I’m 3 months in exclusively breast fed. My cousin had a baby same time as me and her baby is formula fed.

I just feel jealous that she can go out and get her nails done, get a massage and get her haircut. Or she can easily leave the house and feed the baby once or twice very quickly.

Whereas I can’t do these long treatments as my baby needs a feeding and leaving the house is a whole chore as she need to feed multiple times. Using a cover is so stressful for me (I wear a hijab so not using one isn’t an option) and have to make sure finding a suitable place to feed and the unpredictability! I don’t know if she’ll feed well not sure how often she’ll want to feed, etc. she used to have lots of issues latching and cried and fussed everytine she fed so breastfeeding in public was a cause of stress for me. This past week has been better tho.

I just feel jealous I want to get a massage or leave my baby with my husband sometimes and not have to breastfeed in public

I wouldn't call it a celebration per se, it's kind of bittersweet.

Though I could go longer, there are nights where I'm just fed up with it. But boy, do I miss the look of his face when he latches on.

For the most part, I feel like I know he uses me as a comfort, which is probably why I let it go on as long as I did.

My child has always been so easy going and when things get tough, the booby was there to help soothe him.

We cosleep. We've been talking about saying bye to booby milk for a while. I've tried when he was turning 2 then 3 and here we are at 4.

I'm one those those who worries about things before they even happen. I thought tonight was going to be a lot harder.

I wore a different shirt the last two nights, not my usual breastfeeding top with easy access.

He pulled on me. Gave me kisses. Any trick he knew to try to get me to give. But that only lasted for a few minutes and yet felt like an eternity.

He asked for water instead. He's not a lovey kind of kid but we do have some around. I asked which he would like to cuddle with and he choose. After a few minutes of him bouncing around, a couple of songs, he zonked out.

I'm so proud of him but I'm also kind of sad. Sad I didn't give him his normal comfort. Sad it's the end of our journey. And sad because he's getting older.

Tomorrow might be a different story but for tonight on his bday, we did good. 😭🥲🥹

Y’all, it has been a YEAR. My preemies struggled to latch and stay awake for feeds. I struggled to build my supply and position them. (I thought I was going to be able to tandem nurse, lol.) They developed a feeding aversion when I got my period back at 4 months PP, which lasted for two straight months for one baby and showed back up during my period for months after that. They got eight teeth each, and drew blood biting. They have egg and dairy allergies, and I have a gluten intolerance, so I’ve been having to feed the three of us without three major ingredients. They are just now letting me night wean them. This mama is tired and hungry.

But here we are, twelve months in, and still going.

edit: please stop commenting that I shouldnt try to lose weight. I am not trying to and I haven't lost a single lb In the last month. I am exercising for mental reasons, not physical. Thanks.

I am so frustrated. My baby gained weight so good until he had his 4 month checkup recently. I was shocked to learn he only gained 2 lbs from his 2 to 4 month check. I waited 10 days then went in for another weight check because it was stressing me out. Only gained 2 oz. Ever since I joined the gym a month ago I felt like his weight slowed down. But there were no obvious signs other than his clothes seeming to fit exactly the same as time passed. 10+ wet diapers, sleeps well at night, overall very happy baby and already rolling and pretty alert during wake hours. Dr said it might be my milk nutrition since I am exercising 6 days a week for 30min to 1 hr. Nothing crazy. Just walking in the treadmill at an incline or maybe 100 flights on the stair-master on my “hard“ days. This sucks. I feel like I have given up so much to breastfeed and its seemingly doing nothing at this point. I am not willing to also give up exercise or having to eat chicken for every meal to make up for it. I am giving up. As soon as he takes a bottle, I am done. Everyone acts like once you give birth, you reclaim your body. But its just not true at all.

Did you know in the UK we don't have a statutory right to:

- paid breastfeeding/expressing breaks

- a private, hygienic nursing space

Yet 130 countries around the world DO 🤷

It's time to change the law!

I've launched a petition to do just that.

No woman should have to choose between breastfeeding her baby and earning a living.

If you think this too, please sign and share the petition:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/779114

N.B. you must be a British citizen to sign.

I feel like such a terrible mother. 😞

Baby has been extra fussy lately, but I thought it was all normal for this stage. (14 weeks)

Today we had our pediatrician appointment and he has only gained 400g in the last month (less than a lb) he has gone from 23rd % to 3%.

