I'm trying to wean my baby off formula supplementation. Looking for tips and success stories.
I posted about this a lot. My baby did latch during day one but wouldn't wake up for his feedings so I gave him the bottle a lot the second day. After that it has been a struggle to get him to stay on the breasts. I thought that after my milk supply came in it would be easier but it wasn't. I pumped 8 times a day and got my supply to 3oz and saw and spoke to lactation consultants but he would not latch.
I then decided to stop forcing it because it was doing the opposite of making us bond. He screamed and cried everytime and it was making me depressed. I focused on bonding in other ways like cuddling and skin to skin contact. At 4 weeks he started to latch on his own but at this time I was no longer able to keep up with pumping that frequently since at that time he was a contact napper. So he would have the bottle and when he wanted more he would latch on and breastfeeding was the topper since he still wasn't doing it much and what we I could pump would go in his bottle. Even though it was usually only 1 ounce. I also had two hospitalizations that disrupted this transition process and even with pumping in the hospital my milk supply got really low.
Now he is 10 weeks and he is latching a lot! I think that we can finally try to get rid of formula. I'm giving him the nipple and letting him stay on however long he wants and if he is still not satisfied then I'm giving him the bottle. I tried pumping after feedings but then he wants more right after so now I'm thinking of only pumping at night and just letting him latch. We are down to only 9oz -12oz on the bottle this week. Some of which is breastmilk. I pumped one morning after a night of not pumping and got 4oz. Pumped when he got the bottle to experiment during the day and got 50mL. I pump after he eats and got 1oz from both breasts.
I feel hopeful but also discouraged and guilty. I never know if I'm doing the right thing. He is also very big so I also don't want to overfed him but I also don't want to have him go hungry either. I just really want to make this work.
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Hi!! If you pump after every feeding you can save the milk in a pitcher that way if you want a break you can give him that milk in a bottle but you’d still have to pump everytime he feeds. This will raise your supply while you want to build it and once your happy with your output/ don’t need formula you can stop pumping after feeds! Or you can use the haakaa on the opposite side your feeding on and collect that milk!
Congratulations on getting him to latch and working so hard for it!! ❤️
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