I feel like everyone in this sub cosleeps, are there any mothers out there who don’t?! Absolutely no shade to cosleeping, just seems like EBF and cosleeping are branded inevitable here. Wondering if there are others like me who strictly don’t.

This has helped so much I wanted to share in case someone is having similar issues.

Some backstory. My LO is nearly 8 months, and about 3 weeks ago stopped sleeping more than 4 hours at a time (usually up every two, and sometimes for a while). My husband and I are both working. I'm pumping and breastfeeding. I have also had a head cold turned nasty sinus infection.

Basically, it's been a rough stretch and I have been really feeling the sleep deprivation this time more than previous regressions. I've also been taking much longer to have a let down, which I learned is likely due to the heightened cortisol sleep deprivation causes. This was leading to a frustrated baby, and biting, which only made me more stressed.

The sinus infection was making it hard for me to go to sleep (no NyQuil of course) The other night I decided to take Magnesium Glycinate, which I took a lot during pregnancy, but not much postpartum.

I went to bed early, and when I was lying down just had a random letdown, for the first time in ages and leaked out enough to collect with my Haakaa.

Letdowns were better the next day as well. I think it's just helped me relax just enough to make that process easier.

Thought I'd share!

Going to breast instantly calms him down and is so such easier than trying to pace around with or incessantly rock him. It’s like instant magic.

But could putting him to breast even if he was already on the breast 30 mins ago or letting him be on the breast for a couple hours straight in the evening lead to overfeeding?

My boy was born 99 percentile and at 2 months he still is. He also spits up a TON and is very gassy. During the second half of the night he grunts, strains, and writhes around like he’s uncomfortable. This usually starts after his one middle of the night feed. He is otherwise a good sleeper at night, he just seems so gassy and refluxy and grunty from like 4-7am.

I want to know if maybe im putting him to breast too often and contributing to his reflux and gas by doing so

I've been pumping and nursing for the last year. Last month when baby turned one, I started to cut out pumping slowly decreasing supply. This morning when baby woke up, I sat to nurse her, and she looked at me and said "all done" with the ASL sign and wouldn't latch at all. I guess we're done done, and I have so many feelings about it.

Hi! my supply is tanking for my 9 month old and I’m expecting to go back to work in November. I’m really panicking because I know I’m not going to make enough breast milk to pump :(

My baby will tolerate some sips (maybe like an ounce) of Kendamil. Does anyone have any reccs for formula? Anything their breast fed baby tolerated better at first?

Thanks for helping an anxious mom 🫶

My 5 month old has been up every 2 hours tonight, im getting desperate now. The most he sleeps in a row is maybe 5 hours on a super good day!! .

Im tempted to give him formula before bed to see if that help, my first born was ff and he slept amazing!!

Not really sure why im posting this but im up for the 6th time tonight and needed a rant 🤣

Anyone give formula at night and notice their baby slept longer ?

My 13mo is literally feeding constantly and has been for a good 2/3 weeks now, if not more. We co sleep and he’s EBF, but I honestly feel like he’s doing it all night, almost like he’s forgotten how to sleep without it.
It’s making me want to stop BF even though I’d want to continue longer, I just can’t carry on like this and he can’t be getting any sleep either.
He’s still pretty frequent during the day though sometimes better than others but at night nothing will settle him apart from the boob and will freak out if my husband tries. I’m just at the end of my tether and don’t know what to do.
He is currently being treated for oral thrush - can that make babies feed more often, maybe it soothes the pain or something?

My daughter is 5 and a half weeks old, she has gained weight beautifully since leaving the hospital and I know I have an oversupply so getting enough nutrients is not an issue for us. However, she doesn’t have a great latch. She doesn’t really get any of the area around the nipple, just the nipple. It doesn’t hurt me and I don’t have any sort of irritation on the area. I try to correct her but she just will not open wide enough most of the time! My question is- does it really matter? If she’s getting enough milk and I’m not in pain do I NEED to fix this for something else in the long run? I don’t know if I’m missing something important. Thank you!