We started off triple feeding in the first few weeks of life. Then he was refusing formula. Now he refuses bottles completely and will only drink from the breast directly.

I don't know if I'm not making enough milk or not offering enough.

He gets sooo fussy in the evenings and I feel like my breasts are so empty by that time of day. They always feel super full in the mornings and then I feel like I can't give him enough innthe evenings.

I don't know what to do. We have tried several different formula brands and he will scream and wail. We've also tried a few different bottles and going up nipple / flow sizes, but he won't take from a bottle.

😫

I'm going to offer the breast much more frequently and hope my supply keeps up.

Has anyone else had similar problems or any advice?

I feel so bad for my poor baby that he's suffering with hunger and not growing sufficiently.

He grew well in the first 2 months so I stopped worrying about timing the feedings or measuring the oz because I thought he was thriving 😞

hi everyone! new first time mom here.

I feed on demand and my 8 week old EBF baby nurses pretty much constantly during the day, as she has since birth...her napping is hit or miss but she’s a great night sleeper! I assume because she gets in so much milk during the day.

We’ve been to a lactation consultant and they said she eats well, just is a “snacker”! she’s also gaining weight well according to her pediatrician.

Im wondering when your EBF babies started spacing out their feeds at all? I can’t get much done, even for 10-20 minutes before she wants to eat again!

I love this experience and wouldn’t change it for anything (and I know I have the rest of her life to get things done, so I’m definitely trying to soak in this momenr while I have it!) but i would like to start exercising and cook a meal for myself/hubby every now and again. Until then, im just enjoying this season. I can already seeing the time slip away before my eyes!

i look forward to hearing all your experiences. thanks mamas!

Hi everyone! I’m a FTM to a beautiful 4.5-month-old baby girl. I’ve been wanting to share our breastfeeding journey for a while because I remember how desperately I searched Reddit for stories from other moms struggling with low supply.
Our journey was far from easy, and I hope sharing it might give someone who’s in the thick of it right now a little hope.

The first few weeks: doing everything right and getting almost nothing
My daughter was born at the end of May, weighing just under 7 lbs.I had always hoped to breastfeed, and I thought I’d done everything I was supposed to do to give us a good start.
I had no known health issues or birth complications. We did skin-to-skin immediately after birth. I started nursing and pumping every two hours while we were still in the hospital, and I kept that schedule going once we got home. I continued taking my prenatal vitamins and vitamin D.
But my milk just wasn’t coming in the way I’d expected.
For the first 2–3 weeks, I was getting practically nothing when I pumped.
And when I say nothing, I don’t mean 10 or 20 mL.
I mean literally a few drops.
Not even 5 mL. Just drops.
I tried everything I could think of. I changed flange sizes. I switched pumps. I tried fenugreek after my lactation consultant suggested it.
Nothing seemed to make a difference.
Meanwhile, I was nursing every two hours and supplementing with bottles afterward because my daughter needed to eat.
I kept hearing that breastfeeding was about supply and demand. Nurse more. Pump more. Remove milk more frequently, and your body will respond.
So I did.
I nursed. I pumped. I power pumped. I set alarms. I pushed through exhaustion. My nipples were constantly sore.
And still, those tiny drops were all I could see.
At around three weeks postpartum, I went to see a lactation consultant. We checked my daughter’s latch, and everything looked good. She was latching properly and actively sucking.
But during the weighted feed, she transferred only 7 mL from one breast and 15 mL from the other.
22 mL total.
I was devastated.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t latch or wasn’t trying to nurse. She was doing her part, and I felt like my body just wasn’t producing enough milk for her.
I remember thinking: How is this possible? I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do. Why isn’t my body responding?
It wasn’t just about the milk anymore. It felt like my body was failing me.
And then, mastitis. Twice.
As if the constant nursing, pumping, supplementing, and worrying weren’t enough, I also went through two episodes of mastitis in the middle of all this.
It felt almost cruelly ironic to be struggling so much to produce milk and then have to deal with mastitis on top of everything. During those weeks, we had to supplement more formula, going from 20 ml to 30 ml, then 40 ml then 60 ml.
I was physically exhausted, emotionally drained, and increasingly discouraged.
There were so many moments when I questioned whether I should just give up on breastfeeding altogether.
And honestly, I don’t think I would have been wrong to stop. Looking back, I can see just how much I was asking of myself during an already incredibly vulnerable time.
But breastfeeding was something I deeply wanted, so I decided to keep trying, one day at a time.

