The Newborn Diaries: My feeding journey

Welcome back to The Newborn Diaries. I’m now 7 weeks in to motherhood and the feeding journey has been quite a rollercoaster. During pregnancy I was set on exclusively breastfeeding my baby, aware of the benefits of this. I myself was raised fully on formula so I knew that that option was fine too - after all, fed is best (as my hospital say). My daughter was born and she didn’t quite have the same plans that I did!

This isn’t a happy, inspirational blog I’m afraid, as this has been a hard, emotional journey.

The day she was born, I initiated breastfeeding and the first feed seemed to go well. I was very dehydrated and exhausted though so I didn’t feed as much over that first night as I should have, however the midwife came in at 6am to wake me to feed. Baby girl seemed to feed ok again that morning, however as the day went on I was struggling to get her to latch on to the breast correctly. After being moved from the single birthing room onto the ward, I had a team on hand to support me with breastfeeding. My daughter was only latching onto the nipple and not opening wide enough and therefore bruised me on day one. The midwifery team and nurses were thorough in explaining how to gain a correct latch and demonstrated how to hold my baby in order to encourage the wide latch. However she struggled with this and I was upset hearing her scream in hunger.

Baby girl was born on Friday afternoon and by Saturday night/early hours Sunday she was too hungry as she was not getting enough milk. At 5am Sunday a midwife came in and asked if I would be happy for her to give baby a little bit of formula in order to get some food into her. I wasn’t happy about formula being introduced so early, however my baby was so distressed that I thought “she just needs food” and agreed to give formula for baby’s sake. I was in hospital until Sunday evening and I continued getting help with breastfeeding from the team, and felt ok with it by the time I was discharged at 7pm.

On Monday I had my midwife home visit, and she referred me to the local Infant Feeding Team as I was still struggling with baby latching and having to top up with a bit of formula as per hospital discussions. They came out to see me on the Tuesday and again held baby to me to try and encourage that deep latch. As little one got upset we took a break and gave her some formula instead. The feeding team leant me a double electric breast pump to try and help build up my supply.

I spent the next two weeks doing a mix of breastfeeding, pumping and formula feeding - pumping to try and build supply but formula feeding to ensure baby was eating enough. I struggled with this. Breastfeeding and pumping is not all ‘sunshine and rainbows’. It was hard and exhausting and I felt like I spent all my time feeding, not to mention being awake at night longer than my baby in order to pump after each feed. I was so tired.

Pumping was not very successful for me. I only collected about 2-3oz over a 4 day period which was not enough to feed my baby. In consultation with the feeding team I decided not to continue with pumping, and said that I was happy to continue with breastfeeding and bottle top-ups. Around week 3 baby girl eased off the breastfeeding and developed a bottle preference. I continued offering the breast at night but she was mostly formula fed from this point on. However I spent the next week increasing breastfeeding and baby girl happily latched on and things seemed to be improving. Heading towards week 5 & 6, she once again stopped showing interest in the breast and only wanted bottles. Now at the start of week 7, baby girl hasn’t breastfed for over a week.

Emotionally this journey has been taxing. I spent so long wanting to exclusively breastfeed that I am upset that I am not able to feed my baby myself. However I know that ‘fed is best’ and baby girl has gained 3 pounds in her first 6 weeks and is thriving. I want to continue to try and encourage breastfeeding and will update you on this in future blogs. At time of writing however, baby girl tends to use me to suckle for comfort rather than to feed.

Equipment I have been using

I’ve been using Aptamil milk and baby girl seems to really like it. Here’s the powder version that I use: https://amzn.to/3RAEzJy

The hospital introduced Apatmil to us and gave us these small bottles for those first few days when baby had a tiny tummy still: https://amzn.to/4vmufmZ

They worked well for the first 4 days or so before I switched to the powdered formula.

I have been using two types of bottles, these Tommee Tippee anti-colic ones (which have been great for her tummy): https://amzn.to/4u7M4VV and these MAM bottles, which seem to be her preference:

https://amzn.to/4u7FH4S

We started on size 0 teats on Tommee Tippee, then moved to size 1. Now at week 7 we’ve just started to introduce size 2 teats on MAM bottles as baby girl seemed to be tiring whilst feeding.

For making those night time bottles, the Tommee Tippee prep machine has been fantastic. It enables me to make bottles at my bedside and have it ready quicker for a hungry baby at 2am! It’s so easy to use as well. Have a look here: https://amzn.to/3RBVDif. There is also a newer model so use your discretion as to what you would like to purchase.

For making bottles whilst at someone else’s home or on the go, as well as at home, the ‘rapid cool’ flasks are so convenient. Add in the formula and boiling water, shake and within a couple of minutes it is at a safe, drinkable temperature. No more spending half hour trying to cool bottles down.

I use the Tommee Tippee version: https://amzn.to/4dTp9Ye but you can also purchase them from Nuby as well.

I’d love to hear stories about your feeding journey. Did it go to plan or did everything go ‘out the window’ like in my case?