Nursing struggle after I returned to work!

[elcoyne]

My 3 month old has been nursing like a champ now since she was born. I had the normal nipple soreness issues in the beginning, however she never had a problem staying on my breast. During the last 2 months in prep for my return to work my husband would give a bottle of breast milk a few times per week. She was never crazy about it, but if she was hungry, she took it no problem. I went back to work last week and my first day she seemed to just drink enough to get by, about 6-9 ounces, and I nursed her on my lunch break and then again when I came home at 8 pm. The next 2 days she drank about 25 ounces of breast milk from a bottle. She nursed fine for me at night, no issues. But now....she is not staying on the breast long enough to get any milk. She fusses after about 30 seconds, arches her back, and shakes her head during her day time feeds. She takes the breast when she is really hungry, but nothing like before. She is taking th breast fine at night still and first thing in the morning, but daily feeds are a mess! She also used to sleep for between 7-9 hours at night wake up for a feed, then go back down for a couple more hours. She now gets up about 5 times a night, not always hungry but needs to rock, or be soothed in some way. She is drooling and biting her fists as well. Is this seperation anxiety, teething??? Help! I am trying to be patient and offer the breast as much as possible when I am home. But I feel upset that she is so disrupted.

[Bumpy]

do you have a slow flow nipple?
Sometimes the fast flow nipples become there preference.
Also make sure you have bottle the is good for breastfeeding babies, while a wide mouth. Let me know if you have anymore questions about the bottle, which on are you using?

[madelsmama]

Sounds like she is getting used to the ease of the bottle and frustrated with the slow-ness of the initial flow of the breast.

Read this link for some tips of how to slowly feed a bottle to a breastfed baby:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottle-feeding.html

Also, the breastflow bottle is good for mimicking the same work that is required to extract milk from the breast and does not drip out the nipple automatically as most bottle nipples do (it has a two-part nipple).
http://www.target.com/First-Years-3-pk-Breastflow-Bottles/dp/B000SBIMTM

I would print it out and take it to your caregiver. Sounds like she is definitely beginning to teethe and needs to be comforted during the night. In the meantime, I would encourage you to have lots of skin to skin time and to continue to nurse ONLY when you're together and refrain from using a bottle. You might consider hand expressing or pumping just a tad before offering the breast to "prime the nipple", so to speak, allowing her to get an instant reward when she begins nursing.

Hang in there. All is not lost!

[whitnessforhim]

I agree with madelsmama..she's probably showing bottle preference. I use the breastflow bottles and have had no problem with DD making the switch from bottle to breast. At first my DD didn't take to well to these bottles but over time she got use to them...You might want to give it a try. I know you can buy them at Babies R Us.

It also sounds like the frequent night feedings might be due to teething. My DD was doing the same thing, waking every single hour to nurse. The ladies here suggested the Hylands teething tablets and they have worked great!