The unexpected turning point: SLEEP
This is probably the most important part of my story.
During those early weeks, I was so focused on increasing demand that I felt like I had to nurse or pump constantly. I was terrified that skipping even one session would make my already-low supply worse.
One day, my husband suggested that he give our daughter a bottle during one of her middle-of-the-night feeds so I could get a longer stretch of uninterrupted sleep.
I was extremely hesitant.
Everything I’d read about establishing milk supply emphasized frequent milk removal, especially during the early weeks. The idea of missing a feeding or pumping session felt like taking a huge risk.
But eventually, I agreed to try.
And for the first time after countless sleepless nights, I got FOUR consecutive hours of sleep.
Four hours! 😂
It felt incredible.
And to my surprise, my supply didn’t seem to suffer. In fact, I noticed that I was producing more milk the following day. I feed and pumped like before in all other feeding sessions.
So we continued doing this for a while, and I felt that getting more rest helped my supply tremendously.
I had been so focused on creating more demand, pumping more, and doing everything possible to produce more milk that I hadn’t given enough attention to something my body desperately needed: rest.
Of course, everyone’s supply is different, and skipping milk removal can affect supply, especially early on. I’m not suggesting this will work for everyone. But in my experience, getting a little more sleep made a huge difference, both physically and mentally.

Around 10 weeks: taking the leap toward exclusive breastfeeding
By around 10 weeks, I decided to try exclusively breastfeeding.
It was intimidating because I still wasn’t completely confident in my supply.
And those first days were HARD.
Sometimes my daughter wanted to nurse every single hour. Some nursing sessions lasted 40–50 minutes.
There were days when I felt like I barely left the couch.
We also still needed to supplement with bottles in most of the evenings, when my milk flow seemed slower and she was especially hungry.
But I kept going while closely monitoring her weight gain. And very gradually, something started to change.
Her nursing sessions became shorter.
The time between feedings became longer.
She seemed more satisfied after nursing.
We needed fewer and fewer supplemental bottles.
Until eventually, we didn’t need them anymore.
There wasn’t one magical day when everything suddenly clicked. It happened so gradually that I almost didn’t notice how far we’d come.
After all those weeks of worrying about every milliliter, pumping, supplementing, and questioning whether my body could do this, we had reached a point where breastfeeding alone was working for us around 3 months in.
I can’t describe how meaningful that felt.
And of course, the journey still isn’t perfectly smooth. We’re now at 4.5 months, and recently we’ve encountered another challenge.
My daughter has started having some feeding difficulties. Sometimes she’ll latch eagerly, take a few sips, then arch her back, pull away, and cry. She also refuses the bottles completely.
We’re working with her pediatrician to understand whether reflux might be contributing to her discomfort.
It’s been frustrating, especially after everything we went through to establish breastfeeding.
But I’m trying to remind myself that not every difficult feeding means my supply is inadequate.
Babies change. Their needs change. New challenges come up. And just because something is difficult today doesn’t mean it will always be difficult.

What I wish I could tell myself in those early weeks
If I could go back and talk to the exhausted, emotional version of myself sitting on the couch with a pump attached to her breasts, these are the things I’d want her to know:
1. Your body isn’t failing you. Breastfeeding can be incredibly difficult, and struggling with it doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
2. Rest matters, too. I was so focused on doing more that I forgot how important it was to take care of myself. Getting a little more sleep helped me tremendously.
3. Progress doesn’t have to happen overnight. Our transition to exclusive breastfeeding took weeks of frequent, sometimes very long nursing sessions. Improvement was gradual, but it happened.
4. Supplementing isn’t failure. Formula and bottles helped us get through the early weeks. I’m grateful we had those options, and I don’t think they make our breastfeeding journey any less meaningful.
5. Your breastfeeding journey doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. Some moms exclusively breastfeed from day one. Some combo feed. Some exclusively pump. Some switch to formula. Every family deserves support and kindness.

