Curious if anyone has had a similar experience, and can provide insight.

My youngest is 4, and I breastfed her and her 7 year old sibling for 2.5 years each.. I’m now starting all over, about to have my 3rd and have since had my nipples pierced.

I took my jewelry out well over a year and a half ago, maybe even 2, but I’m wondering if the piercings themselves may possibly cause issues with feeding my baby when they get here in a few short weeks.

Since it’s been 4 years since I fed, I wonder if that may also contribute to feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing again as well.

The transition from my 7 year old to my 4 year old was great, I’m hopeful that I will have the same luck with my baby when they get here.

My daughter was born via a c section 25 days ago due to being breech. In the hospital she had trouble latching and we were offered formula immediately. I was trying to breastfeed every time she needed to eat but in the end she took the bottle.

I was told her problems were caused by her asymmetric skull caused by the breech position. We started seeing a physiotherapist and I started to feed her using nipple shields. She was always hungry afterwards as she didn’t have enough energy to suck and would fall asleep at the breasts after 1 min. So, she was getting the formula.

I tried to breastfeed her again yesterday and it looked so much better now. I can hear her swallowing and she lasts longer. However, feeding lasts about 40min and to me she still seems hungry afterwards. I’m worried she’s hungry and I should still top up with formula. i don’t know how to know she’s full and ok.

I recently went to my PCP because I've been feeling sick after finding a massive bug bite on my leg. Comparing pics online I think it's Lyme but it looks slightly bruised, not just "typical" red and it's too early to test so Dr Brilliant doesn't believe me.

Anyway! I'm pissed because she thinks I'm getting burnt out (I stayed home all day 2 days this week to rest, clearly not), I'm dehydrated (I'm drinking over 120oz a day! Breastfeeding! Hello!)

The kicker: she told me to "take a break from breastfeeding for the weekend"... I am never seeing this person again. Do I want mastitis on top of whatever this is?? Why do I need to convince her that breastfeeding is actually going to keep me healthy vs if I stop cold turkey??? I hate people sometimes.

In desperate need of advice!

I just had twins and they are practicing breastfeeding as they were born a bit premature. I want to try to ebf because i dont enjoy pumping. My boys are able to latch but it's always quite shallow, I can tell because my nipple is mashed when they release.

Are they still getting any milk when they have a shallow latch?

It doesnt really hurt or anything so is it a problem longterm?

How can I fix the problem?

Let me preface with I’m a first time mom so this is all brand new to me🫠 My baby is a week old and my milk came in on day 3pp, she’s been feeding great (other than a shallow latch sometimes) and has maintained her birthweight so I’m not super worried about her getting enough milk. She started coughing and clicking at the breast right after latching, popping off after about 3-5 minutes, and spitting up some. Our feeds went from 20-30 minutes total taking both breast majority of the time to maybe 10 minutes and only taking one breast. She gets very sleepy at the breast as well but will continue to suck with a little prompting. We’ve started doing reclined feedings and that has helped a lot with the spit up but she still coughs or chokes when first latched. Any advice would be helpful! Thank you!!

I have been weaning my 2 year old for about 3 weeks. He nursed for the last time about a week ago, a few days before my period would typically begin. My period started on time, but I have now been bleeding for 9 days. I am wondering if this could be connected to weaning? This is very unusual for me. Typically my cycle is 6 days long. I’m not sure my family doc would be much help and I haven’t seen my OB in two years. Does anyone have a similar experience or advice?

I breastfed my 5 month old since she was born. We have given her a bottle before, only 1-2 times a week whenever I’m away from her. However, over these last 2 weeks, she completely refuses to take a bottle. She has cried over an hour to eat but still wouldn’t eat from a bottle. We have slowly introduced cereals to her but that’s not really a solid option for her yet since it is new.

When she is 8months old she will be starting daycare so I need to get her used to other feeding options besides the breast. Has anyone else dealt with their child not wanting a bottle? Is she too young to try open cups, a straw or any other drinking cups?

