Breastfeeding Support Group Community

are you nursing at all or just solely pumping? Did you continue pumping when she was was being given formula? What has your pumping and nursing schedule been like since she was born? I'm not an expert by degree but have been through some trying times while nursing and pumping for my daughter. She was tiny and had some issues nursing so i had to mainly pump for her for the first 4 months. I can give you some advice on things that worked for us. With the amounts you were getting, it sounds like you milk has come in but your supply may have decreased due to lack of demand, which happens very quickly and while its easily reversed, takes some diligence.

yogijan

I was pumping every 3-4 hours at first, & when I asked how to increase my supply was told to pump every 2-3 hours, but at that point it decreased...I was not able to put her to the breast for the first week & by the time they allowed me they had already introduced a bottle so she wouldn't stay latched due to the amount of effort required to get any milk.

I was told when my milk fully came in I would be pumping 4-6oz bottles...I barely made it to 2oz & that wasn't even consistent.

Actually I got 68ml ONCE! other then that I averaged 30ml (1 oz) per session

I don't have any experience with using medication to increase supply, but I have read online of women taking reglan or domperidone to increase their supply. You may be able to get your doctor to prescribe reglan. You must have a prescription and I have read that it is very difficult to get a doctor to prescribe domperidone, so most women order it from inhousepharmacy.com without a prescription.

Like I said, I've never tried these drugs but you may want to google them.

Good luck and don't be too hard on yourself. Some women just don't have the glands or tissue to breastfeed. Be proud of yourself for trying.

ok so here are some thoughts...

Your amounts will decrease per session for a few days when you decrease the time between pumping. Its what would normally keep your baby coming back to the breast every 2 hours hence increasing your supply. it should increase over a few days but can take up to a week.

Also, try to make sure you are completely emptying at least 1 breast at each session and starting on opposite sides each time. Not emptying the breast can signal to your body that you dont need as much as you're producing. I was just told that while pumping both breasts at once is faster, doing one a time when first starting out will help you to completely empty the breast at at least every other session, increasing your supply.

With dd, i would pump until let down then put her on the breast once the milk was flowing, she too did not like to wait for her milk once she got used to the instant milk flow from a bottle. It helped alot. The more time you can get her on the breast, the more you will stimulate milk production. The baby will trigger things in the brain and body to produce more milk that pumping can not. Which is important when we are struggling.

Another thing we did was put her on the breast after she had gotten most of her milk from the bottle. At the point when they are done eating and not doing the nutritive sucking. That light suckling will trigger let down, then i would pump directly following.

It is super time consuming, but if you have the time it is worth it in the long run. Then you'll look at her when she's 6 months old when she's nursing or your pumping like a champ and not even remember all the time you spent pumping and what not in the beginning.

So this is what my plan would be, and although i've only nursed 2 kids, 1 was a barely 5 pounder who didnt latch on for 8 weeks, and one ate every hour for 4 months straight lol.
Even with my "A" cups i never had a continued supply issue...never supplimented with formula and never had to take a suppliment. so here goes:

pump at least every 2 hours ( even if you only get 2ml) no exceptions, at night however, i only did every 4 hours.(so once during the night which isnt too bad. )Your supply is naturally higher in the morning. So i got used to nursing on both sides and then pumping on both sides, and in no time, that was my spare milk session.lol

try pumping 1 breast at a time, ex. start on the right and empty it completely, then switch to the left and pump until you have the desired amount or you've run out of patience (that was usually about 15 mins for me lol) The next session, start on the left. Once you have a good pattern and supply you should be able to go back to double if you want.

try to get baby on the breast every time you pump even if only for a minute(see above)

a nursing mom needs to consume 3/4 oz of water for every pound that she weighs, where a non nursing mom only needs .5oz. so make sure you're drinking enough, trust me you'll know if youre not.

If you have to supplement- make sure you keep your pumping schedule.

give it a week and see if you see a difference. If you need fenugreek or something, call baby's pediatrcian. They know alot about nursing babies and they are ped. visits are covered by insurance!!!

and dont worry!! if the process is frustrating for you and the baby, and youre both miserable there is nothing wrong with rethinking your strategy!!

hth!!
you can email me if you'd like
janell (at) generation-yoga (dot) com