I wanted to share this for anyone who’s currently in the thick of it.
If you’re staring at a pump with only a few drops in it, wondering why your body isn’t cooperating…
If you’re exhausted from nursing, supplementing, and pumping around the clock…
If you’re afraid that giving your baby a bottle means you’ll never be able to exclusively breastfeed…
Or if you’re simply feeling like your body is failing you…
I see you. I’ve been there.
I can’t promise that everyone’s journey will turn out like mine. But I hope you know that the way things are going today doesn’t necessarily determine how they’ll be a month or two from now.
Sometimes progress is slow, messy, and almost impossible to see while you’re living through it.
And sometimes, one day, you look back and realize just how far you’ve come.
Sending love to all the moms who are struggling right now. You’re not alone. ❤️

I’m a SAHM to a 10 month old and have done EBF since birth. We got through the rough patches at the beginning, did the pumping thing while working before I left, and since staying home it’s been pretty much smooth sailing.

Except lately breastfeeding has felt soooo difficult. I’ve never understood the term “touched out” more than now. So I have some qualms I’d like to vent about:

-He never just sits to eat anymore except before bedtime. He pulls off every few seconds no matter what position. Even in a quiet dark room. Sometimes I feed him in his car seat in the backseat just to get in a solid feeding session. While he’s playing, sometimes I lay or sit with my boobs out because he’ll stop and nurse intermittently. JUST SIT AND EAT PLEASE

-He prefers one of my boobs to the other. I try to get in more nursing on rightie but leftie is becoming chapped from him mostly eating on that side.

-He wants to nurse ALL NIGHT. Probably because he won’t sit and eat during the day. We bedshare with a sidecar crib but I can’t always sleep in one position to nurse him.

-Ugh the biting. I thought we got over it after he bit me a few times a few months ago and I shoved his face in my boob to stop him. But he’s teething again and has bit me a couple times this week. It makes me scared to nurse him.

-The twiddling! I can’t take it! He has never done this before but has started. Sometimes I have to keep my other boob covered with my hand because it icks me out so bad.

I’m planning on weaning at 12 months but all this has me thinking switching to formula now wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I know it’s all normal baby stuff. Ive come this far so I’m gonna tough it out but someone please tell me it gets better 😭😭

Baby started sleeping through the night at about 8 or 9 weeks. She’s been 75th percentile for most of her life except she has recently dropped to 50th. LC recommended introducing a middle of the night feed to help with this. I will of course do this but I feel like this might also put me in the pattern of needing to continue night feeds for a while. Has anyone reintroduced night feedings because of bad weight gain at this age? How long did you have to do it?

Some other info - baby has been crawling for two months now and is super active. I also have resumed my menstrual cycle and it definitely lowers my supply for the second half of the month. I think we’ve hit some supply issues when she needed a calorie boost and she does seem quite hungry at the breast.

I am getting ready to wean my last baby (following her cues- not my choice!! 😩) I have 5 kids, ages 7, 5, 4, 2, and 1 and have been breastfeeding since my oldest was born (nursed through every pregnancy and tandem nursed after babies were born). FOR THE RECORD I am currently only nursing 1, not all 5 lololol.

Anyway I’ve NEVER fully weaned bc there was always someone to breastfeed and I’m so curious about what to expect when my body finally doesn’t need to produce milk anymore. Any insight?? THANKSSS

My baby is 10 weeks old, I’ve given him pumped milk in a bottle 3-4 times but every time he has a bottle he spits up SO much. Any tips? Has this happened to anyone else? Should I try a different bottle?

Using Lansinoh with size 1, premie nipple. Tried size 2 slow flow once and the same thing happened.

We pace feed, side lying similar to how he nurses, and burp every ounce.

He does have reflux after the breast but it’s easily 3x’s as much spit up after a bottle.

While I’m pumping and he’s feeding baby, my husband looks over to me and says “it’s like Bluetooth”

What crazy/funny things has your husbands said about pumping/breastfeeding?

Hi mums! I wanted to hear about your experiences with green poop in babies. My baby is one month old.
I checked with our paediatrician and LC, who told me that green stools are normal in breastfed babies, especially considering that I was taking iron supplements (I stopped taking them three days ago).

