Reply to Husband Not Being Supportive About Breastfeeding

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Personally, I would not triple feed for more than two weeks. If your supply hasn’t gone up enough to meet his needs after triple feeding for 2.5 weeks, it’s unlikely to, and triple feeding is unsustainable much longer than this, IMHO. So I agree with your husband.

That being said, I’m not you. So what I would recommend is to take a bit of a step back. First of all - on a scale of 1-10, how important is breastfeeding success to you? I would say I’m a six, so clearly you’re higher than that. 7? 8? 9? 10? What is your husband? Lower, one assumes, but ask him. I think it’s valuable to know how far apart you are. If he’s a 1 (couldn’t care less, would have been happy with formula from jump) and you’re a 10, that’s going to create more frustration than if he’s a 6 and you’re a 7. This also gives you both a bit of language to talk about various interventions (ex: “I hear that you’re suggesting daily appointments with the lactation consultant, but you’re an 8, and that sounds more like a 9 or a 10”).

Then, I think it’s valuable to discuss your limits. Let’s say you’re an 8. We’ll, then triple feeding indefinitely doesn’t make sense. So what’s your limit? Maybe another week and a half? That’s four weeks of triple feeding, that’s a LOT. I think if you can identify some stop points NOW, 1) you decrease the chance of going overboard, and looking back on this years later wishing you’d given up sooner (soooo common) and 2) I think that would be really helpful for your husband to hear, and might really decrease his frustration.

Once those boundaries are in place, I agree that for daily venting, your husband might not be the best choice, especially if it’s becoming repetitive. Do you have any mom friends or relatives? Or maybe joining a new moms group might help?

Good luck! And congrats. [/quote]

OP here. It’s high for me. It’s important for me to breastfeed because of the pandemic. I will be getting my booster soon and want to pass down any antibodies I can.

It’s not a supply issue. The triple feeding is because he wasn’t gaining enough at the breast and I pump to feed him after with a bottle. I could use formula but I make enough milk that I need to pump because he doesn’t empty me.

My husband was very on board at first. He wanted me to at least try it. When it wasn’t working, he brought formula with the hopes that I will supplement to make it easier on me.

I plan to make breastfeeding work and want to go to 1 year. [/quote]

I’m the PP.

Okay. So it sounds like your at a 9 or a 10, and your husband is maybe at like a 4 or a 5? That’s a pretty big spread.

I think you missed my point about a stop point. I’m not talking about your breastfeeding goals. I’m talking about - what if where you are right now is as good as it gets, it never improves? What then? You mentioned that the next step is exclusively pumping. So - how much longer are you going to try and get the baby to latch, and when is it time to move on to EP? And then how long are you willing to EP? Would you want to do that for a full year? Do you think that’s sustainable?

I think it would be helpful to articulate this “worst case scenario” to both yourself and your husband. “I want to keep trying to get him to latch well until he is 6 weeks old. At that point, I’ll stop, and move to EP, and hope to do that through the winter months for the antibodies, and then when he’s six months old, we can move to formula. I would appreciate your support during the last two weeks of trying to make this work.”

I think having those deadlines spelled out will help you both.[/quote]

OP here. The post isn’t about breastfeeding but it’s turn into it. That’s why I wanted to post in the relationship forum.

I’m going to give it another month and then switch to exclusively pumping if things don’t improve. I plan to nurse or pump for a year. Possibly until 6 months but my goal is to make it to 1 year. We will be trying for our second baby when he turns 1. [/quote]

If you keep on this way about breastfeeding, I wouldn’t count on your husband being enthusiastic about signing up for another baby with you…[/quote]

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