r/breastfeeding

I am ebf my 7 week old baby. to date, we have had one 5 hour stretch of sleep and a couple of 3 hours but overall I am finding the nights really difficult. I will nurse him to sleep, keep him upright for around 20 mins then slowly transfer him to his next to me crib. IF this is successful, he's currently sleeping about 30 mins to an hour then will wake up again. I try to leave him if he is fussing but with his eyes closed and will just get him and soothe/ feed if he is starting to sound distressed and has his eyes open.

I sometimes get one or two 2.5 hour stretch at the beginning or end of the night but overall my nights are really broken. My partner does offer to help more but he rarely settles on him at night and I want him to get his sleep so a) he can safely go to work, b) he is able to support more practically in the evenings and c) I hate the thought of him struggling mentally in the way that I do from sleep deprivation.

I don't expect him to sleep through the night but my question is, can I expect to get some longer stretches of sleep more consistently soon? The sleep deprivation really impacts my mood and I will feel really low and tearful during the day. If he does manage even just two 2-2.5 hour stretches I feel much more positive and am able to interact with him a lot better. I feel so guilty when I just have no energy and although I do make effort to talk to him throughout the day, I am much less mentally present and am worried that it's having a detrimental impact on his attachment and development. I'm starting to seriously think about introducing formula in an attempt to just get one longer stretch of sleep but I feel a lot of guilt around doing this especially so early on and from what I've read it doesn't always make a difference.

Apologies if any of this doesn't make sense, I write this in the early hours of the morning in desperation!

Okay I’m 4 weeks postpartum and everyone told me I would spray??? And was honestly during pregnancy I was looking forward to the fact that I was gonna be able to possibly shoot milk at my husband for laughs. But I don’t/can’t spray?? I just drip. Does it come eventually or does not everyone spray?? This is such a weird question I’m sorry but I’m so confused

I’m currently 8 days postpartum and my milk hasn’t come in. Getting drops of milk when i’m pumping. Has this happened to anyone else?

My long story short: I had a "normal" baby (no oral ties, average size, no birth complications) and I have "normal" nipples (not flat or inverted). But try as we might, we could never get a latch that wasn’t painful. (Ok, it happened 2 times, both with an IBCLC- not comfortable, but not painful. But we could never do it on our own.)

We started using a nipple shield early on, and it was amazing. It allowed us to latch! Personally, it didn't adversely affect my supply. I tried to wean off the shield, many times, many ways. We never could kick it. Every attempt was so frustrating for baby. I felt that I must be doing something wrong. I felt less-than. I felt embarrassed.

Let me tell you: there are a lot of things to worry about in momhood, but whatever feeding method works for you and your baby is not one of them.

This works for us. I have 2 shields in every room, 3 in the diaper bag, some in the car, some in the bedside table, usually one in my bra… I’m so grateful for this tool that allowed us to exclusively breastfeed. Here I sit, nursing my 14 month old, with a shield.

It happened after my first, but I got pregnant again about 6 months after I weaned her so I didn’t have much time to dwell. However I weaned my 2nd child in early 2023. My boobs still randomly smell like milk. In the worst way. It’s especially bad when I’m sweating but not limited to sweating. I have randomly tried to self express just to see, and nothing comes out. I never notice any actual leaking. Is this something other moms experience? Google didn’t say much.

My 5-month-old has been waking every 30–60 minutes overnight and I’m completely exhausted.

This started around 3 months and has only gotten worse. I’ll put him down asleep, and he’ll often wake again within 10–30 minutes. He immediately wants to breastfeed, and if I don’t feed him he screams. Rocking, patting, shushing, cuddling, bouncing… nothing works. He won’t take a dummy/pacifier either.

A few extra details:
Exclusively breastfed.
Not interested in switching to formula.
Pumping isn’t an option for me.
He hasn’t started solids yet.
He won’t settle lying next to me, so co-sleeping hasn’t worked for us either.
Have started practising falling asleep during the day in own cot.
Doesn't feed to sleep during the day.