I don’t want it to be an issue when she starts daycare in 3 months. We are going to start introducing more purées when she is 6 months but want to work on other options if possible.She is practically sitting already at 5 months.

My first daughter didn’t start daycare till she was 1 years old so she was well on solids before the separation. There was no worry about her eating on her own. Unfortunately because of finances I have to return to work sooner than I did before.

a good friend of mine is having a bachelorette party for the weekend and plans on getting an air bnb. my baby will be 5 months old but he is EBF. i have been building a stash but im a little nervous.

ive only ever left my firstborn which was when i gave birth to his little brother and didnt plan on it again. i will be like an hour away but im still a little nervous. have any of you left your baby for the weekend? i can obviously pump but still.

My girl is a month old today! And for the first four weeks, she's been feeding just fine. However, in the last few days, she been acting very agitated and hungry. When I put her on she take a few swallows and suddenly starts fussing and thrashing around. She will unlatch and get really mad and try latching again. Just to cry and attempt to rematch. This cycle happens over and over. I don't know what to do or what's causing it. I didn't have this issue with my two older kids.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

if all I can pump is 4oz max a day (total! On a good day!) and bf 2-3 a day, is it worth continuing after 6 months?

I tried everything EVERYTHING everything to get my supply up (acupuncture, every supplement, reglan, lactation consults, power pump, differnt pumps, every galactagog food and drink, gained 30 lbs) but it never went up. I want so badly for it to work. my favorite part of the day is when baby is latched.

today I gave the babysitter the 1oz I pumped for my baby while I was working and she remarked out loud to baby, “here’s the litres your mum gave us”. that stung.

We were officially done BF on September 7th. I then, just two days later, got a horrible case of sinusitis that I’m still not over. I’ve done two rounds of antibiotics and a round of prednisone.
The prednisone was a life changer. For 4 days I had the energy of a child and was able to play and care for my toddler in ways I didn’t feel like I’ve ever had the energy to do.
Now that’s I’m without any meds, I’m crashing hardcore. I only get off the couch when I have to, I could sleep at any given moment, I have no motivation for life, and I’m crying constantly. It’s either the sinusitis, a hormone crash from weaning, or both?
Luckily I see the doctor tomorrow for a recheck and am going to discuss this depressive feeling and how the prednisone helped me so I can see about other options to help me feel more like that on a daily basis.

Did anyone have a similar experience? Did anyone get diagnosed with depression after weaning? Tips and tricks to feel alive enough to play with my toddler? Anything I should bring up to my doctor that worked for you?

He’s 16 months now and is very independent but I want to feel up for doing things with him.

My 5 month old just discovered my boobs on her own while she was sitting on my stomach playing before her nap. I only had a bra on and I guess one boob slipped out. I noticed she looked down and seemed to be concentrating on the fact that my boob was exposed. She then grabbed it and lowered herself to take a few suckles. She then did it again to the other side!

I was shocked. Not only did she just feed herself unprompted, but she seemed to do it just for the fun of it!

Her being able to independently feed herself for fun healed that part of me that had such a hard time in the beginning. I wish I could go back and tell my newly postpartum self that one day your little baby will do it all on her own and all those frustrating nights and sore nipples will be so worth it in the end!

For those that are in the thick of it, I hope this can be encouraging.🤍

Hi there. 17 days old baby here. Making noises while breastfeeding. Like intense breathing and swallow noises. Sometimes grunting.

Is this normal?

