10 days PP; need BF advice!
As the title indicates, I gave birth to my son 10 days ago and I am really struggling with feeding him (I’m a FTM). Our plan was to breastfeed and pump so my husband/family members can help with feeding.
The birth was an unplanned c section (which resulted in me hemorrhaging) so the recovery has been more intense than I was expecting. My hospital stay did include some lactation/breastfeeding support (for latching and pumping) but for the most part, I was in a lot of pain and trying to recover.
My son was able to latch a few days after he was born, but I only had a little bit of colostrum at the time. The doctors and nurses weren’t too concerned with his intake but I was worried he was hungry and since my supply was so low/non-existent, the nurses recommended formula or donor breast milk. So we started giving my son bottles of the donor breast milk in the hospital, while I tried to pump.
I expressed my worries that my milk wasn’t coming in and I was told to give it time and that my body had gone through a lot so it might need to heal/stabilize first. In the meantime, we came home and started giving my son bottles of formula.
Now that I’m home, I’m realizing that I should have been trying to breastfeed the whole time. I’ve been pumping while he gets formula (mixing in my breast milk whenever I can), but my supply only increased to maybe 20-40ml per session. I was also breastfeeding but just here and there between pumps to trigger the supply.
I feel awful, we only started the formula because I thought he was so hungry and I wasn’t able to give him what he needed. Now I’m trying to only breastfeed and I feel guilty that he’s not getting as much from me as he was from the formula bottles. I spent most of my day yesterday just trying to breastfeed but crying over the fact that my baby is hungry when he feeds from me because he doesn’t settle down/sleep after I feed him. He would settle after a formula bottle.
I don’t know what to do now. We are still supplementing with formula especially when I’m trying to sleep but it’s less than before. I’m breastfeeding him as much as I can now, but he needs it more often and is overall sleeping less than when he was getting the formula bottles.
I feel stuck and helpless, if I keep breastfeeding then I’m guilty he’s not fed; if we go back to the formula, then I don’t know how to increase my supply.
Apologies for any errors!