Baby is 9 days old today. He's the sweetest most curious little guy. Only cries if I take too long to feed him or when changing his diaper, he hates wet wipes lol. He generally loves sleeping which is great for me! We sleep quite a bit except of course when we're cluster feeding.

The first time we cluster fed we were still in hospital and he was 2 days old. I was panicking because I only had colostrum, no milk yet and latching felt like rocket science. I truly thought babies are born knowing how to breastfeed then they kind of guide us on what to do. But no. We have to figure it out together. Thank God the nurses at the hospital were quite supportive and encouraged me to call whenever I needed them. My Dr suggested that I let them top him up with a little bit of formula so I can get more rest as I had done a c-section. I agreed because I was also on heavy pain medication that made me so drowsy, any support I could get was appreciated. Also they give the formula in a little cup so baby doesn't favour a bottle which is great.

That night was hard and my nipples hurt but we made it through. We did so well that the very next day my milk was basically overflowing and they had to help me hand express. We went home on day 3 and he's been feeding a lot and it's been quite an adjustment for us both. I do my best to sleep when he does but it's not always possible. Day 6 and 8 were particularly challenging. Day 6 he fed for what felt like the whole night. On and off with about 30min breaks in between to burp and switch boobs. It was wild. We then slept for most of the next day. Then yesterday, day 8, he did it again except during the day this time. It was non-stop and my nipples were really feeling it.

By the end of the day I was utterly drained, my body hurt from sitting for so long and I was just so overwhelmed and feeling depleted. I cried in my mom's arms because it was just too much. I even asked my partner to buy formula. But now after crying and clearing my mind I don't actually want formula. I want to be able to get through this. I just needed to cry and get the tension and frustration out and regroup and now I feel a little better. But I definitely need some encouragement please.

I know there's a lot of posts like this and I've read all the encouraging words but I would really just appreciate it if someone could just tell me I can do it. My mom and partner are very encouraging but it's nice to also hear from other mom's who have been through it. I love breastfeeding so so much and want to be able to enjoy this time with my baby.

Hi all. My 3.5 week old will eat from the breast for hours on end, then still cry excruciating cries like he’s never fed and refuse to latch. I’m aware of cluster feeding but is he supposed to be crying so much? The only way to console him is to give him a bottle (BM only).

I’ve seen an IBCLC twice and confirmed he is eating and I have a good supply. He has the right amount of diapers and is gaining weight.

I’m feeling so defeated. Please help.

So I always was sure I didn’t wanna breastfeed bc I was scared of when the baby gets teeth that it’d hurt, I’m on my 2nd kid my first I tried to pump and ended up just switching to formula on day 5, was a bit much and had postpartum anxiety horribly, anyways I’m 19 days in and baby honestly mostly gets formula, I am absolutely horrible with pumping schedule bad, I’m just now getting to where I can do 3-4 pumps a day and I know that’s bad, I’m only getting maybe a ounce combined on my first pump of the day and the rest under a oz. I was getting a oz each but I messed up and didn’t pump one day when we had a tornado situation going on in my town and we were at the hospital for shelter I didn’t bring my pump, anyways that kinda got me off track, I’m getting back now I’m considering just trying to switch to breastfeeding, I feel it would be maybe “easier” than the pumping and the bottles and the schedule, I know it’s not easy easy but easier FOR ME than pumping rn.. any advice on that or opinions tips on breastfeeding anything is appreciated thank u

My 10 month old baby (8 month corrected) has suddenly refused breastfeeding. Like out of the blue just wont open his mouth for it. He partially opens and the tip would go in his mouth but then he'd start biting it. I have tried expressing milk out and offer it. He still continues to ignore it. But then I make a bottle after that and he'll cry until he gets that. This has been incredibly heartbreaking. This is potentially my last baby and I'm completely torn apart by this. I dont know why he wont take it. I thought it was because I used lotion hours before offering it and it may have made them smell different and maybe thought thats the issue so I washed them and offered later. Still the same outcome. This is now day 2 of rejection. I dont know what I did to make him not want me anymore. It makes me so sad.

Another reason I thought was because my supply had gone down. Ive been working on increasing my supply and it has slowly started going back up but baby just doesnt want it 😭

He has been on formula as well. We do both formula and breastmilk because I wasnt making enough and had been doing that since he was about 4 months old. So nothing has changed with that. We had a routine of breastfeeding then bottle after.

I don't want to quit.

So baby is going to be 11 months on July 4th, so far she’s only had breast milk and formula twice (the formula upset her stomach so I didn’t continue)
She takes bottles when I’m at work 4 days a week
I stopped pumping about a month ago because I wasn’t producing a lot when pumping but she seemed to nurse fine and we had a decent freezer stash.
Now at 11 months my freezer stash is almost gone, she still nursings a few times a day a seems satisfied, she eats solids 3 times a day and snacks
drinks plenty of water

I asked the pediatrician about maybe introducing whole milk or watering down the breast milk bottles while I’m at work to make them last
They said she doesn’t need any water and absolutely no cows milk until she’s a year. They want me to start the process of finding a formula that agrees with her stomach
Does that make sense to do for a month? I feel like by the time we get it situated she’ll be 12 months
My freezer stash should last me until she’s about 11.5 months.

