Sorry this is so long. I'm so new to this and not sure if I'm doing the right thing for DS.
DS is 9 days old (and oh so precious!!). When he was born via c-section (3/11-thursday) he was 6 pounds even. On his pediatrician (not our normal one) checkup on Monday, the nurse weighed him and jotted down the wrong weight (2.45kg instead of 2.55kg) - we didn't find out until later. So when the Dr. came in, she was VERY worried since he lost 10% of his body weight. We were SO scared. She said this was a "red flag". And suggested we started feeding him 60ml of formula every 2 hours and check back the next day. She gave us some formula and a bottle so we could start feeding right away. Well after she was gone we did the math (i saw the pound measurement when the nurse weighed him - 5lb10oz, DH and i did the math and it was only 6% weight loss). THEN we figured out what the nurse did. Dr. was already w/another patient so we couldn't speak with her...left a message with the nurse. OF COURSE the nurse didn't tell her she made a mistake. We later called and explained the situation to her. She said to not feed him the 60ml every 2 hours anymore. But of course by this point, DH and I were still VERY shaken up even tho we knew the math was off....i guess we were shocked and then so paranoid.
Went to pediatrician (our normal one, we like this one so much better) yesterday (Friday) and DS was 5lb 14ounces (almost back to birth weight!!). Dr. said we are doing great (whew!!) and asked about the feeding. I said i feed on one side and pump the other. On the side I feed at, I also SNS (feed with tube) with previously pumped milk. This way i know about how much he's eating b/c i can measure out what I pumped. And then I also supplement with formula (thru SNS or bottle given to us on Monday) when needed. I get about 15-20mL per boob from the pump. She wanted us to start trusting the breastfeeding process and try to exclusively BF - and go back for weigh in Tues to see how it goes. She asked us to feed 20mins per side each time (total 40mins feeding).
So yesterday the first feeding after the appt, I tried just feeding from the boob. Well I fed him for FOUR HOURS! Feed him from both boobs for about an hour total (he's a fighter sometimes and then falls asleep so the whole process takes awhile). After the hour he gets the content look on his precious face but when i lay him down to sleep, he wakes up almost immediately and is hungry (all the feeding cues), so we repeated this process for about 3.5 hours. At that point I gave up and fed him 28mL previously pumped milk in a bottle w/slow flow nipple (we never used the bottle before the scare - we never even had one until that first Dr. gave us one...then we used it as a last resort - like late night feedings AFTER BF if we had to supplement with formula or pumped milk). He was still hungry so I continued to BF for a bit then at the end of 4 hours gave him 10mL of formula from bottle. That did it - he was full and slept like a baby.
Last night the same thing happened....I tried for 2 hours. Then broke down, cried a few tears out of frustration. And then had DH feed him some formula from bottle. He slept like a baby again. I tried to pump and got about 30mL total - mostly from the breast I first fed with - so it had been making milk for about an hour before I pumped it.
So........this leads me to believe that maybe my milk supply still isn't enough yet? Should I keep supplementing with formula for now? Next BF session, how long should I feed for before I throw in the towel and supplement (either formula or previously pumped milk). An hour? two hours? four hours?
If you read this far, THANK YOU!!!! I keep hearing it gets easier....just waiting for that to happen - I know I have a long way to go since it's only been a week! haha.
eta: I know the bottle shouldn't have been introduced....but at this point do I still use the bottle as a last resort if I need to supplement after a marathon feeding session? Or do i use the SNS? I'm trying to stick to SNS...but not sure about the bottle.