Help - Back to Work & Can't Keep up w/my Babe's Appetite

[StellaNuova]

Hello,

I am newly back to work full time and my sweet little one is downing ~20 oz of pumped milk a day which is more than I can pump.  My frozen store is nearly gone.  I do get up before she does to pump and that really works but it is still not enough...I just read the suggestions on LLL and found them a bit unrealistic (add more night feedings? No thanks, she is sleeping through the night 90% of the time and I need my sleep too.  Be more relaxed use warm compresses/pump more often while at work -- just not realistic).  I am essentially a single mom to three. Yes I am getting enough to eat and drink and enough sleep, most of the time.  I've heard fenulgreek (sp.?) helps increase supply but don't want to drink four glasses of well steeped herbal tea a day (again has to be realistic with full time work).  Sorry if I sound negative but I feel a bit discouraged.  I don't feel there's a lot of true support for working moms who breastfeed, a lot of people who advocate haven't done it themselves.  And yes, I have done this before with my older two, one of whom I nursed for nearly two years, and my other for ~14 months.  My current babe is 16 weeks and probably 16 ish lbs at this point (she's a dumpling).  I welcome your ideas!  I don't want to have to start supplementing with formula yet...I was hoping to wait till at least 6 months.

And yes I do have a good pump, a Medela Pump In Style...well used may I add but works fine...

Thanks.

Stella

[homemademom]

Can you take something like Motherlove herbs? They come in pill form or you can squirt the drops into a bit of water and gulp it down. I started taking their Special Blend formula and it's done amazing things for my supply!  You can also eat oatmeal everyday.

[Megan73]

Before worrying about your supply, I'd make sure overfeeding isn't the problem. Check out the milk calculator on Kellymom.com and make sure your caregiver reads the handout on bottle feeding the breastfeed baby.

[StellaNuova]

Hi, thanks for responding. I am going to try those capsules.  Also, last night at bedtime, my milk wouldn't let down and my baby got very upset.  The more upset she got the more stressed I got and I just couldn't relax. Fortunately, I had pumped yesterday morning (trying to stock up for the week) so I gave her about half of that in a bottle (first time I'd ever given her a bottle myself) and to my relief she took it and settled down. So I am not sure what's going on. I am likely having endocrine issues (I have some sypmtoms and have had them in the past) but it's never interfered with nursing before, thought it would make sense that it is more severe.  

I actually don't think it's my caregiver.  She's a natural oriented SAHM who nursed who own two for a long time and did the whole pumping thing herself and has cared for other BF babies.  But I appreciate the heads up, I did check out the hand out.  

I never felt let down at all with my first, though I nursed him for about two years. I did with my second and with this babe, but never had a problem with it before.  Not sure what is up.

Thanks again,
Stella

[homemademom]

I forgot to mention that I also started taking iodine hoping to deal with whatever the root causes might be for my low supply. I may have some thyroid issues going on, not sure.  Might be something else for you to try.