Feeding

I feel like I am constantly feeding Hayden! She wants to eat so much - and even though I have great supply (remember me, the "g" cup gal) -- i can not keep up. I pump a bottle of 3 oz for DH to serve her once a night - or sometimes we will supplement with a bottle of 2 oz formula. But she eats - falls asleep  and then is hungry a short time later.

What are some of your eating schedules? Every 2 hrs for about 20 mins? Mine seem to be very short or WAY too long  -- I feel like a human sucking board.

She also has a lot of gas - I hear this is from getting too much fore milk and not enough of the hine milk at the end.

[Whitneylauren]

Mark eats all the time- about every hour and a half for about 30 minutes each time! In the three weeks since his birth he has gained 3lbs! The nurses at the pediatricians office tease me and say that I must have some good milk for him to get that big so quickly!

I wouldn't worry about her intake, babies only take what they need so maybe she is just hungry. For her gas, though, I would suggest cutting out dairy from your diet. A lot of babies are really sensitive to dairy passed through mothers milk. Once I stopped ingesting dairy products Mark didn't have painful gas anymore.

[Jules31981]

i hear you.  i feed all the time.  my only break is at night she only gets up once to feed.  mady doesnt really have gas she has those sharks instead.  but i was told to let them feed on one side till they are done to get both types of milk.  then do a diaper change then try for side 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my  nipples still hurt is that normal??

[Irish741]

I am in your same boat. I feel like I am feeding all the time. I breastfeed all day and Jack can go anywhere from an hour an a half to 3 hour stretches. I am not sure why some time frames are shorter while others are longer. Once we hit the evening I have DH feed him a bottle of formula and I pump so we can get a few bags in storage for a rainy day. If we do the formula at the feeding right before we all turn in for bed I generally get a good 4 hour stretch before I have to get up an do the nightly feedings.
Jack also has horrible gas. Sometimes he goes thru bouts that look really painful. We have been giving him something called Mylicon for infants. I give a dose to him right before each feeding. I am not sure if it really helps but I am hoping it cuts down on some of the painful passing of the gas. I have found that when he feeds directly from the breast he tends to be more gassy than if we bottle feed him breast milk or formula. I have also heard the thing about the dairy in the diet. I cut out straight milk and have moved over to soy milk right now. I haven't cut anything else out.
I think these first few months are just spent trying to figure out what combination works best. I have a feeling though that we will never know and all babies just grow out of this stage.

[kele1129]

Phin goes every 2-3 hours and feeds for 10-20 minutes. During the night he goes 3-5 hours and typically feeds for 15 minutes. I have started pumping and Chris will give him a bottle every now and then just for a change of pace. The bottle tends to give him bubbles in his tummy (that what we call the gas attacks), but we have started using the ventair bottle and that works well.

[Jem75]

we're doing the Mylicon as well!

[ovaz129]

Jem... Leighton would SCREAM after her feeedings until a family friend who is a NP suggested 3 things for me to do prior to feeding her...

1. Burp her BEFORE you feed her (seriously... you would be surprised.  She will burp!)
2. Give her .6ml of Mylanta (Mylicon drops didn't even put a dent into Leighton's gas!)  Mylanta does the trick and she is one happy child (and so are we!)
3. Burp her every 4 mintues during feeding, and then after feeding

Those 3 things have pretty much solved Leighton's issues.  Hope they help!