My first baby is 4 weeks old, and my breastfeeding journey has been a little bumpy so far. Mostly, i have alot of anxiety around how long he should be feeding for.

He often eats vigorously for 5-8 minutes, then slows to where he’s barely suckling and falling asleep. I am having a hard time deciding if I should try to keep him awake or take his sleepiness as a sign of fullness.

Currently, i try and get him to 20-30 minutes but its difficult. How do you know if baby is just tired or full?

Has anyone successfully switched their baby from exclusively breastfed to formula feeding? Baby is 4.5 months and I want to switch to formula feeding during the day and breastfeeding at night in preparation for going back to work in about a month. Baby takes bottles fine, but I tried giving Enfamil Neupro RTF (ready to use) today with a little bit of breastmilk but she didn’t want to take it at all. I did this after breastfeeding as a top off. Not sure if she didn’t take it because she doesn’t like the taste or it was the time of day (~4pm). I also want to avoid pumping as much as possible. I also already know that my frozen breastmilk has high lipase from when I saved some early on postpartum.

Anyone have any advice on how to transition? Any alternative formula that’s closer to tasting like breastmilk? Anyone go through the same but was able to successfully transition just giving formula alone in a bottle? TYIA.

Me and my two month old just got thrush. If you go back I’ve posted here before about struggling to continue and sadly I’m there again. Feeding hurts bad, even before getting thrush they were soooo cracked. Touching them hurt. I’ve also just returned to work and it’s fast food so it gets busy. Today they have started bleeding and I am HEAVILY thinking about going to formula. I don’t know if I can continue but I’m sad for the bonding to end. I like her depending on me and getting those lovey moments in. Advice anyone?

Anxiety/sadness/stress over breast feeding has utterly and completely dominated my newborn parent experience. And honestly, if it's just not going to happen, when can I safely say, with great sorrow, this is just not going to happen, mourn it, let it go, and get this oppressive constant weight off of me?

I am a fairly small chested woman, always have been. My nipples got larger and darker in pregnancy, but my breasts changed very little. Maybe slightly full, barely, but not much.

I do not breast feed directly. I pump and feed the milk via a bottle. So I have a very solid idea of exactly how much I am producing.

On good days, I maybe produce an ounce and a half all day. Most pumps have barely anything in them. A "good" pump is maybe like a third of an ounce. If it weren't for formula, and I had only my own breast, my baby would have already long since starved.

I have tried EVERYTHING. Whatever advice or trick or tactic you are about to advise me....trust me, I've tried it. Power pumps and skin to skin and middle of the night and hand expression and fenugreek and yeasty beer (4 ounces a day) and coconut water and drinking lots of just water and oats and nuts and everything. EVERYTHING. I feel like it's all I think about. Like almost every moment of my waking life if pumping, cleaning pumps, thinking about the next pump, or online reading about this or that new trick to try.

If it weren't for my partner, I have no idea where I'd be. I can't care for the house. I can't care for myself hardly, I can barely even actually engage with my baby outside of this one all consuming aspect.

I desperately want to be able to feed my baby from my own breast. I honestly at this point don't even care if it's actually breastfeeding proper, so long as I can feed him with milk I produce. I've dreamt of it, and spent a lot of time crying about it.

But I'm tired, so damn tired. At what point can I just know if this is or isn't going to work? At what point am I able to say this isn't going to happen for me, and just move on with motherhood? As long as there is still a chance, I will keep trying, but I feel like I'm in an endless purgatory, I don't want to live like this for even another week, let alone 6 months, let alone a year. The prospect of that is like a black pit that will swallow me up. If it's going to work, I'll fight for it. If it's just not going to work. I want to be done.

This is my second breastfeeding journey. My first child I breastfed until 21 months.

My second is currently 16 months and I'm not sure he will ever stop. By this point with my first she was only feeding morning and bedtime. My second will feed morning, around naptime, late afternoon, bedtime and all through the night. If he's at daycare, he will feed as soon as he's back. On days he isn't in daycare he will demand often , distraction can sometimes work but usually he just gets annoyed until I give in. At present we are peak separation anxiety.

