Letdown issues/combo feeding?
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You’re doing great mama! 8+ times a night is quite a lot, no wonder you’re tired. Props to you for making it a whole 6 months through that! maybe you can also try to figure out why LO is waking up so frequently? Would it be possible to give baby a bottle from pumped milk before bed to make sure they’re getting a large amount to hopefully fill them up so they can sleep longer? From my research, kendamil and Bobbie are the cleanest formulas with the lowest threshold for lead and other heavy metals (I guess they can’t be fully free because it’s naturally occurring in soil/environment). European brands like Hipp and Holle, etc. are similar but not FDA approved in US, so while you can find them online, the FDA doesn’t ensure they are stored and handled properly (proper temp during shipping, for example). Kendamil is a European brand that was FDA approved to be sold in the US, and Bobbie is US made but off of EU formula. Hang in there ❤️
Sounds like she’s cluster feeding at night. She doesn’t want food necessarily when she nurses at night, she wants comfort. I know it’s hard but it’ll pass, I’d hold off on formula. If you do formula and BF, you’re giving yourself another task that’ll cause exhaustion and then you’ll want to stop and you’ll be producing less and she’ll be eating more. Your let down is different after 6m because your body is better regulated as far as how much your LO needs. Nothing abnormal sounds like it’s happening girly. Just a period where your LO is taking massive amounts of nutrients and it’s a lot on a woman.
Go outside, get more protein, that’ll help with exhaustion. And remember that formula feeding means cleaning bottles, making bottles, holding bottles on baby for 15+ minutes a feeding. That’s fun for BF moms for about 10 minutes and then you realize the convenience of BF.. I’m a SBF mom. Trust me. Your let down isn’t going to be intense throughout the whole BF period. Your LO is off and on going to be cluster feeding until they’re about a year and a half. They do this for comfort, food, pain. Your body releases hormones to help them sleep, numb their gums, and comfort/feed them. Message me if you need anything! :)
Hi mama! I’m exclusively breastfeeding too and after doing the Taking Cara Babies sleep training methods baby sleeps through the night ❤️ took a lot of stress off of me to keep up with nighttime feeds. Xx hope it helps
First off, I'm so sorry about the load you are carrying ❤️ My baby is dairy intolerant. From what I understand, goats milk has very similar proteins so most babies with a dairy sensitivity can't handle it either. I haven't tried it so I can't share a personal experience, it's just what other dairy free baby moms have told me. Just something to have in the back of your mind if she doesn't take well to the formula. I really hope it works for you!!