Hello,
I am kind of down about this whole breastfeeding thing. To sum up the past twelve weeks, I had my son in July and as far as breastfeeding--everything was great until we went home. My son was not doing well and he continued to lose weight so we were told to supplement him with formula. That is when things got worse for breastfeeding. Eventually we were told be my ds's doc to feed him as much as he wanted of formula, we were giving him 3 ounces of formula at a time at his one month checkup. So we followed her advice--giving him more until he was up to 5 ounces of formula a feeding at his two month checkup. Maybe this was a wake up call for me--I realized that my milk supply had never really increased since my ds was two weeks old-and I gave myself a choice, either try to breastfeed better, or stop and give my son only formula. I have chosen to try to increase my milk supply. I realize that I may never be able to breastfeed him fully, and my goal is to try everything possible to increase my supply so he will get minimal amounts of formula. Right now I am giving him 20 ounces of formula a day, and I am trying to decrease this slowly.
I have recently contacted a LLL in my area and have gotten tips on how to increase my supply, and officially this is my first day trying to increase-with the medela symphony/herbal pills/sns-but I still need to buy goats rue, which I hope is my golden ticket to a milk increase. Any way, I have not been diagnosed with this-but I think I may have hypoplastic/insufficient glandular tissue. One of my breasts is larger than the other, and my small one is not even an A cup. Anyhow-one of the LLLL told me she had the same asymetry and breast fed three children just fine. That gives me encouragement. Also I have read that I think 60% of women who have that problem can still successfully breastfeed. I was wondering if anyone knows much about this. The infor I have read says that people with this condition don't increase in breast size during pregnancy, don't leak, get engorged etc. These things did happen to me, I am just wondering if that is a sign there is hope for increasing my supply.
I am sorry I really just need to rant and ramble. I am afraid I have become obsessed with this issue. I have started using an sns and it helps, but I just thought to myself, why can't I just breastfeed him? I have to use all these contraptions, take so many pills, just to be discouraged. I try to pump, and my ds wants to be held, and he cries half the time I try to pump. Not to mention my husband, who quietly sits by and lets me talk constantly about breastfeeding, herbal pills, pumps, etc. Sometimes I feel like I should have just given up long ago, so I could enjoy my son, and my life more. But yet I persist.
I am kind of down about this whole breastfeeding thing. To sum up the past twelve weeks, I had my son in July and as far as breastfeeding--everything was great until we went home. My son was not doing well and he continued to lose weight so we were told to supplement him with formula. That is when things got worse for breastfeeding. Eventually we were told be my ds's doc to feed him as much as he wanted of formula, we were giving him 3 ounces of formula at a time at his one month checkup. So we followed her advice--giving him more until he was up to 5 ounces of formula a feeding at his two month checkup. Maybe this was a wake up call for me--I realized that my milk supply had never really increased since my ds was two weeks old-and I gave myself a choice, either try to breastfeed better, or stop and give my son only formula. I have chosen to try to increase my milk supply. I realize that I may never be able to breastfeed him fully, and my goal is to try everything possible to increase my supply so he will get minimal amounts of formula. Right now I am giving him 20 ounces of formula a day, and I am trying to decrease this slowly.
I have recently contacted a LLL in my area and have gotten tips on how to increase my supply, and officially this is my first day trying to increase-with the medela symphony/herbal pills/sns-but I still need to buy goats rue, which I hope is my golden ticket to a milk increase. Any way, I have not been diagnosed with this-but I think I may have hypoplastic/insufficient glandular tissue. One of my breasts is larger than the other, and my small one is not even an A cup. Anyhow-one of the LLLL told me she had the same asymetry and breast fed three children just fine. That gives me encouragement. Also I have read that I think 60% of women who have that problem can still successfully breastfeed. I was wondering if anyone knows much about this. The infor I have read says that people with this condition don't increase in breast size during pregnancy, don't leak, get engorged etc. These things did happen to me, I am just wondering if that is a sign there is hope for increasing my supply.
I am sorry I really just need to rant and ramble. I am afraid I have become obsessed with this issue. I have started using an sns and it helps, but I just thought to myself, why can't I just breastfeed him? I have to use all these contraptions, take so many pills, just to be discouraged. I try to pump, and my ds wants to be held, and he cries half the time I try to pump. Not to mention my husband, who quietly sits by and lets me talk constantly about breastfeeding, herbal pills, pumps, etc. Sometimes I feel like I should have just given up long ago, so I could enjoy my son, and my life more. But yet I persist.
