She keeps falling asleep

[agrossgreen]

I am up to my 3rd week with my daughter, we have improved greatly at breastfeeding and have stuck to a mixture of that and bottle fed expressed milk at all times. However I need to use a nipple protector to get her going, as my breasts are very full at the start, and also she falls asleep every 10mins for about 5mins at a time and then won't eat anymore. I have been topping up with 2oz of expressed stuff after half an hour of feeding as need to keep her weight up. Ultimately it is a slow process; feeding, bottle feeding and expressing every 3 hours, I wonder if there is a way I can best enourage the breast only route without compromising on the amount of food she is getting.

[Babyfood]

I am probably not the best one for advice but I know what you are experiencing. My son was in ICU with an infection for a week after his birth. I was trying to exclusively breast feed. I did go and nurse him in the ICU for every other feeding. The nurses fed him expressed milk for the feedings that I could not be there. I remember the nurses telling me that he would take 3 oz or keep on drinking more milk from the bottle. When I was there to nurse, as soon as he was latched on......zzzzzzzzzzzz....he fell asleep. I did everything to keep him up. I got a wet washcloth and wiped his face, took his clothes off so he would not be warm and snuggly, changed his diaper prior to nursing hoping that would wake him up.....hardly anything worked. So...when we finally did come home, that is how it continued for about a month. I just continued to offer every 2 or 3 hours or as soon as he showed interest. By the 2nd month, he got the hang of it. The lactation specialist that I talked to said that they will never starve. They will nurse when offered if they are hungry. It is the comfort of being close to mom that makes them fall asleep on the breast. And really.........that is so sweet to think about. But...the only advice that I could give is to be at her beck and call and to just be ready when she is ready. She will get the hang of it. When I got home from the hospital, I stopped offering a bottle until I was ready to go back to work (when my son was about 5mos)...only because I did not want nipple confusion to arise. Breastfeeding is complete dedication! And, it really, really pays off. My son is now a year and still breastfeeding like champ. Now, when he nurses, I grab a book and relax!! Good luck!

[Lorraine76]

You mentioned that you are using a nipple shield when you first put her on because your breasts are too full...maybe you can try hand expressing a little bit of milk just before you put her on. This will empty them a little bit and soften the tissue under the areola making it easier for her to attach.

Some babies are really efficient at removing milk from the breast and so they only need to feed for a few minutes at a time. So if her growth is fine then there may not be any need to top her up.

Using a bottle at this early age could lead to nipple confusion and cause her to wean, or lead to nipple problems for you. Getting milk from a bottle is much easier than milking the breast so she may be getting tired from all the work as opposed to what she needs to do with the bottle.

It may be helpful to talk to your health nurse before doing this but it might be worth trying to stop using the bottle and just persist with the breast for a few days to see what happens, if her growth doesn't drop then you know you can just stick to the breast.

Good luck with it.
Lorraine.
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