We can't get into ANY sort of routine!

[chillyigloo]

Our daughter is 6 weeks old and has been a little minx from day one!
So far, I'm breastfeeding her but since about 2 weeks old she has had a bottle of formula at around 11-12pm.

I've been tring to get into some sort of routine to give myself and husband a little bit of sanity, but it's not easy (pardon the pun!).

My biggest problem with the EASY routine is that she ALWAYS falls asleep within minutes of getting on the breast. I then have to try and wake her several times a minute to try and encourage her to feed but I don't think she's ever taken more than 9 or 10 minutes worth of actual sucks in any session. She'll then sleep for about 10 minutes and is impossible to rouse until she wakes up screaming (probably starving!) and is then inconsolable until you feed her again. Regardless of whether you leave this 30 mins or 2 hours the process is repeated on the breast with her falling asleep straight away.

She WILL stay awake for the bottle which is why we introduced that last feed, but other than going onto formula completely which I don't want to do, I can't see any way of getting onto the EASY routine. I've tried to express milk but get a maximum of 2 ounces PER DAY, which is obviously not enough to switch to expressed breast milk.

I'd love to have a contented baby for all our sakes, but at the moment I either have an asleep at the breast baby or a screaming baby - It's breaking my heart!

Any advice???

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

How's it going now? Did you get any help with this yet?

[carybear]

I'd suggest continuing to pump as much as you can, try just after you feed her, whether she's had a full feed or not.  Or put the pump on the breast that she's not eating from at that moment,  yeah I know it's awkward but it helps.  I did that when I needed to get lots of BM stored for a test I was having done. Boy did it build up my suppply.
You might also try some tea or herbs to build up your supply. I have an over abundant supply so I don't use them myself this time around but I did use some tea with my son. 
good luck, I hope things start to come into a more sane place for you.  Have you tried a pacifier? maybe she just needs to suck...just a thought

[Luisasmum]

I had the same prob with my boy. He started improving at 6 weeks and by 8 weeks he was awake the whole feed, every feed. Still doesn't drink for more than 10 mins though 

Hope your dd grows out of it soon. Good luck!

[chillyigloo]

Goodness me .. it's been a long time since I posted that post but I wanted to update you.

Things did get easier ... eventually ... it took a long time!

By 12 weeks, she was staying awake for about 10-15 mins on the breast (we never completely got out of the falling asleep lark!) and so was getting a nice amount of breast milk. Unfortunately, she wasn't getting quite enough to sustain her growth so over the following few months she had to have more and more formula but I insisted on making sure she had at least some breast milk until about 5 1/2 months when I finally accepted defeat and we put her on formula full time. She suddenly shot up the growth charts and was soon up to a better weight.

Do I think I did the right thing in persevering? Yes and no. I am CERTAIN of the benefits of breastfeeding, but I was rather shocked at how quickly she grew on formula, sugesting that she really wasn't getting enough from me.

Stil, I now have a gorgeous 9 month old who I can't keep still. She crawls everywhere and just yesterday I found her standing on her own in the middle of the room, albeit looking rather alarmed at herself! It obviously didn't do her any harm being breastfed and must have done her some good.

 

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

Thanks so much for the update!  Glad she's doing so well and good for you for breastfeeding as long as you did!