Hi there! Just wanted to let you know that I went through the same thing as you with Jasmine. She is nursed just as soon as she opens her eyes from a nap (even if that nap is an hour) and if she not hungry she will just fall right back asleep. My mum told me to try to extend her feeds to 2 hourly but I figure there is plenty of time to try to place her under a rountine and I told myself from the start that if she wants to nurse all day let that be it! I gave myself 6 weeks (this is apparently the magical moment from when things just start getting better
) and now that I am at 6 weeks, I am giving myself until 3 months and so forth. To be honest, there was a day when I actually went out and bought formula and gave the girl a bottle. She didn't take much (20 ml) and then I realised that I should wait a bit longer before giving up and that in the evening she is just much more fussier baby and its very easy for me to think that she is not getting enough and that is why she is fussy! So to put myself at ease, I too started epressing 1st thing in the morning for that evening so that I know that she has been "fed" and she is funny cause she is tired, gas, etc... This has been the case ever since. She gets a bottle of EBM in the evening from the milk I have expressed in the morning.
If I do that, should I nurse her first then offer the bottle, or just the bottle? I don't want my supply to get low.
Well I give my lo just the bottle and then express both breasts completely. That was my body thinks that the baby has finished both sides and my supply does not decrease and I have enough for the next evening and even some left over (which i freeze).
At night, up until a week ago, I would nurse her every 1-2 hours and it was only yesterday that she slept from 11 till 3ish, nursed, awake at 5 and nursed and then slept till 8 (awaked by very active/loud older sister). Wow maybe 6 weeks is the magical moment. She is still extremely fussy in the evenings (she cried from 7 till 11 last night..nothing would calm her - nursing, dummy, rocking, shushing, car ride). And she only fell asleep out of exhaustion.
I used a dummy from day 2 and I realise that it can cause nipple confusion and might not be well accepted by some people but to be honest, I used a paci with Bella for the 1st 3 months every single day, at every nap and night sleep and then at 2 months used it less and less and by 3 months stopped using it at all - she did not care at all. Thats not to say that it will be that easy this time around
but sucking is soothing to babies and it helped ALOT! So what we do now is feed from one side until she fusses then nappy change then go to the next side until she fusses. Once she is fussy on the 2nd side (if she takes it) then I talk/play to her (max 20 mins) and then she starts fussying again, place the dummy in and she is on my hands, rocked to sleep or in a baby carrier At night I just place her on my boob (both lying down) and sometimes even drift off to sleep (i realise I might be creating a REALLY bad habit) but personally I don't think you can create "bad" habits until they are about 3 months (only personal opinion) and at 3 months they can be easily fixed.
I still really struggle with confidence in regards to having enough milk, etc, but she had put on 670grams in 2 weeks and the nurse told me that the average is from 150-250grams per week and that I am feeding her too much!
