1. Do you believe that I should have continued exclusively breastfeeding even though she was demanding a feed every 20-45min? Has this happened to anyone as I don't see a question or comment like this posted on various sites I checked?
2. I am still breastfeeding once a day, 3 times a week and each feed lasts 2-5min. Should I continue like this until about 7 months or do you feel that it is such a little amount of milk that it wouldn't help my baby in any case, so I should rather stop breastfeeding altogether?
3. From everything I mentioned, do you still believe that my baby got the nutrients from whatever milk she did have even though I was formula feeding and breastfeeding so early in her life? (She was weighed at 15 weeks and was 6.3kg-little more than double of her birthweight (3.01kg)).
4. I love alcohol, it must be said! But when I was pregnant I didn't indulge and if I did, I had a sip of beer or a sip of a cider and that was probably about 5 times or less in the first 6 months. Thereafter I had nothing, not even the sip. So I was craving alcohol after she was born and about 9 days after she was born, I had about 5 glasses of champagne and 2 beers. However, I only breastfed about 2 days later. Whenever I have alcohol, I don't breastfeed until a full day after. I don't indulge in spirited drinks and stick to wines, beers, ciders, etc but I do have quite a bit of it. Example, on a friday night I can drink close to a litre of wine and I can do the same on Saturday. On Sunday, I probably will have about 3 glasses of wine and maybe 2 beers. I then don't feed on a Monday and only feed from Tuesday morning. Is this okay?
First let me start off by saying I feel your pain. On every aspect of this question. More than there are words enough. And I am long winded. (hail whiskey) Okay not that I got that out of my system.
I don't know where you live, buthttp://www.llli.org/ AWESOME people, a group in a town near you kind of thing. I have been an avid supporter and member for going on 9 years now. For the EXACT reason you cited as your original frustration. These people helped me tremendously! If for no other reason than to feel better about this and to have the support I HIGHLY recommend these breast feeding experts and support people.
This is more than likely an issue of your milk not coming in fast enough. It's a very very common occurrence and not at all strange. Her eating for that length of time was her way of getting what she needed, but it was also helping your milk supply develop.
I would actually encourage you to try and feed for around 10 minutes on each side if you can. That amount of time will ensure that your baby gets all of the fat and most healthy parts of your milk.
But the most important thing you need to know is that any breast milk your baby receives is a good thing. Breast milk contains immunities that formula will never be able to replicate. For that on reason whatever amount of milk you can or choose to give her for the first six months is a good thing. Your baby will have a healthy and functional immune system by about 6 months, if that gives you an indicator for comfort ability about when a lot of women choose to stop breastfeeding. If you are having a hard time relaxing it can effect your milk, if you are stressed, or sick, or tired, anything can effect your milk. There are a lot of variants for your body, but it's important to keep in mind that trying because you want to is not a bad thing. You don't have to breastfeed just because other people do it, if you feel like it's becoming more trouble than it is worth, or if you feel as though it's more stressful than it is helpful, it is okay to call it quits for you and for your child. Don't feel bad for having tried. I fully breastfed my son till 5 months then he got breast, bottle, and cereal. My daughter was fully breastfed the first month, she developed breast milk jaundice I hand pumped for a couple of weeks and tried again till 6 months and it actually had adverse effects. We did months of testing and found out that she had a malabsorption issue. I had to give her formula, almost twice what a regular baby ate at each feeding. talk about stress. My point being, you do what is best for your child, if she needs to eat she needs to eat.
What about pumping your milk? How has that gone for you? There are so many things i could tell you I don't actually think I can put it all in here. Like, it takes 2 weeks for any effort you put into pumping your milk to start showing in the amount of output you have in your breast milk. I have never been able to successfully use a pump, I sure wish I had, I hand processed every dang drop I got out of me and it took FOREVER each time.
As for the alcohol in your breast milk.
LLLI | FAQ on Alcohol This is a part of their FAQ, and I sure hope it's right because I have used those guidelines to drink for years when breastfeeding.
Here's my disclaimer:
A lot of opinions about breast feeding depend on the person, so any advice is great advice because each person's body is different. If you disagree, right on, express it nicely so I can learn too!
If I was unclear I apologize, it's an awful lot to cover in one post. Please let me know if you need something elaborated. Also the FAQ at LeLeche should be able to very easily answer any of these questions as well.
