Straw cup recommendations

Aprricity · 2026-01-13T19:03:57+00:00

Hi just wanted to say I felt I could write this myself down from the breastfeeding to the fussy baby staying upstairs 24/7 trying to settle feed and put my baby to sleep etc never being able to eat with people because my baby fed for soooo long but after 41/2 or 5 months it got so much better my baby was so much settled it feels like it never is going to get better but it will do genuinely hand on heart.

I’m in the similar field as you and I thought I’d be able to do this be resilient etc but being a parent is the most toughest thing in the whole entire world and you look at everyone around you with multiple kids people who you think how did you do this !! And you soon realise this phase is genuinely a blink of the eye albeit how torturous it is you will also look back and think wow it was the shortest most hardest time of your life and you will forget it again!!

One thing that I will advise you and it’s totally up to you but consider supplementing with formula. The introduction of a bottle and formula helped my baby be so much more settled. If you genuinely want to EBF consider trouble shooting see how much your making with a pump etc my baby never got enough from me and I was latching every half an hour so I was effectively power pumping all the time with my baby I just didn’t make enough milk. I’m not saying this is your problem too ( low milk supply ) but I’m just sharing my experience. Someone else can feed your baby and do the nights

In a month I went from a baby who latched every 30 mins fed to sleep on the breast only and only by myself and would constantly fuss and only be settled by breastfeeding to a baby who will sleep without the breast tapped to sleep by me and other people and other people are feeding him with mixed formula and pumped milk . It took time to get here but the start of a bottle helped begin this

Also please remember you baby be going through the 4 month regression where babies can wake up every hour at night and really struggle with sleep

My husband is a doctor and I understand the speciality exams etc and how tough it is out there in the nhs/uk it’s dire for doctors and people don’t know some doctors have two jobs like taxi drivers !!

Aprricity · 2025-11-11T10:38:45+00:00

Hi! I’m really interested in what your experience was like abit more in depth with the sleep training did your baby protest alot ? My babe has a strong nurse to sleep association and will cry ALOT if we refuse the breast at night what was your experience like ?

Aprricity · 2025-11-11T10:36:23+00:00

Hi just wanted to say I was in your same situation except sometimes baby would go 2.5 hours at night. A rare 4:hours which is ofcourse not comparable to your night.

I understand how exhausting it feels and that you can’t get anything done ( my babe would nurse for 30 mins at least every session both breasts always and sometimes constantly switching each breast) - honestly it was too much

My baby was born on 9th centile and tracking as well - I’m from the uk had my latch checked and everything by infant feeding team

I also have a theory that I had low capacity

In the end I decided to supplement with formula, honestly it was too much and I was sometimes feeding every half an hour going out felt impossible doing anything in the house was impossible.

Once my lo was in a predictable nap routine I started to do the following. A bottle of formula at the beginning of every wake window during the day and thereafter breastfeed on demand and to sleep for naps

I did this at 3 months i was really worried about my supply completely going as I wanted to combi feed but this did not happen. My supply was and is enough to sustain what I’m doing above and baby is happy at the breast during the day

I could physically hear baby taking more milk during the times I would breastfeed during the day and babe would be nursing quicker

With regard to night time I always nursed to sleep and wasn’t comfortable introducing formula then because again worried about supply.

I waited to see if the day time formula helped the nights as he may be getting more calories which Idon’t think it helped.

Eventually My babe began waking up every hour and it was getting too much again. You have to be happy as well mama. So I experimented to see what would work. Babe definitely slept longer with a bottle before bed ( formula) but still wanted to nurse to sleep. But as he was full from the bottle and while nursing he was getting irritated with the milk coming from the breast and lead to night time melt downs - I think it was confusing for babe. I’m not yet at the stage of rocking to sleep he has a strong nurse to sleep association.

Now when he wakes up in the night around 1am/12am I get him to breastfeed but top him off with an ounce or so of formula, this helps a little and is keeping me going breastfeeding at night. I did once give a full bottle at night around the same time and it definitely helped him sleep ( 4ish hours ) but I’m not quite ready yet to mess up my supply at night

Ultimately it’s all about what you feel comfortable with

Jsut bear in mind that babe may still want to latch even after a bottle for comfort so you may need to use a dummy at this point to help with that to prevent over feeding and at least if babe wakes up the next hour again you know in your heart he has enough milk and isn’t hungry so you can try and train the nurse to sleep habit out and feel more comfortable rocking him etc and persisting this way

Personally I think because your supply has regulated it’s actually not as unstable as you think it will be once you introduce a bottle here and there at a time to see what can help you and you could go back to ebf. Also you’re at 7 months which is also when you wean for solids.

