to do the work to get what she needed, we have supplemented with formula from that day on.
She is currently bottle fed with a 50/50 split of EBM and formula.
I started with EASY about 1 week ago. Like probably all new moms, I am still getting to know my LO, and some days it is more of a struggle than others, so I do my best to be as consistent with everything as possible.
I actually have 2 questions, the main one is about LO's feeding habits.
She is FRANTIC as soon as feeding begins about 85% of the time. She breathes really fast, if I leave her hands free (I usually tuck them away to avoid this) she grabs and claws at the bottle, she fills up her mouth and then swallows, but often there is formula/EMB flowing out of the corners of her mouth. I have tried EVERY nipple out there, so I can say that it is not the individual nipple, and it is not a problem with the flow. (The faster nipple that I tried just made her choke and cough). She does not spit up a lot (when she does it is usually projectile, but that only happens one and a while), she burps okay, and generally takes close to 3 oz every 3 hours. I have tried feeding her more upright, and laying flat. Head straight, and to the side. In a dark room with no stimulation while swaddled, without a swaddle and in the living room with DH chatting away and the TV blaring. I have tried feeding her right out of a nap, (so she is still sleepy) and after changing her diaper to wake her up a bit. (I have tried all sorts of combinations of these as well). I burp her at least twice every feed. Every time that I take the bottle away to burp her or mop up her face, she cries like no one's business. When she does that, I burp her, wait for her to calm down, offer the bottle again. She will take it, and the frantic behavior starts all over again. When I asked my doc, she simply said that it sounds like that might just be her "personality" (She is a touchy baby with a little grump in her according to the questionnaire). I have finally chosen what bottle I am using as it created the best latch for her. I am just not sure if this truly is just how she is going to feed, if it is just her "temperament" and if it is "going to get better" as everyone has told me it will. Help? Insight?
My second questions is about CUES.
I have been implementing SLOW each time that my touchy little Hannah lets out a cry. However, I still HAVE NO CLUE what she needs. At least once a day, at varying times, she has a meltdown to which I cannot figure out a solution. Generally I find that it is right before sleep time, after her activity. However, today it was right after she woke from her nap, and she only ate 1/3 of her bottle. As long as time wise she should eat soon, I will offer her food, and then I just run through the gamut of what could be wrong and when I get to the end, I just go into her dark room with some white noise in the background and hold her close and shush her until she gets to the end of her rant. There is no 3 hour crying bouts, and they happen randomly, so I am fairly certain that she does not have colic. (Her stomach also does not get hard). I mostly think that perhaps she is overstimulated, but have a hard time telling if she is. What should I look for to try and determine if that is the issue? I watch very closely for her "tired" cues, during activity....perhaps I am just missing that window? She does not generally nap for very long either, which tells me that she is either overstimulated or under tired when I lay her down?
Sorry that this is so long winded, but any help, thoughts or insight from the experts might help out.
Thanks for you time, Lisa and Hannah