Help increasing milk supply - Page 2

[clairebear3]

Yeah, I do take it all to heart a little bit, my natural birth turned out to be a cesarean and I just freaked out when I thought BF wasn't working!

The health visitor was here this a.m and she also thought it was a good time to get her back to the breast :)  I'm going to follow the supplement weaning from the link but i'm going to begin with giving her the same amount of formula for three days, just because I have been pumping and not BFding i'm not sure how much she's getting.  I will be supplementing 270ml spread out over 3 90ml bottles instead of the 150ml she is used to to get her used to drinking smaller amounts more often.  If I give her the bottle I will pump afterwords, apart from that i'm offering the boob every 2 hrs at the moment.  I have found that when she latches if I hold the top of her head in a tilted back position so that her chin is more on my breast and her nose further away she seems to drink better, I can definitely hear her swallowing sometimes.

She was weighed today, 4380kg and I will go to get her weighed either Thurs/Fri, wish me luck :)
 

[clairebear3]

Ok, my masterplan backfired.

I was offering the breast every two hours and she was drinking really well (I think), then she was sleeping in the beco carrier, then in the evening I gave her one of the 90ml bottles and she was really unhappy, obviously wanting more, I gave her the breast, the little bit of pumped milk I had and then ended up mixing up some more formula.  She's not a baby who cries much so it was just awful, she was screaming, then I cried!

So i'm back pumping at the mo, would it be better to offer the breast every 3 hours or so, followed directly by a little bit of formula?  I'm just worried if she isn't draining my breasts my milk production will get worse.  Trying to pump in between feeds or when I give the bottle doesn't seem to work because I don't have enough milk for her next time I feed her.

I won't try anything else for a few days because it was quite stressful!
 

[clairebear3]

Forgot to say, she is used to drinking 2 x 150ml bottles a day from when she was 4 weeks, i'm cursing the doc who told me to do that instead of more smaller bottles!

[clairebear3]

Well I had another go at BFding yesterday but I think i'm going to have to stick with pumping.

I started feeding her at 15.20, 20 mins on each breast, I could hear her drinking but then she started getting frustrated so I gave her a bottle and she drank 50ml, I then pumped 20 mins after I stopped breastfeeding and I still had 30ml so for some reason she just isn't emptying my boobs.  This is prob how my supply problem started in the beginning.  The only thing I haven't tried is a nipple shield but they are meant to be bad for production, right?  After that she was really confused and kept wanting to drink small bits and not sleep and ended up with cramps and it took a long time to get her settled again.

I think I will just keep pumping and concentrate on increasing my supply.  It's a shame and I feel a bit mushy about something else i'm missing out on but i'm trying to focus on the benefits of pumping...

[Asiago]

Just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I admire your effort, you are working so hard. I am really cheering for you and baby, I can only hope it gets easier for you both soon.

[LilMomma83]

I think a shield would be worth it if it saves your nursing relationship..but, that is my opinion. I know lots of moms who used shields with no ill effects. Some of them had tongue tied babies...I still think you baby may have one. Facebook page "Tongue Tie Babies Support" is a great place to find local resources if you want to pursue that anymore.

If you want to exclusively pump, I admire you! But, if you don't want to than keep trying to nurse...in other words I still think you can work breastfeeding out, I hope you make the best choice for you that will leave you with no regrets (whichever choice that is!)

Great job hanging in there...I can honestly say I know how hard it is...you are a wonderful mommy!

[DoubleDouble]

A small tip for hands-free pumping: do it in a chair with handles - put some fabric, like a t-shirt or two, on each side between you and the chair handles, make a "nest" for the bottle in the fabric, put the bottles there when you pump, and voila. I have a chair similar to this one, I started using my pump there and I even thought my pump was "hands-free". Then I read some reviews on it and was surprised to learn that others had to hold the cups.

You'd have to hold the flanges & bottles for half a minute to get the suction set up at the right angle, then place the bottles into the fabric and they will hold up just fine. I usually read e-books, do some sewing, or sometimes compress the breasts to get more milk in less time.

[clairebear3]

Thank you everyone!  I really appreciate having people to sound ideas to, i can't keep bugging the midwife :)

I think I will try the shields in a few days, I guess I will not pump the feed before, then feed her with the shields, get my partner to feed her from a bottle straight away if she's still hungry and then I can pump straight away to see if my breasts were really empty or not.  I find that if i'm going to try something like this it's really best if I wait for a day when I have absolutely nothing to do and no visits coming, otherwise i'm constantly looking at the clock!