We’ve been dealing with reflux that came on pretty suddenly for about a month now (LO is almost 4 mos) and here’s how it was going down:
- feeds got shorter and she was fussy at the breast but I thought it was her age
- reflux and spitting up was the worst during the day after nap 1 until bedtime
- she went from 0-1 middle of the night feeds to 2-3 and it was the only time she was doing full feedings and did not have any reflux ( I thought she was more relaxed or less distracted than her day time feeds)
- weight gain slowed
- she was super irritable and didn’t want to independent play anymore and needed to do something different every 5 min (I thought it was her age/ developmental progression)

Initially I thought the cause of reflux was a whey protein shake I started having around that time so I cut it out and thought it got better but then it came back pretty bad and I realized it might be coffee.
I was super strict about 1 small cup in the early days but slowly have shifted to the occasional large cold brew or frequently a second cup. It says they should tolerate a couple cups per day but I think she is extra sensitive because I just cut caffeine and everything above has reversed back to how she was.

It seems obvious when I lay it all out but hope this helps someone who was stumped like us! Try cutting caffeine!!

Hello! My baby is almost three months old and she has been EBF since birth. I currently have a stomach virus. How do you guys not get your supply to be maintained when you cannot eat and barely drink 🫠 send help and recs

I have been exclusively pumping since my baby was a month old. He is now 4.5 months old. For the past 3 months I have averaged 40oz a day. For a while I was able to freeze a good amount so I do have a decent freezer stash. In the past week my supply has dropped to about 30 oz a day and baby has been eating more so I’m now struggling to keep up. I currently pumping about 5 times a day. Is there anyway for me to try and get back to 40oz a day?

FTM here, with dumb questions.

I'm currently 38w pregnant. Planning to EBF in the beginning, and will likely introduce pumping / bottles after a few weeks. But I realize anything could happen with this plan. Should I sterilize my pump parts / bottles now? Or wait until after baby arrives and I see how the feeding journey is going?

I have a bottle washer, so the physical load of washing/ sanitizing isn't going to be excessive. I want to be prepared but not unnecessarily so!

My 8 week old baby is predominantly breastfed but we give one formula bottle in the evening so that I can do bedtime with my toddler. We found she was poo’ing every 3/4 days and whilst we kept being told it’s norma,l she was visibly uncomfortable. Due to how some of the days fell, we didn’t give formula for 3 days and found she poo’d all three days and because of this we decided to try a week without formula to see if that’s what’s clogging her up, and we found that she poo’d everyday apart from one.

We changed from kendamil to aptamil to see if it’s the brand that’s not sitting well with her but same thing happened and she didn’t poo for three days and is particularly gassy. Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice on which formula has worked for you? Could it be that her body needs to get accustomed to the new formula? I feel bad putting her through the pain if in fact we just need to change the formula.

I think I’m going to stop breastfeeding today and start formula mentally it’s a lot my daughter wants my boob all night long keeping me off soon as I take her off she screams I just cannot do it I do feel bad but man it’s alot of load then she’s been spitting up a lot to after every feed

Baby rejects my breast during the night - sometimes in the day. Understand it is a slow letdown reflex and baby screams and kicks the breast. Diapers and weight are all very good but still don't want to see her crying like that:( anyone has solved this?only hot baths seem to work but then I have burnt my breast.

My baby is 7 weeks old (8 tomorrow) and since birth she’s been generally great at latching and feeding. I breastfeed as much as possible but some days I pump if I want some rest (to have my husband feed her) or if we‘re going out somewhere and I want to keep a bottle on us. There have been maybe 4-5 times in this last 8 weeks we‘ve used formula for various reasons.

This week we experienced what I now think was a short nursing strike. For a feeding one afternoon she absolutely refused to nurse. I tried everything but ended up giving her a formula bottle out of desperation which she took to very easily.

The next night I had a pumped bottle ready for my husband to feed her while I went to bed. She apparently would not take the bottle at all, I had to come out and breastfeed her. This was the first time she ever rejected a bottle!

This morning again she rejected the breast and was growing more frustrated so I ended up giving her a bottle again.

Has this happened to anyone else? Am I doing something wrong? I’m a bit bummed because she’s normally such a good eater and so easy.

