New here, mom to 24 week preemie

[holiday]

Hello, I'm new here

I ended up with a severe case of HELLP Syndrome and had to deliver my baby at 24 weeks. She weighed 1 lb 1oz.

She now is 9 weeks old today and weighs 2 lbs 3 oz.

Right now, I've been worried about my milk supply. Now that I've done research I see the nurses/LC at hospital told me the wrong info. I've been pumping for like 10 min each side. ugh. Plus I was in ICU so I didn't even get to pump for like 1.5 days after I had her. I was just too sick, and from what I've read from other HELLP survivors, we don't produce much milk etc due to being so sick.

Jasmine had no brain bleeding, but she is at stage 1 for ROP. So far that has been her only problem. She was only suppose to have 10% chance of survival and they prepared me for her passing on before I gave birth to her. I'm so blessed and happy she has been such a fighter.

We do kangaroo care now. (not noticed one bit of difference in milk supply though).

She is on low flow canula. She was on vent for the first month

Can I say I'm exhausted lol, i can't wait to bring her home.

[azgirl]

Congratulations on your baby! It sounds like she is doing great. How much milk are you getting? A lot of moms that pump exclusively notice that milk supply drops after a few weeks...how much were you getting at 2-3 weeks? Pumping for a preemie is hard and supply can be an issue. I got a lot of great info on the breast feeding challenges board also. We can be more help if we know how much you are getting!

[AppleCrisp]

Hey welcome to this forum. My daughter just came home. I also had HELLP.

They told me to pump at least 15 min with the double pump, at least 8 times in 24 hrs (not necessarily every 2 hours). When we came home, she still was not able to eat well, and my supply almost dried up even with pumping. I just started taking fenugreek and within 24 hours I was overflowing...it was dripping out both sides of her mouth.

Good luck and congratulations on your daughter.

[holiday]

on a really really good pump i get 1 oz.

I'm pumping right now as matter of fact. I've lately only been getting .5 oz, or .75 oz.

it's just it's been 2 months since i had her and i've never had a baby to my breast. I know that's huge part of problem.,

[azgirl]

Oh Holiday, what you are going through is so so hard! You're supply is on the low side, but there are a lot of things you can do to increase it. Domperidone along with a couple of pumping tricks increased my supply a lot. I used the Medela Symphony pump- are you using a hospital-grade pump? You should every time you pump if possible. After a few months (my 26-weeker was in the NICU for 4.5 months and I pumped for 13) I figured out what worked for me to get the most milk:
*I pumped one side at time for 5 minutes while I massaged/pushed the milk out with my other hand. I did each side 2 or 3 times. It turns out that I didn't let-down at all for the pump. Before I figured that out, I power pumped: double pump, 10 minute break, pump again, another 10 minute break for 40 minutes.
*I took the max dose of domperidone
*I watched TV or went online to relax and take my mind off of pumping
*spent a lot of time on the MDC breast feeding challenges board, lots of domperidone and pumping info there.

My preemie was my first. Some mamas get lots of milk no matter what they do, some of us need everything to "go right" to get a full milk supply. My son was 7 weeks old the first time I held him, I didn't empty my breasts in those crucial first weeks etc. I am hoping that with proper management I can develop a full supply

I hope that all makes sense. I know how it feels to want to make more milk for your NICU baby. Good luck! Your baby will be home soon!

[susienjay]

I had a couple weeks where I was getting an ounce or less per pumping. The main thing that helped was doing lots and lots of shorter pumping sessions. My dd is 2.5 now and I forget exactly how often it was now but about every fifteen minutes I was pump. The hospital LC recommended it to me and she told me to just put all the pump stuff in the fridge so I could reuse it a few times.

I never did get an amazing supply pumping but I was able to get my dd nursing fully. Once she started latching on my supply really went up.

[sbrinton]

Remember the basics too. Lots of water, good nutrition, plenty of rest. If you are able to have the baby near or at your breast when you do kangaroo care, that may help. Stress and exhaustion can decrease milk supply...hard to avoid these in the NICU but take good care of yourself.

I've found that fenugreek helps with my supply. Also drinking Mothers Milk Tea can help. Eat oatmeal (or oatmeal cookies).

Remember that every drop counts. Even if you need to suppliment with formula, your baby is getting so much benefit from your breastmilk and the connection you have doing kangaroo care and eventually (hopefully!) breastfeeding.

[Sandstress]

I pumped for about 35 minutes each time with a double hospital grade pump. If I didn't extend it to that time period, I would miss a significant letdown and I think my supply would have dwindled. A couple NICU nurses scolded me for pumping so long, but it was my breastfeeding relationship and my DD's milk- so I made the choice to keep up with it. My supply was also VERY LOW in the beginning- so drastically so that one of the LC's told me it wasn't worth it. I ended up EPing but had a pretty good supply for whole time (never was able to successfully shorten pumping). I also didn't get to put baby to breast until about 38 weeks (10 weeks after she was born), and I don't know how that affected things. Try some variations in your pumping routine and see if there's another letdown in there! Hope that helps, and feel free to PM me if you want to.