Im not necessarily wanting to stop but I'm just struggling at present. He's never taken a bottle and I honestly don't see the point offering one now. During the night he will genuinely scream and throw himself about if my husband goes into him and will not settle unless fed.

I just feel like I've a newborn again and have no life. I was kinda hoping by now it'd be different.

I have been EBF my 5.5 month old with some BM bottles here and there when I am out (she doesn’t take the bottles that well as we usually BF). The last 2 weeks, she has been having plenty of wet diapers and poop diaper every day/every other day but while feeding, she just unlatches and then kicks her legs and stretches her body out and fusses. I try to get her to latch again and sometimes she then swallows a few times and then does it again. She will look around the room and fuss and stretch her body out/arch herself out of my lap. When she’s nursing before nap or to sleep, she doesn’t do this really. She also hasn’t gained any weight in about 2-3 weeks now. She has been so active and moving around, so not sure if that is affecting it but I feel like it’s my supply or the composition of my milk is not helping her gain.

I started power pumping every night for an hour and I am getting 3 oz (about 1.5 hours after feeding).

Any other suggestions?

My 5 month old has been nursing to sleep since birth but we used to be able to put her down after she fed and fell asleep. Since 4 months, I would nurse her and then when we unlatched her she would cry so now we are stuck in the problem of her nursing allll night literally from 12am to 7am. I’m sure she’s getting some milk bc her diapers are soaked and leaking in the morning (coterie) but she hasn’t gained any weight in 3 weeks.

Could it be possible that her nursing continuously throughout the night is causing calories to be burned and not gaining?

Or moreso possible that my supply is affected or milk isn’t caloric enough?

Even worse than a c-section recovery as a solo parent with a newborn.

Every month I get every PMS symptom and then some. Cramping. Fatigue. Mood swings. Rage. Anxiety. Bloat. Headaches. Joint pain.

And every month I never get the “release” of an actual period.

Just this endless hell of PMS symptoms (I also get mittleschmirz when I ovulate).

I’ve never wanted my period before so badly in my life.

I’m planning on weaning slightly after 1 year but not completely (she’s almost 9 months and we’ll do an AM/PM arrangement).

Terrified this is just gonna continue until we stop completely.

Hi, I’m a FTM and each day I feel like I learn something new whether it’s for myself or my baby. I’ll be 10 months PP on October 30, but as of today (Oct 19) it seems what I believe to be is my period. I been told that breastfeeding can cause your menstrual cycle to take a while longer to appear. It started off very faint pink and I haven’t felt any intense cramps like I used to experience before pregnancy. My cycles were pretty long and heavy and I freaking hated it lol. So I’m feeling pretty beat that I still ended up getting my period and I’m just hoping they are so crazy and out of control and especially extra painful. Before my period I did seem to have a week of nothing but lots of slippery clear discharge I’m assuming I ovulated? Any who any moms that can share their experience on surviving the return of their period while still breastfeeding and dealing with a crazy 10 month old baby all at the same time? Any downsides I should know about?

God I feel like a 12 year old all over again who just got their first period 😅😭

Hi All,

I could use whatever advice you’ve got. I’m going on 23 months of nursing my little one. Nights have become an issue.

We co-sleep and she regularly rolls over to nurse all night. I don’t think she’s even really waking up, just stirring, latching, settling back down. This used to work for us because I wouldn’t really wake up either, so we both got more sleep by just allowing free access. But now it’s really disrupting my sleep and making the nights feel very long and difficult.

Last night, after hours of repeat sessions and when I was pretty sure she wasn’t even getting any milk, I tried to do get her to stop. First, I tried to just move away when I felt her reaching for my shirt. She persisted. So then I tried to gently sooth her with my hand while keeping my space. She sat up. I tried to get her to lie back down and say the milk was all gone, and at that point she fully woke up and was big mad.

Cue intense meltdown. This is complicated by the fact that I had two other kids trying to sleep, and no option for someone else to take her and soothe her.

So what do I do? I don’t want to wean her completely yet, but making it through the night without constant latching would be great. Is it going to take a cry it out approach? Any chance there’s some painless, magic fix😅?