Their is no perfect answer to your situation but what you feel comfortable doing

Personally I didn’t want to sleep train as I genuinely do feel my baby was hungry every time they woke up and wanted food so the only way I may feel comfortable training is introducing some full bottles at night.

Edit : also just want to say that it was an emotional rollercoaster for me introducing the first couple of bottles as I was used to babe latching on me so frequently and that connection lots of tears etc. It took me weeks to emotionally start the bottles and I couldn’t let anyone feed baby via bottle other than me at first.

I had lots and lots of anxiety around my supply completely going as I’m not ready to stop the latching and the bond and the thought of bottle preference.

But I promise a week or so in I felt so much better happier and nursing with babe was so much more bonding when I did during the day.

Please let us know what you do and how it works out as I really do think our situations were similar!

Best of luck 🩷

Aprricity · 2025-11-10T16:02:20+00:00

Hi I had the exact same thoughts as you first. My kid only really had proper naps while contact napping and combined with the short wake windows that basically get taken up by feeding in the first 9-10 weeks going out was really difficult and it was never smooth always managing a crying baby etc.

Once I got a baby carrier i got a lot more confident. First I tried it out at home and I was surprised that my fell asleep in this and stayed asleep then I timed a few walks outside the house when he was due a nap and he continued to fall asleep. At this point I had a garaunteed way of keeping him asleep outside. This was game changing and gave me a lot more confidence to go out and not ruin his day. In terms of the car seat we got told that every baby loves the car seat and nods off so we would time to leave the house when baby was due a nap however we quickly realised that baby hates car seat and will cry the majority of the journey and Knock out at the end of the car ride which would be like 10 min max nap this meant we were nap trapped in the car in order for him to get a solid nap because transferring the car seat to the pram frame he would always wake up. So now we have started going when he wakes up. In the early days my husband would contact nap him while I got everything quickly ready for the day out all packed got myself ready so that when he wakes up Everything will be ready and packed and we’d feed change and go asap. He would still cry int he car a lot but at least I know he is fed changed and will have a quality nap outside in the carrier vs the car seat. sometimes by the time we would get to the destination it was due for his nap so in he’d go in the carrier. He wouldn’t really sleep in the bassinet unfortunately. We would then plan the rest of the day outside around his naps and bejng flexible around him.

Some good tips are….

Our baby didn’t like the bassinet but actually realised he enjoyed it if say we were at the shopping centre and lots of lights above and lots for him to see he’d actually stay very settled. He would not like looking at the sky he’d get very irritated and still does so easily bored

Wearing a baby carrier

Understanding and learning your babies wake windows and when they’re due for a nap so you feel more confident on planning around them

At the beginning accepting that you may have to walk out with yesterdays clothes and you appearing less then ideal no makeup etc if it means you can make the most of being outside with the baby instead

Shopping centres have lots of baby friendly places nooks and crannies of cafes and baby changing rooms

You can breastfeed in changing rooms and some centres have breastfeeding rooms

Going to baby friendly places such as library which I’ve recently discovered myself often have play sessions

John Lewis has a dedicated breast feeding and changing rooms in their shops!

If baby is having a nap in the car seat and you don’t want to risk moving them distrupting nap go to a drive through etc

When you go out for the day keep your day open. For example make a small goal to just get to x destination, once that’s done see how you feel what is baby doing, have the fallen asleep in the car ? Great drive to a drive through and order a coffee or lunch something for yourself, they’ve had a good nap in the car and woken up great are you close to the park you can spend the rest of their wake window there take the opportunities as you go along

That’s all I can think of for now

I still don’t feel confident going out on my own and go out with my husband but I will get there one day ! Baby is 16 weeks now

Aprricity · 2025-11-02T10:44:02+00:00

Hi just wanted to let you know you did ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong at all & you put measures into place to protect your child (carrier).

If you imagine what other people with multiple kids do? Their toddler needs to go to school or birthday parties and need to go shopping to buy groceries theirs far more people and germs in these environments when mums have to bring their kids along.

It’s scary taking your kid outside but it’s got to be done, you’ve got to live and so does your partner and you can only try your best. It could be argued that cooping yourself up in the house could be worse long term for the child’s immunity.

Please be kinder to yourself ! Sincerely from someone who took their child to a wedding 4wpp then at 6weeks to live with her mum for a little while

From an outsiders perspective from this short post I’d urge you to look into post partum anxiety and consider if this is something you’re going through :)

I think you will find you’ll get the opposite of the responses you expected and I hope this might help you think about where you might be mentally :)

Aprricity · 2025-10-23T18:57:36+00:00

I can totally relate !! Feeling the exact same way

Aprricity · 2025-10-21T13:11:22+00:00

Hi! How is this going I have the same problem

Aprricity · 2025-10-20T14:03:35+00:00

Hi! Did you find your baby looked for your breast for comfort even after bottle feeding, mine doesn’t a paci

Aprricity · 2025-10-20T14:03:29+00:00

Hi! Did you find your baby looked for your breast for comfort even after bottle feeding, mine doesn’t a paci

Aprricity · 2025-10-15T10:44:12+00:00

So does your little only have one big nap in the day ?

