We’ve come a long way, baby….

How things have changed since my last post, and yet, stayed the same.
Lots of yaddah, yaddah, yaddah about breast feeding coming up, so if' it’s not your bag, the go somewhere else fun. BUT there is a really cute video of Pebble at the end…….
I’ve stopped waking Pebble up to feed…. kind of. The last three nights she has slept through (!!) her feed time (2am ish) so I have gently picked her sleepy body up, fed her, and put her back down. I didn’t know that you could do this! This is one little piece of wisdom I learned by attending the city hospital Breastfeeding Unit on Friday. Wednesday and Thursday were ridiculous, I was at my wits end. Pebble was getting crankier and crankier, afternoons and evenings were horrendous. I suspected that supply was the issue, and luckily found a place at the BF Unit as another person cancelled.
The advice they gave me was:

• increase my domperidone from two the three tablets a day.
• express after as many feeds as I can, but not immediately afterwards. Try to wait at least 30 mins but no more than 45mins (to allow for the milk to come in, but not to take away from the next feed).
• demand feed, putting Pebble to the breast whenever she appears hungry (rather than trying to stretch out her feeds to a designated time).
• continue with the 100ml evening formula top up, but replace with breast milk where possible, or try to express that same amount each day to communicate the supply/demand.
• slightly modify my positioning and attachment (chin closer to the chest, and babe’s head more in line with the nipple).
• dream feed in the night if Pebble doesn’t wake for a feed (I used to properly wake her up, unwrapping her etc). This is to make sure that I’m still getting breast demand at night.

So, I’ve been dutifully doing all of this, and it’s going quite well. Sometimes Pebble seems hungry after her play, so as I’ve just expressed some milk I’ll feed that to her, then she has a nice sleep (much better than previously). She gets too frustrated to get this milk from the breast herself, as the let down is quite slow so soon after a feed, and she kicks, cries and pulls off when I try to breastfeed her. By expressing I can massage and get as much milk as possible, then give it to her easily. We don’t seem to have any breast/bottle confusion, thankfully.
I still try and keep Pebble asleep during the day for as long as I can, rather than letting her stirring wake her up completely. She feeds so much better after there’s been a decent gap between feeds, as it’s less frustrating for her and she’s hungrier. She’s also happier.
 
I’ll give this all a couple more weeks, but if I can’t get it sorted I really don’t know how much longer I can carry on with full breastfeeding. It’s alright to do all this while at home, but if I want to get out and about (AND I DO!) I can’t continue with the breast massage and expressing, or the frustrated feeding that occurs when I haven’t been able to massage and express.
Do you have a breast feeding story? Or advice?
Here’s a smiley Pebble for you….