However, comments from people around me have left me feeling confused. They keep suggesting that my baby might be hungry or that something I eat could be affecting his stool. I haven’t changed my diet, and he has 7+ wet nappies a day, so I’m not sure how much truth there is to these claims.

Two days ago, his stools were green throughout the entire day. Yesterday, they were mostly green, apart from one golden-yellow stool. Otherwise, he is happy, active, and behaving as usual, with no noticeable changes.

Have any of you had a similar experience with your babies? I’d love to hear your experiences!

My baby is 11 months now and eats 2 meals a day, plus snacks. She loves nursing and we nurse around 7-8 times a day, plus at night. I am going back and forth with myself over whether or not to wean at 12 months, or to let it happen naturally, or intentionally try to extend for the health benefits.

I know that babies are supposed to be getting majority of their calories from food after 12 months, and my baby is a fabulous eater and over the 100th percentile, so I’m not at all worried about her nutrition.

It’s just so convenient right now. Boob solves everything. I had a 3 hour flight over the weekend and she just chilled on my boob and then eventually fell asleep. I was at a family party and ran off to go nurse her and hide from nosy family members. It’s just amazing. On the other hand, I want to get back on hormonal birth control and clear up my skin and stabilize my hormones. Plus the twiddling and biting and overall wrangling a gigantic 30lb cherub is getting to me. I can’t wait to chuck her in her bed and have some peace.

So how do I maintain a nursing baby while also giving primarily food? I have been so incredibly lucky and fortunate with her, and while things were not easy, I didn’t struggle in this way. I mostly just winged it and saw what happened.

How does it work? Do I continue to control the solid foods, and let her nurse as much as she wants? Or do I let her go crazy on solids, and then hold back on boob? Or do I have to keep a mental note open about how much of either one she’s having and try to balance it at 50/50? Do moms who do extended breastfeeding just offer for naps and comfort and sleeping?

Stories, advice, ideas, etc., all is welcome here.

Baby is 10w pp and sleeps pretty well overnight- right now it’s a crapshoot of when she’ll wake up for a feed: could be midnight, 4am, or not at all, and my husband handles her all night. I express milk about 8 times a day, 4 nursing, 4 pumping (average yield is 20oz/daily, baby’s bottle intake is around 10-15oz daily). I pump at 8:30pm, then 3am, then nurse around 6am. The 3am pump is religiously my best output of the day, but being up for the hour to pump, bag and clean up is killing me.

Can I skip this pump maybe once a week without ruining my supply, or giving myself a clogged duct? That would be going 10 hours - from around 8pm to around 6am- without expressing milk. But I am so damn tired, I’m getting headaches throughout the day, and I just want one good nights sleep if baby will give it to us.

Tonight made me want to give up breastfeeding so badly, I just keep sobbing into my baby's head as I rock him back to sleep

I'm so tired and frustrated/overwhelmed with him fussing for ages, then when he finally goes on he only sucks for like 5 minutes and then falls back asleep and i can't wake him up again. So I put him down and he wakes up wanting to feed again *and repeat every hour. He must have fed 20 times in the last 24 hours

I do have a strong letdown which can overwhelm him sometimes, and his poop is more olive green than yellow

He was doing so well with the 3 hours overnight (sometimes 4) and every 1.5-3 hours during the day

He's 3 weeks old, gaining weight (hasn't been weighed this week but my arms can tell), appropriate wet and dirty nappies. We cosleep so he's right next to me - won't go in the next2me at all

I just need somewhere encouragement to keep going and it will get better/how to make it better. The thought and faff of doing bottles is hideous

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the place to come but I figured I'd try my luck.

I have coeliac disease and tummy issues that are under investigation hence why I am going for a colonoscopy in late November.

I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation?

Since I'm exclusively breastfeeding and and oversupplier, I'm burning calories/energy like crazy and find that if I'm not eating at least every 3 hours, I can't see right (it's like lines in my vision or zigzags), my legs go floppy, etc. I'm aware that's low blood pressure, so I'm now concerned that I have to go a full 24+ hours without food according to the prep protocol, has anyone made it through the bowel prep while breastfeeding? What was your experience like?

Thank you in advance!!