I’m just wondering if anyone has been through something similar. Did anything help? Or was it just a phase that eventually passed?

I’d really appreciate any tips, advice, or even reassurance because I’m running on empty. 🤎

I’m 13 months pp and trying to conceive again. I have exclusively breastfed my baby since she was born and my cycle has not been regular- I’ve missed a few months here and there. Ive started day weaning her last month and now shes almost completely day weaned (sometimes she still nurses once a day and a few times during night time). I missed my cycle these past few months and got it back when I started day weaning which was last month. Has anyone else gotten pregnant right after day weaning or would I have to completely wean?

We are currently combo feeding (primarily breast milk) my 6 week old. For context my husbands family strongly shared their “breast is best” opinion. My baby has really bad reflux, is super fussy and colicky. I have cut out dairy, spicy foods and we switched to a gentle formula. Nothing seems to have helped. My husband and his family are quick to blame it on what i’m eating. I can’t stand the contradictory nature of preaching “breast is best” and then blaming the breastmilk immediately.
I had dairy free ice cream tonight and later the baby was spitting up a ton and having many poops. My husband’s immediate reaction was “was it not actually dairy free ice cream ?” and saying we should switch to formula only so we don’t have to keep guessing. If I stop breastfeeding I will feel like such a failure, I don’t know what to do.

How long did it last, and how did you get through it?

Looking for solidarity during this time, I’m trying really hard not to spiral.

I’m 4 months PP and just got my period back today and oh my god I was not prepared for that! I had been very lightly spotting for about a week so I assumed it was getting ready to come. When I went to the bathroom today there was so much blood I almost called my mom in because I thought something on me had to be cut open and was gushing blood lol. I knew the first period was going to be rough but was not prepared for that.

Did you notice any supply dip when your period came back? Did it dip before your period or during your period? I’m nursing and only pumping occasionally so I can’t really tell if my supply has dipped and I’m worried about how to protect it and maintain my supply. Would baby just be extra fussy/cluster feed if my supply dipped?

I feel like biology should let us press a button when we’re ready for our periods to come back after dealing with pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and breastfeeding. When does the suffering end😭

My baby is just about a year and we’ve fed to sleep for almost every nap and bedtime since birth. People always tell me how it’s a bad habit and baby will never learn to sleep on their own but it’s working for both of us so I haven’t really thought much of it. However I’ve been wondering how long it’ll work for? Like I genuinely don’t see how I’ll ever stop bc LO all but demands milk before sleep hahaha

For those of you who have weaned a breastfeeding toddler, how are they now falling asleep???

For context, my daughter is 16 months old and nurses to sleep before her 1 nap, before bed, and during the average of 3-4 night wakings. But like, how will she fall asleep besides boob? She hates rocking and bum pats. What did your toddlers do during the transition?

For context, My EBF LO is 8 weeks old and we have been fighting with a persistent nappy rash since week 2 mainly because he is still pooing/sharting contantly throughout the day so it has been so hard to get on top off with the constant nappy changing, sometimes up to 21 times a day! The rash is only starting to heal now after 3 trips to the Dr's.

I have also recently cut out dairy to see if this makes any difference as his poos have mostly been green for the last few weeks and fluctuating between mucusy and frothy.

I had been told that breastfed babies start to poo a lot less once they hit 6-8 weeks, was this the case for your LO?

So my supply has been slowly winding up for my 14 month old. This is fine - she still has a couple of good sessions throughout the day. My issue is that she often has these frantic almost "pseudo" feeding moments when she cries and pulls at my top frantically (often scratch me really bad in the process) suckles for like 30 seconds then jumps off to do something else only to come back and repeat process minutes later.

I don't know what to do. Maybe 1 time out of 10 it's seeking a proper a feed (which goes for about 5 ish minutes) but most of the time it's these frantic false starts. I don't really know what to do. I want it to stop as I'm constantly getting scratched up and whipping them out for 30 seconds before she changes her mind. I don't think it's an impatient thing for the let down, as when she wants a feed she can still trigger it.