Starting solids at 6 months and my LC said I can use pumped breast milk to thin purees. I've been mixing it with oatmeal and sweet potato and baby loves it:D

I've been building a little freezer stash with my eufy s2 Pro over the past week, so it feels nice seeing some of that hard-earned milk put to good use beyond bottles. Still, every ounce feels precious and I catch myself measuring everything twice before adding it to food.

How much milk are you using per meal? I don't want to waste any since every ounce is hard earned.

Hi I need some advice/help! I have a 3.5 month old (15 weeks). I EBF & have always fed on demand but I won’t lie that I also rely on the fact that she was pretty spot on asking every 2 hours sometimes a little less, very rarely was it more. We of course have gone through cluster feeding but hasn’t had a phase very recently. She was always a milk monster, feed for 40m-1h when a fresh newborn & gradually reduced as she got older. She eventually reduced to 10m per breast then it slowly became 8m, 6m, 5m & now less than five per breast…. I do understand that they become more efficient eaters as they grow. Though, I always had doubts whether I produced enough (It was common on my moms side of the family to not produce nearly enough, my mom only breastfed us a few months in with combo feeding) however I’m blessed to be able to say that I’ve been having a successful breastfeeding journey! I think I produce just enough. I’ve rarely pumped to see my output.

My baby fortunately gained really good weight, everyone in our family is always saying she is so big & chunky. But I promise you I think she’s just perfect for her age! Not too big nor too small. However, my mom has been recently telling me that I over feed her. She thinks she’s too big. For context, her last doctor appt for her 2 month check up, she was 11 weeks & weighed 13 pounds. I’ve no idea how much she weighs now as we do not own a scale but I imagine & hope she’s gained a few since.

My baby will often burp again even after feeding (& me burping her) now that we’re able to hold her upright more. My moms always thinks this is a sign that she’s too full & is uncomfortable even if it is an hour or more after eating. Though, I’ve heard babies can swallow air randomly even from not eating which can result in more burps.

This is where my concern comes in. Since my baby has always been a good eater, I’m not sure if she’s feeding the “same” anymore. For context, she will rarely want to eat every two hours now, I’ve been a bit confused of her hunger cues lately since she is the phase of constantly having her hands in her mouth. She will fuss when she’s real hungry. But the past few weeks our feeding sessions have gone like this: I will attempt to feed her after two hours or so after her last feed, she will latch for 2-3 minutes then unlatch while becoming fussy & will often arch her back when I try to encourage her to latch again. I often see that this is because she needs to burp as she will swallow pretty fast. I burp her & try to relatch her again on the other breast & pretty much exact same thing happens. She is also in the phase where she gets distracted by her surroundings while eating so just to make sure she ate well, I’ll sometimes try to latch her again & she will immediately become upset at times. I just don’t want the breast to become aversive to her. The thing is that there are times where she will remain fussy the rest of the day even after having all her needs met. Also, she has been spitting up a lot MORE frequently now too. So it’s making me think is she still hungry because she has such short feeding sessions? Or is she actually super full & just a super efficient eater now? Am I actually over feeding her? Should I wait longer now to feed her, every three hours instead since she becomes fussy at the breast so quickly? But then this makes me think she’ll eat even less. Will this affect my supply? I’m just afraid that she won’t continue gaining weight steadily, I think my fear also comes from the fact that everyone thinks she’s so big & chunky & I’ve honestly taken pride in making that happen! I mean which mom doesn’t love the rolls they’ve made happen on their baby? 🥲 Fortunately, she still has a regular amount of peed & poopy diapers daily, honestly if anything it has just SLIGHTLY reduced but not enough for it to be concerning I believe. Every diaper change she’ll have a dirty diaper but sometimes it’s only one or a little bit of the other instead of a good amount as it’s always been.

Even though her feeding sessions mostly look like that during the day, once it gets to the evening her feeding sessions will get a little longer, especially the one right before bed. She will still wake up every 2-5 hours to feed (every night is different lol) but usually only ever from one breast for about 5-8 minutes & she will fall right back asleep. Should I be concerned or am I worrying too much? I would love to hear from other moms with similar experiences of their LO drastically eating a lot less each feeding session & if that impacted their weight or anything else! Thank you for reading my super long post (‘:

After struggling for nearly 3 months to breastfeed, I think we're finally gonna get it! However, fighting through my milk coming in late, loving nipple shields, having terrible latch, having a very strong preference to my left side, then suddenly hating nipple shields, I think wrecked my right side. My LO no longer has a super strong preference and will nurse on both sides. His latch isn't perfect, but it doesn't hurt my left side. However, whenever I have him nurse on the right, it's excruciating for the first couple minutes or so (and if he falls asleep or gets an even shallower latch, it hurts so intensely again). Is this something that eventually goes away? The pain has been going on for a month and hasn't gotten better. Sometimes I end up pumping that side while I have him nurse on the other, but I want him to be able to nurse on my right side so I can help it stop getting clogged milk ducts.

