Hi ladies

Just wanted to see how those of us who are still BF'ing are getting on?

I remember my HV saying that the first 6 weeks are very difficult, the next 6 are easier but still a little troublesome and that after 12 weeks it's like second nature. And I must say this was SO true for us! As most of you know we had a lot of problems at the start with Lyvi being early and so small but now it feels so wonderful and natural and I don't really care where I am I'll just feed her!

Sometimes Lyvi will still mess around a little pulling on and off but I think this is when her silent reflux is troubling her.

How often are your babies feeding now? Most days Lyvi will have 6 or 7 feeds. I think she's been doing a LOT of growing lately though as we've been back to every 2 hours quite often in the day!

And how are the nights going? I must say that I feel very lucky as since 10 weeks Lyvi has been having her last feed at 11pm and then sleeping till about 6/6.30am but will happily chatter to herself in her crib until about 7am!

Hope everyone else is enjoying it as much :\)

Love NN and Olyvia xxx

That's really encouraging to hear it's all going well with Lyvi. I'm exactly the same, will feed her anywhere if she's hungry, had to even feed her in the waiting room at the train station a few weeks ago.

I still can't get over Florence not being hungry all the time as we had a very long spell of 2- 2 1/2 hourly feeds. She feeds every 3- 3 1/2 hours now and is getting better at night too (thank goodness). She feeds roughly at 6.30pm, 11pm then will wake at 2am for a feed then at 4am for a comfort feed which I really hope she'll drop and sleep through soon. Then she wakes up 6.30-7 but doesn't want to feed straight away. On the odd good night she just wakes once to feed. We've just had 2 in a row but she has her imms tomorrow so I'm expecting a few disrupted days.

She's started to latch herself on without me needing to hold the breast which works most of the time but has missed a few times which can be a bit sore!

We were giving a bottle of formula at night in hope that she'd sleep longer but it made no difference so I've been feeding her instead. So back to exclusively BF. Florence is now 12 weeks and you're right, it really is second nature now! Well worth the hard work (and pain!) at the start.

Fay and Florence x

im glad things are going well with you both

Cara was also 4 weeks early, and jaundiced, so the first week which was spent in hospital was a nightmare for feeding, but we are getting so much better at it!! to be honest, we have been very lucky, and she took to breastfeeding very early. The only problems we had were HV and people telling us that a 5 min feed was not enough for her. BUT she has steaily grown into a gorgeous little lump and has plenty of wet nappies for mummy

I am afraid that I am not as brave as you both, as I cannot feed her in public, I have to look for somewhere private to feed her. this has led to me being a bit of a prisoner in my own home, but I dont mind!! She stil never feeds for more than 10 mins, and 5-7 is still the norm, and she feeds at leats every 3 hrs in the day but its every 1.5 for her first 3 feeds of the day and the last few before bed. She is at her most active in the evening still, so has her final feed at about 12-1am, and then will go to bed and sleep for about 3-5 hrs, feed and then back to bed for 3 hrs, then we get up

we also tried a late formula feed, which made no difference to how long she slept for, so we are keeping to exclusive BF. She does not like a bottle, but will take it if left to cry for a bit, so I pretty much just BF. I am hoping she shows interest in food soon so that we can start gradual weening at 4 months, but time will tell.

I am going to make my own modesty cover so might be more brave when feeding her in public. Does not help that i never spent the money on BF tops, though i wish i had now!!

I wonder how many people are still BF at this stage?

Lisa and Cara

Sasha is weeks tomorrow and we are still exclusively bf. She is on 91st centile on the growth chart so is doing really well on it. She has just this last week or so started to go longer between feeds, mostly at least 3hrs and sometimes up to 3.5hrs.

She has her last feed between 6.30 and 7.30pm and then a df at 11pm. She has been teasing me a bit with sleeping through a couple of times but not consistently yet, she still wakes but I've not fed her the last few nights as I don't think she was hungry just after a comfort feed. So I've just helped her re-settle, sometimes its easier than others as she won't take a dummy at all and instead likes to suck on my finger! She woke once last night at 5am and took a while to re-settle and then went through to 7.30am and even then I had to wake her (typical she chose to have a lie-in when I had to get up to take dd1 to her swimming lesson).

We have been quite lucky though and not really had any problems after the first few days. I struggled to get her to latch on at first as my boobs were massive and rock hard and the poor little thing struggles to open her mouth wide enough. Once my milk came in though and they softened up she was fine.

I'll also bf pretty much anywhere, I was a bit self concious to start with but I find expressing such a chore I'd rather just get on with it, I have a couple of breast feeding tops and I take shawl/scarf and just drape it over if i'm somewhere crowded.

It's good to hear everyone is still enjoying it, I am hoping to keep going until she is a year.

Hi ladies, it's been a while since I posted on here but I love positive bf threads!

Hannah is 12 weeks now and still exclusively breast fed! I'm so proud of us as it was quite tough in the beginning. Her latch was poor so I had horriffic nipples, cracked and bleeding but with some great support from the local bf counsellor and fab mummies at the bf group we got through it and now it's the best thing ever! I'll also feed her pretty much anywhere.

Were also doing pretty well on the sleep front, she has her last feed at 7pm and will finally settle to sleep at about 8:30 and will sleep to between 4 and 6 am. I was doing a dream feed. At half ten but I went to bed early one night and forgot to set the alarm for half ten and she slept til 4 which was when she usually next woke so I stopped!

During the day she feeds roughly every 2 and half to three hrs but it can vary like today when it's been 90mins! Growth spurt I think!

Lovely to hear all your experiences and well done!!
Hx

Amber will be 12 weeks on Thursday and we are still exclusively breastfeeding. She usually has around 7 feeds a day, starting at 6am, she then snoozes letting me eat and shower before getting her up and dressed around 8-9am. During the day she will feed roughly every 3hours, getting fussy between 5-7pm when we pretty much feed, snooze, poo, feed, poo and then settle at about 7:30pm. She is then sleeping through to 6am. We've had a 2am wakeup last week and a 4am wakeup last night, but generally she will sleep through.

I am so lucky that she sleeps as my Husband is away at the mo, so it's just me. Although in the evening, I am sometimes at a loss as to what to do with myself!!

I breastfeed her anywhere we happen to be when she needs a feed and even fed her in church on Sunday!

I love it when she kneads my breast trying to get it out quicker!!!

Hello girlies it's Reeny, and Elysia who is now 9 weeks 3 days.

I am so delighted and more than a little bit proud to be able to post on this thread! We have had a complicated relationship with breast feeding as, although I really wanted to do it and assumed I would, at the beginning it was nightmarish. In the few days it took for my milk to come in I got extremely sore and cracked, and thereafter we could never get the latch right due to the size and shape of my nipples, and so right from the beginning feeding has caused lots of tears. We also went through days of manic cluster feeding which left me feeling drained, in pain, imprisoned even sometimes, and like I wasn't doing a great job. But we persevered, helped along with the odd bottle of formula for the sake of maintaining sanity, and the odd bout of expressing, and finally now the problems seem to have resolved themselves and we're exclusively BFing quite happily. I haven't sterlised a bottle for ages.

The thing I find most hard about breast feeding is the overwhelming sense of resonsibility, that only I can feed her, and she constantly looks for me in a room, but then also this is wonderful because our bond is so strong.

I have yet to feed in public (because she is still young and still sleeps so much when we're out so have never needed to do it yet) but I'm gradually working up to it: I fed at my Mum's over Easter in a room full of family and friends, and I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks where I won't know anyone but am going to breast feed. I'm most scared of negative comments rather than being embarrassed, but I'm determined to do it. It's such a shame you don't see it more often in public.

As for sleep, she's been quite good from the start, usually waking once at about 4am. Like someone else said above, I too used to give her formula before bed and at 4am as I thought it would make her sleep more, but in fact I have found now we've moved to exclusive BF that it makes no difference and in fact it's much nicer to BF as I don't have to worry about being too engorged when I wake up and she settles herself to sleep on the boob so winding and settling her is gentle and sleepy. (Yes I know some would argue this is bad but I don't care if she gets comfort from a bit of sleepy suckling then I don't see why not). We've had a bit of a blip recently where she won't wake to feed at 11pm so then wakes insead at 2 AND 4 (ouch!!!) but last night I managed to dream feed her at 11ish which worked really well and we were back to just waking once.

Breast feeding rocks!

Lots of love to you all,

R and E
xxx

i know i shouldnt be here but just wanted to 'wave' a hello to reeny and everyone else too!

Waving back!!! Hope you're well my lovely.
xxx

That's so true NN - things have been much easier for us since 10 weeks, something just seemed to really click then.

Mabel is feeding every 2.5 to 3 hrs during the day and clusters late afternoon, but she sleeps for 12 hrs straight through the night so she has a lot to pack in!

Glad you're all doing well.

B xx

Boozle- express as i don't think there are many bridesmaid dresses where BF is easy!

I find the easiest way of BF in public is by wearing a vest that can easily pull down over the breast and then a top that can easily come up and a jacket or cardigan as when it's open it covers the side of the boob and the baby covers the rest! I hold Flo across my middle (cradle hold?) so unless you stare at the baby you can't really tell that I'm feeding her.

I went to a wedding a few weeks ago where I didn't know anyone so just found a quiet spot and fed there. I've not had any comments- positive or negative so I guess that is a good thing about BF in public.

I've tried to keep the bottle going every few days either with an attempt at formula or with a little cooled boiled water for if she's sick (she has mild reflux) as the HV said this will help tremendously come weaning time.

Ooh forgot to mention- my milk level has settled down now so well that I rarely experience engorgement, thank goodness as that is a pain and a half!!

I'm also exclusively BFing and exclusively by boob as Monty point-blank refuses to take EBM from a bottle!

I've been lucky as I've found it pretty easy. A few hiccups - it was hard at the start as he was jaundiced and just wanted to sleep but we persevered and at his first weigh in, not only had he not lost too much wait, he had actually gained! I've also had what seemed to be the onset of mastitis twice but it never took hold. The issues I had around over-abundant supply and fore/hind milk imbalance I managed to resolve too so it's pretty smooth going now.

Monty is a grazer though and now, at 10 weeks, feeds every 2-3 hrs by day and night. We average around 10-11 feeds a day. He only has between 5-10 mins usually (a quick drinker) but occasionally surprises me by settling in for 45 mins, usually when I'm in a rush!!!

The regular night feeds aren't really an issue as we co-sleep so he just mooches over to me, gives me a nudge with his nose, I slip him a boob, he works away, I tuck him back to his part of the bed (basically under his blanket and away from the duvet) and back to sleep for me.

The one thing I would like is to find a bottle that he will take (I've bought so many my OH thinks I have a fetish) so that I can at least have the option of a night out without him and a drink or two!

Hi Nat,

Oliver is still exclusively breastfed too. He goes about 2 hours inbetween feeds during the day when he is awake, if we are in the car or out and about and he is sleeping I can get him to go three hours max but then the minute he wakes up he's starving!!

As for sleeping he was doing really well up until about 2 weeks ago. He was going down after his bath at about 7.30pm and not waking until 5am. He has sarted waking about twice a night again now. The signs are all there that he will be ready for weaning at about 20 weeks. He's a big lad weighing in at 15lb 4oz at 16 weeks!

Its great to see so many people still doing so well