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Attachment Parenting
She drank 12 freaking ounces
in FOUR hours. I left Em with my grandma this morning. My grandma is going to be watching her next semester for about 10 hours a week while I have classes. My mom will be watching her for another 5ish hours.
Now, I know Em is a big comfort nurser. She nurses around the clock. But I really thought with bottles she wouldn't do that so much! I'm just in shock that she ate 12oz in 4 hours. There is NO WAY I can pump that much for her. I can't really pump much at once- generally 3ish oz for a missed feeding. But, I can pump 3ish oz every 30 minutes... but I can't exactly leave my classes every 30 minutes to go pump.
I'm just suddenly very worried about being able to pump enough to keep up with her. The storage capacity of my boobs is kind of set, kwim?
Ugh. I'm so stressed about leaving her at all, and knowing that she guzzles BM while I'm gone doesn't help. She'll be 5 months by the time I go back... maybe we can start solids then to help some? I can't tell my grandma not to feed her so much, Em gets so fussy SO fast and eating is the main thing that calms her 
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Re: She drank 12 freaking ounces
DANG! I give my mom and MIL 9 oz when they watch him and that gets him thru about 6 hours (sometimes more/sometimes less)...
Malakai - 8.3.09
Ezra - 12.1.11 ASD
She did say Em threw up, a lot. So, that may be part of it... she doesn't throw up when she nurses though. Ugh. I really thought she would go through maybe 4-6 oz. She ate right before I dropped her off!
Adding in some solids should help with the throwing up the bottles, right?
Not really. Unless it's medically needed it can actually cause more trouble.
It will get better and it will even out.
She prob puked b/c she ate too much.
DD was a big comfort nurser too an was VERY fussy. I really worried about leaving her too. DCP feeds on demand, but it really worked out to 5oz every 2-3 hrs. I don't know how the calmed her, but she doesn't overeat and grew out of fussing as she got more mobile.
GL-- she'll change so much by then, it may not even be an issue!
(BTW-- Some dcp don't know bf babies get less and will overfeed, so you may have to set the limits. )
It sounds like she was overfed to me. This happened to us all the time when T was still nursing. He would eat so fast from a bottle that I think it took him some time to realize he was actually satisfied.
My family thought I was controlling, but we had to show them how to feed him with a bottle https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottle-feeding.html, especially with the upright feeding position. He would cry when the bottle was finished, but only until he burped. Then he was content and as happy as could be.
this is so hard... she is used to nursing on demand for as long as she wants. Now I'm supposed to almost schedule/limit her feedings? ugh.
i know it can be so hard! it will get better though. and eating can still be completely on demand if you want. that how it is for my DD.
with nursing, she's probably not actually consuming 12oz when she comfort nurses. you've probably seen it, but another great kellymom link is this one: https://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html
if you sent a supply of milk+bottles to be made up as needed, you might try sending premade bottles of 3 or 4 oz. have your mom (or whomever is feeding) start with that. more can be heated if she is hungry for more. there are some great suggestions on cuddling/soothing the breastfed/bottlefed baby in kellymom link in the PP.
GL!
If she was throwing up a lot it's because grandma was overfeeding her. My MIL is the same way. Next time you should try leaving her a recommended feeding schedule. If your DD should take 3oz at a feeding then you need to leave the bottles in 3oz increments and tell grandma that she should eat ONE bottle every 2-3 hours (or however much she usually nurses). Tell her that if she's spitting up so much she's not hungry and she may just need a pacifier (if she takes one).
she won't take a paci. I did portion out the bottles- I left 2 4oz bottles, and gave them a bag of frozen milk in case of an emergency. They used all of it... even took the time to thaw the frozen milk.maybe 4oz was too much?
She is very... high needs and isn't soothed easily. So, I get why they fed her so much, if it was the only way she would not cry. I hate to tell them, "only 3--4 oz at a time, and not again for at least 2 hours" because I know how hard it is to listen to her cry! I just wish something else calmed her down.
that must be so hard! <<hugs>> maybe someone will have a better suggestion for you. my DD would never take a paci and we haven't had much luck creating a 'lovey' either.
does your DD like to be worn? is that something they'd be willing to try between bottles?
instead of making an absolute rule ("not bottles again for at least X" rule), maybe you could work out a "try to soothe her with other ways for at least 15/20/30/whatever minutes" guideline with them?
She likes to be worn if we are out somewhere and has something interesting to look at. In the house, not so much. And even when we are out places, she goes through a 5ish minute fussy period before she will finally fall asleep- I've just gotten to where I know her cry and know the difference between "I'm really mad/hungry/upset" and "I need a nap but don't want to close my eyes"
She very much has to be engaged when she is awake... sometimes with nursing I will unlatch her and if I don't start talking/smiling at her right away she will cry. So maybe I need to tell them not to just turn her around and burp her, but to talk/sing to her a bit first... hmm.
How do you know how much to tell them, though? I never give her bottles, so I don't know how much is a "normal" amount for her. And she nurses ALL the time, so she has no schedule...
Maybe I'll call the pediatrician tomorrow and ask them to give me a maximum amount per bottle and about how long it should last. I would feel better saying, "The pedi said no more than X per Y hours, because of her reflux" than just making it up. Plus, it's weird to tell your grandmother how to do something baby related!
Hang in there! She'll figure it out! Bottle feeding is a skill, just like BF-- and babies need time to adjust to be able to go back and forth.
Your DD sounds like mine-- constantly on the boob and really fussy. I felt bad for anyone else who had to watch her too! But by the time she was ~5-6m she started becoming really happy and sweet. Now she hardly cries unless she is tired and is happy a lot.
In my experience, pedi's don't know much about bfing. We've been giving her 5 oz bottles every 2-3 hours since she was about 4m and I went back to work. There are "milk calculators" but I think they wayyy underestimated what DD was taking in.