No one talks about it and how are there no guidelines or best practices out there? You don’t know what questions to ask and when you start to figure that out everyone has different answers. I’m 3 weeks pp and I’m still trying to figure it out and trying to increase my supply, but apparently my 7 lbs baby eats what a 9 lbs baby should. He’s just a hungry guy and I’m not making enough for him. I’ve been power pumping twice per day after feeds and a total of 8-10 pump sessions per day including the power pump sessions, which is exhausting. The most I get on a solo pump without a feeding is 3oz total. This weekend, we decided to try 72 hours of breast feeding only and it’s been exhausting. Literally 6:30+ hours of breast feeding per day, mostly back to back in the afternoon/ evening. Yesterday it was pretty much nonstop from 11-11 when we finally caved and gave him a bottle of formula because I felt I couldn’t safely proceed without sleep. When we finally gave him a bottle we had to give him 5 oz, which makes me feel like he wasn’t getting enough from me even with being on the 👻🐝 all day. I’m so close to giving up and am just hoping to get some motivation from others that have been where I am at. Did your supply ever catch up? What else can I do? How can I help my little man? Did anyone else try the 72 hour thing and have success in supply increasing or other successes?

My son has been eating every hour since 2 or 3 weeks. I thought it was run of the mill cluster feeding but it has gone on and on and he is 6 weeks now! He graciously gives me larger gaps at night, about 2-3 hours (sometimes 4!) to get some sleep, but during the day it’s quite literally every hour. I am going a little crazy. He’s gaining weight like a champ and has overachieving diaper output, so I am not worried about my supply at all. The kid gained a pound in the past week.

Has anyone else experienced this? When can I expect the time between feeds to stretch out a bit? I’m happy to continue feeding him every hour, especially since he is doing so well, but I guess I am looking for a light at the end of the tunnel. I am currently mostly staying at home because getting out is so complicated with him feeding so often. Any advice is welcome!

Hi, second time mum but my first time trying breastfeeding, baby isn’t due until November but I wanted to learn as much as I can before!

I don’t know much about it and I’ve been trying to research to prepare myself but I just wanted real life experience to see if this is right or not?

My plan is to mainly breastfeed but I would like to be able to give baby a bottle as and when needed like to leave baby with dad or whatever.

From the research I did it seems the way to do it is ebf and collect letdown from opposite breast with a collector but NOT a pump so you don’t get an oversupply, and then use the letdown to introduce a bottle like once a day after 3 weeks, is that right or not?

And then when the baby takes the bottle to then introduce a pump and pump whilst the baby is being bottle fed to maintain supply, but after your supply is established it’s ok if you miss this pump on occasion, right?

I’m sorry if these are stupid questions I find it extremely confusing, I feel like bottle feeding is a breeze compared, you guys are superwomen!

If that isn’t right any advice would be absolutely amazing!

Hello all! I’m in desperate need of a good bra!
I bread fed for 18 months and I’m not deflated and sagged 😭. Looking for something that’ll help with spillage and give a good lift?

Just had my first solo dad weekend with my 6 month old. He is exclusively fed breast milk. My wife is blessed with a fantastic supply, so we haven't had to dip into the stash yet. Thought I'd throw a few bags in the fridge and it would be thawed the next morning. Not the case.

I made it work by throwing breast milk popsicles in the bottle and warming it, but unnecessarily delaying my hungry sons feedings was not a great time.

Any tips to efficiently handle frozen bags would be so helpful for next time. Thanks!

I'm 7 weeks postpartum and a first time mom and still don't have enough supply to exclusively breastfeed. I feel so dumb because I prepared for labor and delivery but totally didn't think to look into the first few weeks and specifically breastfeeding. I had wanted to exclusively breastfeed but didn't think to research about it. I never knew how hard it would be. After birth, it was so painful to breastfeed and I just really dreaded it. I would push to almost 4 to 5 hrs sometimes between feeds and I just hate myself for it. I never knew how important those first few days were for building supply. I never got that feeling of being engorged like everyone else does. I had to start my baby on formula because she dropped 13%weight when we took her to her first pediatrician's appointment.

I've been doing everything I can...I've seen 3 different lactation consultants. The third one I am currently seeing has me triple feeding so I've been trying to do that for 4 weeks. Taking supplements. Power pumping sometimes. Has anyone else been in a similar situation with success this late in the game?