Man yesterday I got such a fright.  A friend had come over and by the time she had left it had been about 5 hours between pumping sessions, I sat down to pump straight away and the pump broke!  It just did nothing at all!  My husband had the car and wouldn't be back until 22.30, I rang the midwife and she came to lend me her hospital, but single, pump, she went off to a college class and then i saw that she hadn't bought the pieces that fit on your breast and mine wouldn't fit on her machine!  I rang my father in law to come and get us and drive us to a baby shop, the avent pumps where sold out so I had to by this

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=a3T&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&q=nuby+borstpomp&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1600&bih=720&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=ugDbT4uvJuPO0QWEwvT5Cg

with this

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Sjo&rls=org.mozilla:nl:official&biw=1600&bih=720&tbm=isch&tbnid=kB5SvyiGzZkmvM:&imgrefurl=http://www.hoepie.nl/index.php%3Fitem%3Dn_ucirc_by-natural-touch-motor-tbv-comfort-set-borstpomp%26action%3Darticle%26aid%3D8868%26lang%3DNL&docid=K84RDPUu3HoSlM&imgurl=http://www.hoepie.nl/data/articles/images/lightbox/big/nuby-natural-touch-motor-tbv-comfort-set-borstpomp_8868_0.jpg&w=500&h=320&ei=2gDbT4SUFuGw0QWno43eCg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=916&vpy=169&dur=1277&hovh=180&hovw=281&tx=96&ty=91&sig=109299849982097075377&page=1&tbnh=159&tbnw=211&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:85

Which cost 150euros.  They couldn't get it to start straight away in the shop but assured me it was ok, I came home, sterilized everything and then realized it really didn't work!  Rang the midwife and she bought me the rest of her pump a few hours later.  In the meantime I let my DD nurse and used a hand pump.  So last time I had to pump twice in the night for 40 mins on the single pump, never realized how grateful I was for my pump!!  Rang the health insurance this morning and drove to the next town to pick up another one.  I have seen these pumps for sale second hand so I am going to buy one to keep upstairs and when we go to the UK in August i'm going to take them both with us.  Imagine if this had happened in the weekend or something!  I was soooo happy to have my pump back I will never complain about it again :)

I have also ordered some mothers milk tea, hope it helps because with shipping to Belgium it was really expensive.  I'm getting better at doing it hands-free, I kind of hook the horns inside my nursing bra and they stay on quite well, and I can drink/snack in the mean time.  I think i'm going to try and make some kind of wrap like they put around your shoulders at the hair dressers to cover myself up.  We have house guests and a few anniversary parties/weddings soon and then I can pump without running off somewhere...

Thanks so much for your continued support, I will keep you updated if I try the shields next week, good weekend!

[clairebear3]

pff I thought I had a bit more milk the last few days, I scraped by on only one bottle of formula for two days but I must have had a supply backed up because today I will prob need two.

Sometimes I just get so down that my body isn't doing what it's meant to.

She should probably still be eating little bits every three hours but if I try to feed her every 3 hours she still drinks 150ml.  She's already getting to much on the 6 x 150ml as it is if I feed her every 3 hours it's ridiculous.  I feel like I may as well offer her the breast instead of pumping but then I wouldn't know when to give supplement, I STILL don't have enough for her.  Ordered Mothers milk tea and Goats rue but they didn't get here yet, nurse wants to wean me off the dom (!)

I try really hard to focus on how lucky we are to have a beautiful healthy baby but sometimes I just feel like I suck :(
 

[LilMomma83]

Its not your fault! I know how stressful it is...I'm so sorry you are going through this and I hope things get easier soon.

[clairebear3]

Thanks :)

I feel a bit better now, I just had a really hard day, plus I got my period back which didn't help.

The last three nights I breastfed her successfully, she went back to sleep and seemed happy but last night after an hour of me feeding her in various positions, (she falls asleep a lot and sucks but doesn't drink) she fell asleep, I moved her to her crib where she woke up but she was laying there smiling at me so I thought she would go to sleep.  Within a few minutes she was screaming for more and not content at the breast so I gave her a bottle of my milk, not even sure how much, around 80-90ml, my husband then took her so I could pump and I pumped 85ml!  She just doesn't seem to get it all.  Have decided to go back to EP for a while, I was awake from 3.00-5.30am this morning, at least if I pump and give her the bottle I get some rest.  It's a shame though because they say feeding the baby at the breast is so much better for your milk supply.

Not sure whether I want to try an SNS or not, it seems like it would take at least 40 mins to feed her and then pump afterwards, not sure if that's good for my sanity at the mo!

Thanks for your replies, it's really good to be able to vent here :)