Saturday, February 21, 2009
Breastfeeding Advice
To all of those successful breastfeeders I need help. Belen eats every hour sometimes every half an hour. The doctor said that it is normal, but next week she will be 2 months and I know there has to be a better way. She will eat for 5 minutes and then fall asleep. I can't wake her up enough to keep eating. I want her to continue to breastfeed, but I don't know how much longer I can do it if it is like this. I have plenty of milk, so I know that isnt the problem. So if anyone has some advise I would really appreciate it. Thanks
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I only breastfed the girls for a few months but I can offer some advise. You shouldn't have to breastfeeding Belen so often. Make sure you wake her up so that she drinks enough in one sitting. Try rubbing her cheeks, hands, legs to wake her up. If it doesn't work, undress her, that usually wakes them up.
I feel your pain. Eric was the exact same way and it really frustrated me. I had to undress him a couple times, but since here in Brazil it's very warm, that didn't work either. If you give her a bottle w/ formula she'll end up sleeping anyway, so I don't know if that is a better choice, especially if you have plenty of milk. What I would do is I would start talking to him really loud or turn on some music on my computer. Now, the problem I have is that he eats for 10 minutes and then 2 hours later he's hungry again, and he is 3 months old. But now since I got used to it and it doesn't hurt anymore I just offer him some everytime he starts fussing.
Man, that didn't make any sense!
It sounds like Belen is just snacking instead of getting a full feeding, especially the good milk that comes by 15 minutes of the feeding. At 2 months Sadie was still eating every 2 hours, I wanted to make sure she gained the weight she needed to and then she stretched to 3hours. To wake her up I rubbed her cheeks and the palms of her hands and I also tried undressing her. I read in a book if that doesn't work let her sleep and feed her as soon as she wakes up. Good luck. I know it will get better.
I'm sorry! I probably won't be much help because I nursed Austin for 10 months (up until we found out i was pregnant again) and he did awesome. I did have to get a cool washcloth and wipe his forehead or the back of his neck at times when he wanted to fall asleep so you could try that. I know that a lot of people will say try and get them on a schedule and if you have to wake them up from nap time to keep them on that schedule. I tried that for a couple of weeks to see if he would eat more but it was way worse. He would fuss and cry until i put him back in bed. The best i can tell you is her stomach is still really small, about the size of a large nut, so either way she'll get full fast and hungry fast. Keep it up!!!!! It is very worth it in the end. Plus bottles SUCK! I had to do bottles for two months and i hated every minute of it!!!! Hopefully it gets better!
Thomas used to fall asleep a lot too, so much that to get him to eat enough, it would usually take him an hour for each feeding. Try to tickle her, keep messing with her hair, burp her often. Change breast as soon as she starts falling asleep. What I did too, is I tried to stretch him, so when he started getting hungry again, I would wait a little more, let him cry a little so that he would be really hungry and eat right. Thomas was like that for a while too, in fact, he still falls asleep when I feed him at night sometimes, so he doesn't always sleep as much as I would like him to.
But don't give up, be calm e have patience, it's probably taking longer for her too because she was born early, so she can't be compared to full term babies.
Also, I would sometimes get a little washcloth wet and if he fell sleep I would run across his belly, feet or cheeks, it usually woke him up.
Post a Comment