retrying breastfeeding my four month old

[20momoftwo]

Okay. I have a 2 year old and 4 month old. I BF my toddler for the first 5 or 6 weeks before one day I just didn't have any milk coming out. I didn't have support in trying to BF but I said when I had another baby I would try and do better. This time around I had a good milk supply going but she wouldn't latch on so I pumped. I would get between. 5 and 9 Oz each time I pumped. But my doctor put me on estrogen birth control which dried up my milk. Of course I was heart broken and hurt that I didn't make it any longer with baby 2 than my first. So I put her on formula and tried to get the milk in again.I was under stress and it didn't work so I gave up. But 2 1/2 months later I have milk coming out when I press on my breast or nipple so I want to retry it, this time with no pressure. I am going through the if it works great, f not then I know I did my best idea. The first time I pumped only 7ml is all I got. That was 2/22 round late afternoon. I've pumped every 2 to 4 hours since then and get nothing but a few drops and my baby will NOT latch on. But I still want to try even if it means I pump every day.

I am already taking the Fenugreek 3times a day and pumping as often as I remember and am keeping a log of when and how long I pump. Does anyone have any other advice on getting breast feeding started again and getting my baby to maybe latch on? And also how long until I can expect milk when I pump? Any advice is helpful and much appreciated. I really really want to do this!

[Banana731]

Have you contacted La Leche Leauge in your area? You may find that having some one-on-one help with this is better than posting on the forum like this. It's just that it's a lot of information to type.

I would check out Jack Newman's website and lowmilksupply.org as well

Good luck!

[20momoftwo]

I will look into the lll and the websites. Thank you!

[BfeedingBabies]

You're impressive, sounds like a tough breastfeeding start. I'd take a look at some baby led latch information and videos because that's a non threatening way of introducing your breast to your baby.  Definitely hand express a little milk onto your nipple before trying, and make sure your baby isn't over hungry or overtired before you start as this will be harder.

With the pumping thing don't think about how much you're getting out, it's more about doing it as often as possible.  Getting the pump out for a few minutes just to get a let down every hour (or less - maybe half hours whenever you have that time too) is better than going for ages every 2-4 hours (during the day obviously, do whatever is suiting you best at night)

You may even end up trying the baby led latch position with the bottle first, but close to your nipple and som emilk on your nipple if the first approach doesn't work

Good luck xx

[rugrat]

Have you thought about trying nipple shields? I had to switch to bottle feeding briefly when my LO was less than one week old because my nipples were just to raw and sore. When I was finally ready to put him back on my breast, I found nipple shields worked really well to help with the transition since they look/feel more like a bottle nipple and are much easier for latching. Good luck!