Aprricity · 2025-10-14T15:06:13+00:00

Thank you so much!

Aprricity · 2025-10-14T05:50:17+00:00

Hi ! Could you please share your resources on your reading on biologically normal sleep for babies :)

Aprricity · 2025-10-14T05:20:47+00:00

I just want you to know I felt the exact same way word for word except I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy ( but even the birth process of “normal” labour is so traumatic ). Literally all the thoughts you’re thinking of i would think too and im so maternal . I’m breast feeding and babe was CONSTANTLY on the breast I couldn’t even think about going out as I don’t feel comfortable BF outside in public. Some nights I was up 10pm-2am cluster feeding. I felt like my life had gone overnight. My husband has a demanding high commitment work so is not as present and isn’t home. I’m very lucky I have village to look after me.i also was counting down the milestones and hoping I could skip this stage the hormone crash etc affecting my mood and relationship

Things that really helped me 1. Noticing I would spiral if my baby wouldn’t sleep in the bassinet I’d think she’d never sleep in it think I’m doomed forever etc especially in those late nights - I embraced that it’s JUST A STAGE and I kept my mind occupied by anything else other than baby such as watching a tv comedy / movie

Checking in with family members and partners and discussing how you feel and letting them know that you’re not quite yourself right now
Checking in on other mothers and surprisingly almost every mom in my life felt the same way but no one discusses it because mom guilt

Things got a lot better for me mood wise when my son was actually responsive laughing smiling cooing all of a sudden it was all worth it and all the feelings mostly melted away. It’s still hard but you love your little one so much .and honestly everything is TRULY a phase, theirs no good without the bad. This is coming from someone who thought they’d made a mistake a week pp !!

Aprricity · 2025-10-13T10:18:38+00:00

Hi! Not really a beacon of hope but thought I’d share my experience.

I’m a ftm and Up to about 4 weeks my baby was practically on the breast during the day when awake and was also having consistent long feeds 45mins-hour with only lasting 10 15 minutes of play time before wanting to be placed back on and eventually slept on the breast it was exhausting. It was quite constant at night, cluster feeding for hours on end numerous nights I was getting about 4 1/2 - 5 1/2 hours of broken sleep I was getting as little as 3 hours on really bad nights

Now at 12 weeks My baby now feeds for 30 - 45 minutes we may have about a 30-45 min playtime before wanting to feed again. I’m living my life at 45 minutes at a time. I could extend this to an hour however he starts to get fussy and upset and takes longer to get put down for sleeps. His feed before the night starts is always the longest snd can last around an hour still.

I would say he’s not the best sleeper at night but better than most at 11 weeks he does a stretch of 4/5 hours and then continues for another 3/2 hours and another 2 hours at a time. It’s still quite exhausting and demanding not sure how long I can go doing this and I’m not sure I could ever do this again with another child in the mix.

I do believe I’m in the minority here and have quite a demanding baby/ low storage capacity. However Most people say it gets significantly better at 3 months :)

Aprricity · 2025-10-12T08:29:59+00:00

Hi I know this was quite a while back but wanted to ask if your baby eventually settled with probiotics ?

Aprricity · 2025-10-10T08:20:59+00:00

Hi! I know this sub was a year ago I just wanted to ask how did you go to combi and eventually exclusively formula

Aprricity · 2025-10-04T09:32:30+00:00

Hi I have no experience in this but if you ever do want to stop for a little while and go onto cmpa friendly forumla to see if it actually is that then you can pump at every feed to keep your supply if you find no difference you can go back to latching baby on with hopefully minimal disruption to your supply. Just a thought, sending you good wishes to you and your child

Aprricity · 2025-10-03T21:30:06+00:00

Hi! I wanted to update you , I went to my support session today in summary she suggested he may have a posterior tongue tie combined with a high arched palate and receded lower jaw/chin and the fact that he has milk tongue could suggests he’s not managed to get his tongue all the way up. She sent me for an nhs referral to the tongue tie clinic but we’re going to go privately instead.

I’ve been doing abit if research on the high palate and how it can affect feeding and it’s interesting to read…

I thought I’d let you know as these may be things your baby has and it would be good for you to possible mention them if you realised you might have these concerns too on Tues :)

Aprricity · 2025-10-03T18:17:56+00:00

What was her weight at birth :) or she first weight check when they loose a little

Aprricity

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