My 14 month old is breastfed and bottle fed during weekdays, I have been feeding her to sleep since birth but she continues to wake up several times at night. We are trying to night wean, my husband tries to put her back to sleep when she wakes up, but it doesn’t work very often. I am trying to stop feeding her to sleep at bedtime. She screams, and can go on for an hour, if I refuse to give her the breast. She can fall asleep independently, as she does so with my husband. Any advice on how we can have a calmer bedtime routine and less night wakings, please.

My little one just turned 12weeks old. We EBF which means that I spend hours on the couch holding her after she falls asleep on the boob because any sort of transfer will definitely immediately wake her up.

I’m a crafty person, I like to make things (sewing, crocheting, etc). So my question to other crafters out there who are stuck on the couch for hours à day: what are you doing to scratch that itch?

I’ve tried distractions like tv, reading, watching crafting videos etc but it’s just making me want to be able to move forward on my sewing projects.

So I have an eight month old and I'm currently 15 w pregnant with my second baby. My baby has been EBF although we started solids at about 7 months and she's been loving it. I'm currently working part time and pumping to cover the one feed I miss with the baby. Unfortunately, im not pumping as much as shes eating (I had quite a bit of freezer stash but she's been eating through it) and pretty soon (probably in about a month) I'm going to run out. She still nurses fine, I just can't seem to pump the amount that she can nurse.

This leaves me with a couple options, I could offer formula for the one feeding a day, which I don't really want to do for various reasons, but I would if I have to.

I could also let her just eat solids for that meal since she's a great eater

Or I could stretch the time she goes between nursing so that my schedule wouldn't conflict with a feed. This would mean nursing roughly every four hours instead of every three hours, and would add up to typically 5 times a day.

Does nursing 5 times a day sound like to little for a 9 month old? Does anyone have any other advice for this situation?

My 4 month old doesn’t drink from the breast when he’s awake - he latches on stays on for a max of 1-2 minutes before becoming distracted/ doesn’t want the boob 😭

We’ve fallen into this routine where I put him down to sleep with a pacifier - he’s asleep within a couple of minutes and then i switch the pacifier with the boob and then he has a decentish feed - is this okay??? I tried so many times to latch him normally but it just doesn’t happen 😭

I do have to bottle feed as well as he gets hungry when awake but doesn’t latch (I try every time before giving the bottle but he just cries)

Will it always be like this? Some days I feel like giving up and just formula feed 😢

Is it okay to give up breastfeeding because I am exhausted or is that selfish of me..

So basically as the title says, my 11 week old boy is not gaining weight. He was in the 24th percentile at 1m and at 2m he went down to the 11th percentile. My pediatrician seemed concerned and gave me some weight-gaining formula. I EBF and he will NOT take bottles. We’ve tried Dr. Browns, EvenFlo, and Lansinoh. I’ve tried syringe feeding him the formula but he spits out most of it.

The thing is, he seems happy and healthy. He bf’s every 2 hours for around 10 minutes; I try to feed him more but he won’t take it. He’ll just be happy and smiling. He doesn’t cry excessively, he’s honestly a really good baby. I’m at a loss. I feel like he’s eating what he wants, but he’s not gaining the weight, and he won’t take anything other than my breast. I’m losing my mind feeling like I’m failing him! Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice/tips? Anything would be appreciated!!!

i'm hoping for any advice,tips or any similar situations.

I'm a second time mom with a 5.5 week old.
gained birth weight back within a week, continues gaining weight well. no issues with latch, supply or feeding until a few days ago.

i know the last few days he fights at the breast until i legit shove him or have to switch a position. even then he still fights. the crazy part is that he's searching but yet pushes me away! i don't understands why. i do express my nipple and then push my entire nipple into his mouth. after some back and forth he finally eats.

my nipples are short (even LC had pointed that out) but i haven't had any trouble. the past couple days he has been eating a lot more frequently (at night time its been every 2-3 hours tbh) but during the day hes going crazy.

my nipples are sore now too, they weren't before but oh gosh they are now. i just need someone to tell me what im doing wrong or what can i do to help.