Should I just wean her at this point? To stop it all together? I was hoping to follow the CDC guidelines and go until 2 but she's a good eater so I'm open to stopping. Mainly want her to still breastfeed for the immune support as she's in daycare and we are getting every virus under the sun.

Any advice appreciated.

My baby is 11 weeks old. He has suddenly started to refuse breastmilk after a minute or two. Even if i have the let down, he drinks for a minute only and then starts crying (so i know waiting for let down or supply isn’t the issue). I wouldn’t worry much if he was acting normally otherwise but his urine output has also reduced significantly. He used to have 8-10 wet diapers a day but now having 5 wet diapers since past 2 days. Once it had been 4.5 hours and he had not peed once while he used to pee every 30 minutes. Anyone had similar experience or any advice?

My nipples are so bruised and swollen. Last night I was crying the whole time he was latched. I did a couple bottles of formula today to give myself a break and it still hurt but I thought it was going better until I saw he spit up blood in his bassinet. I found out it wasn’t his it was mine. I feel so sad and defeated

It gets better they said. Just bullshit.

Almost 5 months and baby still screams at the breast. It’s extra fun when we are out and I’m trying to breastfeed and he’s refusing. Picture me with my boob out try to get him to latch and he’s screaming.

I just hate this so much.

If I hadn’t breastfed by daughter until 1 I would have stopped.

It’s hard because I know my supply is fine.

He continues to refuse often. And he doesn’t get that many bottles.

It’s like I’m continuing all this and it’s so stressful every day. I pump 4x per day M-F.

No one sees the daily struggle and toll this takes on me.

It feels like a brain freeze or migraine that’s so intense I literally have to stop moving and wait until it fades off. Currently 6 weeks pp and just when I think I’ve figured out a solution it comes back.

Has anyone had this and if so, did anything help or how long did it last? This pain only started like 4.5 weeks pp for me

I began the weaning process when my baby turned a year old. We gradually got ourselves down from about 3x a day to overnight only, and now I haven’t nursed at all in 8 days and she hasn’t asked. She drinks whole milk from a sippy cup before bed.

However, I’m still dealing with painful engorgement on one side only (the side that she heavily favored, of course). I basically had no problems with the weaning on the other side. I felt some relief about 4 days ago when I woke up, but the clogged duct painful feeling has since returned. I’m using ice packs, taking advil- I pumped as I started the weaning process, but I would like to avoid that at this point as I think it would just perpetuate this process? I did drink the No Flow tea twice over the past week, but I’ve been lazy with it.

Looking for any and all tips to get myself over the hump and to find some relief 🥲😮‍💨

Hi everyone! I hope my question will make sense. This is my first post here and I’m a bit desperate…

A bit of background:
I had my first baby 4 days ago and I was really hoping to breastfeed, but it’s not been going well at all…
The first few days, I couldn’t express anything… no colostrum, no milk… nada… So, my son was given formula by hospital staff. I was told that my c-section may have delayed my milk coming in. After I went home (late on day 3), my breasts suddenly started producing a bit of milk and there was some leaking. So, I immediately tried putting him to the breast, but barely anything was coming out. So, I tried pumping with my cordless breast pump and I got less than 5mls. Now, it’s the next day, my breasts have become very full and uncomfortable with red blotches. I’ve barely slept and I’ve tried using warm compresses, cold compresses, massaging in various ways, I keep trying to breastfeed, and pump, but nothing seems to be getting much milk out. I also never really saw obvious colostrum. It felt like I went from nothing to a minimal supply of runny milk that barely wants to come out.

Has anyone had this happen after a C-section and did your supply still work out? Any tips and tricks from the conventional to the unconventional?

I’m feeling really overwhelmed and guilty about him not having gotten the colostrum and still not getting breast milk. I would love to hear how it worked out for you if this happened. I just feel like nothing is working and I want to cry. I’ll be going to the doctor tomorrow if I can’t fix this today… but, with having just had a c-section with a lot of nerve pain, I was hoping to avoid another car ride this soon. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated.