Strike? Or just more hungry than usual?

[@llli*yaiza]

Hello hello, girls,
My baby is 3½ months now, and she's had a history of slow weight gain combined with me receiving wrong advice regarding BFing, resulting in supplementing almost from day one, and nursing her with an SNS for the last month. This has proven successful and we've been able to take the volume of daily supplement down to 100 ml and almost get rid of the SNS.
However, during the past few days my baby seems to be very impatient and won't accept my breasts so easily. Now I can't practicly nurse her without the SNS, she only nurses naturally while half asleep, and I'm wondering, is this one of those strikes, or is it a growth spurt and thus my baby is just more hungry than usual? I think my flow is very slow, so if she's very hungry she gets desperate and then the SNS helps her calming down. But sometimes she won't even take it with the SNS... What to do?
The worst thing is that my baby only falls asleep at the breast, so she's not sleeping that much, which only adds to the problem... I know we need to teach her how to sleep without being at the breast, but we've had so many issues, we haven't find the right moment to start that.
I feel very tired in general, and very discouraged. What can I do to improve things? My baby needs to eat and sleep!
Thanks in advance.

[@llli*auderey]

Congrats on all the hard work you've been doing for the past 3 1/3 months! It sounds like you've really done an awesome job. She may well just be having a growth spurt, but that usually means nursing more than normal which will boost your supply.

Hm, maybe try getting her to the breast before she's too hungry, then she won't get so frustrated with the slow flow at first?

Also - there's no problem with falling asleep at the breast unless it's a problem for you. In fact, I'd wager MOST of the bf babies I know only/mostly fall asleep at the breast.

Hang in there!

[@llli*juliasmomma]

with PP. I would try offering the breast more often, and before she gets too hungry.

Also, my DD just started nursing to sleep for her naps recently (she's 9 mos old) & she's taking way longer naps than she used to! I'm not worried about it, I know she'll drop it on her own when she's ready and your LO will too. Don't stress yourself out about that right now, she's still very little & is comforted by her mommy & nursing

[@llli*yaiza]

Thanks... The fact is I'm offering the breast constantly (that was more or less the title of my first post on LLL). I'm afraid I don't produce much milk plus my flow is very slow, so my baby simply gets desperate. And now with the SNS I seem to be producing less and less every day... :-(

[@llli*auderey]

But you said that you've been gradually lessening the Sns supplements down to 100 ml /day? Maybe you were gradually switching over/increasing your supply and THEN she had a growth spurt?

[@llli*yaiza]

But you said that you've been gradually lessening the Sns supplements down to 100 ml /day? Maybe you were gradually switching over/increasing your supply and THEN she had a growth spurt?

Yes, maybe that is what happened. But now, in the past two weeks, I've had to double the daily volume of supplement. Maybe because I stopped pumping? Anyway, I hope I will be able to keep it this way. At least I am breastfeeding... Still kind of discouraged some times, it's all so complicated! :-/

[@llli*mommal]

Some clever babies learn to feed more from the tube than from the breast. 2 things that might help, if that is what is going on:
- start pumping again- use the pump to give your breasts the stimulation that your baby isn't
- periodically crimp the SNS tube when baby is nursing, stopping the flow of supplement and encouraging her to suck harder on the breast

[@llli*yaiza]

Ok girls, here I am again, re-taking this thread, unfortunately...

My baby is now 4½ months. She's doing fine, she's alert and normally happy, and there are no more weight-gain issues. The problem now is that, as you can guess from what's written above, she only eats if the SNS is there, now also during the night, and my milk supply is decreasing whereas the volume of formula she takes per day is increasing. So, after much consideration, I have decided to follow your advice and start pumping again. But instead of renting a pump, I'm buying one second-hand, which is cheaper. Do you have any suggestion? I'm looking at the Medela Swing and the Medela Pump in Style.

Apart from this, and despite this not being a sleeping-issues site, I'd like to ask you, what can I do to get better night sleep? My baby is waking every second hour and I'm just so tired. No wonder my milk supply is decreasing, I barely sleep 4 hours a day! We co-sleep, just so you know. Any advice on this?

Again and as always, thank you very much.

[@llli*auderey]

Hi mama, so sorry to hear about your ongoing troubles!

1) pumping seems like a good idea, because then you can supplement with the SNS wth your own milk. Used pumps are NOT FDA-approved (LLLadies, are there any execptions?). The medela's are "open system" which means they cannot be sterilized between users. Now, i used a medela swing that i bought from a friend, but i was comfortable with her health history. other pumps are "closed system" and less risk (like the ameda purely yours i have). but the bigger concern is that pumps wear out, and you just don't know how effective a used pump will be because you don't know how much it's been used. some people do fine with them; some people don't. it's like buying a used car, as susan pointed out recently. then, you want to think about double vs single. double is more effective and twice as efficient. but more expensive.

2) sleep. can you tell us more about your co-sleeping? most folks who co-sleep do it so they can just roll over and stick a boob in baby's mouth without waking up. are you fully waking every 2 hours?

[@llli*yaiza]

Hum, thanks! What about Ameda Lactaline?
(More about the sleeping problems later, now the baby is awake, gotta go!!)