I am EBF. I got my period back 6 months PP. I knew my body and was able to tell when ovulating and when I got my period. I was expecting it this cycle. The next month (this current month) I’m convinced I ovulated again, and then was as expected emotional and light cramping. I haven’t got my period, and it’s now been 40 days since my last period ended.

Is it normal to feel all the usual symptoms of the menstrual cycle after a period returns and still not getting it PP? I swear I should have gotten it based on how I was feeling, and nothing.

My milk supply even feels like it has dipped this month like it did last time.

Starting mid week 3 through the end of week 4, my baby was sleeping in two 3-4 hour blocks at night, followed by a 2 hour block. I was able to get decent sleep and felt good.

- Starting week 5, though, she’s only sleeping 2 hour block, max 3 hours maybe once. What is up with the sudden change? When can I expect her to get a consistent 4 hour stretch at night? It seems like some babies start doing that around week 5?

- I try to feed from both sides but at night she falls asleep on the first side and wont take the other despite a diaper change burping and trying to wake her up. Can this be the reason? Before it was no issue even with feeding from one side

- Also, during the day, her feeding schedule is every 2 hrs (from the start of one feed to the start of the next). Normal? So in a 24hr period she feeds pabout 8-10times

I've been breastfeeding my son since birth. Like many people, I found it so hard the first 6 months or so, but eventually I realized I actually really liked nursing an older baby. So I kept going. Then around 18 months or so it got SUPER easy and I realized I liked nursing a toddler even more. By that point, we were in a good 2x a day rhythm, morning and night.

Then when he turned 2, I started to experiment with "don't offer, don't refuse". For awhile he still wanted to nurse 1-2x a day. Then just at night. Then we had a few nights where he wanted to skip straight to his books. I thought those nights were flukes. They weren't. Not even 2 weeks later, he stopped asking completely. After a few days, I started asking him (I know, I know) and he very clearly said no, he doesn't want to, he wants to read books. And he hasn't nursed since. He's just shy of 2.5.

It's been 2 weeks and I'm overcome with feelings of sadness that my breastfeeding journey has come to an end. I didn't expect him to stop so abruptly. I'm so sad that the last time I nursed him, I didn't even know it was the last time. I'm worried that I pushed him to stop before he was ready. And what's making all of this worse is my friends and family are so dismissive of my feelings. They're like "what did you expect to happen, he's 2, it was time". I don't know what I expected. I'm just really, really sad.

Has anyone experience dmer only when pumping? I just started going back to work 3 months pp and every time
I pump with my spectra I feel nauseous and my skin just crawls. I just feel disgusting. If I nurse or use a manual pump I never feel it. Does it get any better and can I fix this issue? It just makes me not want to pump.

My baby actively drinks only 1 minute each side but we constantly have to wait 10 - 30 minutes for that short letdown. Today for the last feed he sucked for 40 minutes with no letdown and just ended up falling asleep with no milk!!! He will probably wake in the middle of the night now UGH why is my body failing me!? There is milk why won't it come out!?????

And here is my boy wasting his precious hours everyday just sucking and sucking (getting frustrated) when he could be playing.and happy.

Does anybody else have this problem?

Hear me out, I hate pumping! So much. I dread it everyday at work. However, after much research, I decided to pump 3-4x a day in addition to nursing for the first 6-8 weeks in prep of going back to work and ebf after 8 weeks.
Maternity leave was 12 weeks (Yay USA). So, by pumping extra in the beginning before my supply regulated, I was able to create a stash for when I returned to work and I didn’t end up with an oversupply.
Now at almost 5 months PP, my little one’s intake has increased and I’m having to rely on my freezer stash a lot.
And I have nothing against formula, except for the cost.
Just putting this out there for moms that are able to pump in the beginning, do so.

LO is 3 months tomorrow and we’ve been doing well overall with his latch. It’s always been shallow and he’s been assessed and has a posterior tongue tie but it hasn’t impacted our journey enough for me to go through the process of a revision.

All of a sudden as of maybe 2 days ago sometimes during feeds it feels like he’s biting me, but he has no teeth…. I don’t feel like he’s pulling his head back and just yanking my nipple with him either so I am so confused on what he’s doing down there that’s causing this pain.

It usually lasts a few seconds and then goes away. Could he be biting and it still causes pain even without teeth?