Gabrialla is a trusted U.S. brand specializing in maternity, postpartum, and medical support garments designed to help women stay comfortable and confident. We offer maternity support belts, compression stockings, postpartum girdles, and shaping essentials made for everyday comfort and effective support. Recommended by healthcare professionals, our products combine quality, innovation, and durability to meet the needs of expecting and new mothers. Explore our collection to experience reliable support and thoughtful design for every stage of motherhood.
7:46AM
Re: Breastfeeding advice, questions, ect
One of the reasons we went with Total Comfort is we were able to get it with WIC with a special authorization form from his doctor. His doctor had told us we could try any formula with hydrolyzed protein, meaning it's been broken down.
I've also heard that insurance may cover the more specialiZed formulas if your baby has a medical need for it, such as an intolerance or reflux. Considering talking to our ped next appointment to see if we can get a note and prescription if he is still having issues with BM. Glad you're able to get yours through WIC! Formula is so expensive.
I'm still barley hanging in there pumping and giving my LO pumped breast milk in a bottle. But I wanted to tell y'all the most recent fiasco.
The night before last my right breast was so engorged that I couldn't do anything but cry. I tried pumping, massaging, heat and ice and had no relief. Yesterday morning I noticed that my actual nipple had hard blisters on it that were raised and tender. I of course googled and kellymom called them blebs and said to try a cotton ball with olive oil on it in your bra over the area to soften the skin and then put a cotton ball with vinegar because vinegar breaks down calcium and hopefully help unblock the duct. I tried both of them and Im pretty sure a few of the blisters popped but I still was unable to get milk out. So I called the LC and my doctor. My doctor called in a RX for a compounded nipple cream and the LC told me to get in a warm bath and lay on my side and put my effected breast in the water and massage as long as I can and just let whatever milk come out in the tub. That helped I was able to get quite a bit out but I wasn't satisfied so about 30 minutes after I got out of the tub i pumped and finally was able to empty out 6 oz of breast milk- what a relief! This morning I woke up and the left breast wasn't putting out anything and was getting engorged I tried the bathtub and the pumping and was still having trouble and feeling uncomfortable ( it's been my trouble breast since day 1 so I wasn't surprised ) so I used a nipple shield and let LO latch on early before she got super hungry ( she is on a schedule) and she fed for a good 10 minutes and then I pumped again and was able to get 2 ounces out which is a lot for that breast. Now mommy is much happier and I can now hold LO without crying!
I just wanted to give you all this as an FYI just in case any of you expierence blistered nipples.
Also I go back to work in 2 weeks and I'm considering the 2 days a week LO goes to daycare sending formula for her while she is there and letting her have breast milk only while she is home with us or family. I feel like it might me easier for her teacher and I won't be worried about how long the milk has been out and if I sent enough for her. Im planning on pumping at work as often as I can but am not sure how long that will last. Anyone else doing this for daycare?
I have no idea about pumping. I was told to wait until I was 3 weeks pp to start pumping, but I know that at 8 days LO really doesn't need that much milk so an ounce probably isn't that bad.
We also have lots of spit ups that, for now, don't seem to be caused by any issues. From what I understand newborns generally don't over eat. My pediatrician told me to burp her often (I do every 5-7 minutes while feeding), feed upright as much as possible, and keep her upright after feeding when possible.
We do every 2-3 hours generally, but that's because she's never slept past that
Pumping would probably increase your supply even more right now. Here's a good resource with some suggestions: https://kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mother/engorgement/
@ATolentino89 My son was pulling off a "good latch" to a straw like latch because my let down was choking him it was fast (the straw sucking tore me up). I went to the LC over the choking and how he wouldn’t stay latched and would scream if forced to stay latched. All the nurses up until this point said he latched great…but didn’t watch long enough to see him pull off or when he’d pull off they wanted me to push him to latch harder which made him frantic because he couldn’t keep up. I did pump and feed every other time for a couple days while my nipples healed and to relieve the engorgement that was making all of these issues worse.
@stephaniearthurs Are you engorged? It can be hard for them to latch if you are, I had to pump a little before feeds for 2-3 days I was so engorged he couldn’t latch.
@demendo01 Mine burps better if I just sit him forward and rest is head between my index and thumb and wait a minute or two, traditional burping rarely works for us.
Today/yesterday I decided I will start trying to do what "they" say and just have him on one side for 20 and then switch to the other for 20 and he just had a bright green poop when his poops have been the right yellow color for weeks now! I know the green means they didn't get enough hind milk which was why I haven't wanted to do this yet so can I just go on feeding him from one breast at a time indefinitely?
@ATolentino89 I like the idea of pumping on the other side while you feed on one side to maintain supply! I'll have to try that!
1. I tried pumping for the first time, got 1.5 oz from one side in about 15 mins is that decent? It kinda stopped after that so I quit.
2. If I take a break once at night and let DH feed the baby so I can get a solid four hours, would that hurt my milk supply?
2. Yes. It will signal your body to produce less milk and you can get clogged ducts and mastitis. Neither is fun. I've dealt with them both and a reduced supply as a result that is just getting back to normal. If you want more rest maybe let her eat expressed milk and have your husband take care of her while you pump and go back to bed. I keep a second pump beside my bed for this because we do it pretty often.
Due to basically chronic clogged ducts and most recently a nasty bout of mastitis I want to start supplementing 1-3 bottles a day of formula and pumping through those feeding to build a freezer stash. If I combine that with what is frozen from the first weeks I'll have to do this for around 8 weeks before I can stop breastfeeding and still be able to give him breastmilk and supplement with formula until he is at least 12 months old. If that makes any sense? I respond pretty well to the pump and get about 3-7 oz each session depending on time of day. I've seen my doctor and a lactation consultant and neither can see any issue, such as improper nursing or oversupply, that would be causing the issue. I feel like death with clogged ducts and worse with mastitis. It's interfering with the bond I have with my baby and making me feel insane. I need a light at the end of the painful, lumpy boob tunnel.
My question is how much should I supplement during those feedings? The same amount of breastmilk he would drink or a different amount? He usually eats 2-4 oz at a time of expressed milk but would formula be more? I'm going to ask his ped at his appointment in a week and a half but I'm curious if anyone has had experience with supplementing.
BM changes composition with babies age so you wont necessarily produce greater volumes as the baby gets older but it will provide more calories in a similar volume (my LC reassured me that the volume of BM would not go up much--when I was almost in tears of engorgement and fast letdown). Anyway, I think it would be really hard to predict how much an older baby would eat of an infants composition of BM if that makes sense.
Formula generally takes longer for them to digest too so it wouldn't be a straight substitution. Formula volumes do go up with age. I think you'd have to discuss the specifics with your LC.
Are you using shields? I was told to try them because of the challenges I was having with the fast letdown and DS pulling off and on (the shields just made bad latches easier for him--so I went to the LC). Anyway the LC asked if I was emotionally invested in them (I wasn't) and she discouraged them if the baby can still learn to eat directly, her main concern with them is she believes they contribute to mastitis--I hadn't heard that before so I thought I'd share in case it can help you.