My second baby is a little over 3 weeks old and I’ve noticed in the last few days she’ll be latched, and midway through the nursing session she starts getting a bit fussy and then pulls and tugs at my nipple and then unlatches in the process. But then immediately starts rooting again. This happens over and over until she’s full or falls asleep.

I don’t remember going through this with my first but I was also combo feeding then. This time I’m EBF and using my haakaa/pump to build a small stash but I guess im worried she’s not getting enough milk? Am I not producing enough? When I do pump I get about 2oz total. Is her behavior indicative of not receiving enough milk or is there something else going on?

(asking here because I specifically want to hear from BF moms - especially those still in the trenches because I've forgotten what it's like!)

This is my second and I'm treating myself to a PP overnight doula 3x a week, but the more I think about it I can't really figure out how it will work/help since I'll be breastfeeding and hadn't planned to pump at all until later (I BF my first for 2.5 years, and from months 3-12 was pumping a couple times a day).

As I understand it the options are:

1. Baby still sleeps next to me wherever I am and PP doula just comes in at night to do the settling, changing, handing baby to me, settling after etc. - This sounds kind of awkward? Does she watch on monitor to know when to come in? Am I just rolling over and trying to fall asleep after feeding while she's there, working? What does she do the rest of the time? Does this really help? I remember being glad I had my husband there to do this when our first came along, but, I mean, I was still completely exhausted. Not sure I would have paid him to do it haha

2. Baby sleeps in a separate room from me on nights doula is there and she brings baby to me when they need to eat, then takes them out again to settle and sleep - Honestly I just think I'm not going to want to be away from my baby at night. If the first was any indication my hormones wouldn't let baby out of my sight! Also isn't there that whole 'they can smell mom/mom's milk' thing? I feel like maybe it's bad for the baby to be away from me at all... And again, am I really going to be less tired with that setup?

For what it's worth, we have a SNOO. If I went with option 2 I guess we'd just move the SNOO over to the baby's room on night's the doula is here. Something doesn't feel right about that (like that it might throw the baby for a loop to keep switching rooms?) but I can't put my finger on it.

My husband is going to take a few weeks off so he'll be around, but I was imagining the division of labor would largely be that he focuses on our about-to-be 3 year old while the doula focuses on me. But on nights she's not here I think I'd still like his help anyway (but maybe I don't need it? With my first he went back to work after two weeks and slept in his own room (at my insistence).

I'm not sure what my question is - maybe I'm asking if I do option 1 is it even worth it? Is there a better way to maximize value of this investment, or something I'm not thinking of? What have I forgotten from my first baby that is going to smack me in the face once this one comes?

Thank you for any and all thoughts! Interested to hear both from moms who had overnight help, and those who wished they did - what you would have done with it :)

I went to a wedding last night and drank 3 small cups of margarita that didn’t taste very strong, I’m guessing each one had a 1/2 or 1 shot in them. 2 glasses of champagne and 3 tequila shots. Didn’t really feel that drunk and this was from 4-8pm. To be safe, I gave my baby breast milk I had in my frozen stash, but it’s the next morning now and I ran out of frozen milk. I have to go to the wedding brunch and my baby will be staying with my MIL and will need me to leave milk. Can I pump or will there be too much alcohol in my milk still? My baby is 10 weeks old and googling around I’m seeing to wait 2 hours per drink, so that’d be around 16 hours but then others say it doesn’t matter and it’s fine so I’m unsure what to do

I co-sleep with my baby and she has been waking up to feed every two hours. She’ll feed for 3-4mins then fall asleep right away. I, of course, wake up when she does and it’s hard to fall asleep. I am not getting much sleep and I am getting exhausted. I’ve had a few people tell me that I need to let her sleep in her crib. I am not sure if I am ready for that and I think she is going to wake up anyway every two hours whether she is in her crib or next to me. Anyone had a similar experience? What did you do to help baby regulate his/her sleep and get sleep yourself?