[RachelJune01]

Background: Abby is 3 months old. Her birthweight was 7-15. 4 days after birth she was down to 6-14 (she was jaundiced). I supplemented 2 oz a day to help the jaundice. At her 1 month appointment she hadn't gained any weight, so I upped the supplement to 6 ozs a day although tried backing off towards the end of the month. At her 2 month appointment she was 7-6. She STILL wan't at her birth weight! I upped the supplements to 10 ozs a day. She still seemed hungry after feedings, so I began supplementing after every feeding 2-3 ozs. Now she is primarily getting formula with some breast milk. At her 3 month appointment she was up to 9-12.

I cant pump more than 1/2 oz (if I'm lucky) at a time, so supplementing with EBM isn't possible. I know that I have a supply issue and I have done almost everything in my power to increase my supply to no avail. I am working with a LC to help this problem. I still have a few more options, but am scrapping the bottom of the barrell.

My problem: Abby has gotten so many supplements with both a bottle and a supplementer that she won't eat without them. She will nurse for the intial let down stage (often a minute or less) and then latches and delatches repeatidly. She isn't on long enough to get anything. I know that I have spoiled her with the fast flowing supplementer and bottle. I have tried to stop the bottle all together, but it isn't helping. I can't stop supplementing because I am not producing enough milk. What can I do to keep her nursing for a longer time period? Are there possibly any straetgies that I could use for babies that have nipple confusion?

My goal was to nurse for at least 6months. I have gotten so frustrated over my whole nursing experience that I am burning out fast and I feel like I can't do it any more. I knew nursing would be hard, but I thought I would at least feel like it was rewarding. I just feel like it is a chore.

 

[T a r a]

Been there, done that. I feel for you, and know how rough it is. I have supply issues as well. DS was born at 8-1, went down to 7-11, and never regained in the first couple of weeks. I had a rough delivery of 32 hours, with a lot of drugs and IV fluids. My milk didn't come in until day 5, and even then I wasn't really engorged. By that time DS was starving and DH insisted we give him formula supplements. Well that never stopped as I just wasn't producing enough. We used bottles for supplementing as I didn't really know about the SNS at the time, and didn't want to mess iwth it. I tried everything I could to increase supply, and tried to nurse as much as possible, but DS kept popping off and screaming, and was never content after nursing for an hour. Following a 2-3oz bottle of formula he'd finally be content. It was a really rough road and we continued the supplementing for quite awhile. Finally, sometime after 6 months, ds began to enjoy nursing more. There was a time when he wanted nothing to do with it unless he was very sleepy. We hung on, and even though he primarily got formula, he was still able to nurse some, and I was finally able to pump some (2-3 oz total at one sitting). Now DS is one year old and still nursing. We nurse in the mornings, at dinnertime, bedtime (our favorite), and overnight wakings. I still pump at lunchtime to use as a supplemental bottle before bed. It was very tough and I almost gave up several times, but now I am so glad I didn't give up.

I know it's rough, but every bit of milk you have helps out. Try your best to keep Abby nursing. Do you have a double electric pump? That helped me out a lot over the manual Avent Isis. Keep working iwth your LC. Have you tried domperidone? That really helped me to increase production, and I believe also helped with let-down. Good luck, and hang in there.

 

[Felicitymom]

Sorry to hear of your hardship... I'm sorry I don't have much to say except I have EBF my girl and although there were definetely blissfull moments of nursing I felt it was (at 3 months) still quite a chore and far more difficult than I expected. I didn't have any nursing issues... this is just with regular 'normal' nursing. So your not alone... in fact your quite the trooper

Nancy

 

[ExuberantDaffodil]

It is so wonderful that you are trying your best to provide for your little one. Always remember that a little bit a breast milk is better than no breast milk at all. Continue to reach out for the assistance and support that you need. I too had many, many problems in the beginning trying to breastfeed. I personally believe the key is to surround yourself with people, women, mothers, lactation consultants etc who support you, to look deep inside yourself and find that strong woman that you are. Best of luck.

 

[RachelJune01]

Thanks everyone! It really helps to hear that I am not the only one.

I am currently on my second round of Domperidone and it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I do have a double electric pump and I am not pumping much when I do use it. I am going to look into renting a Symphony pump and see if it gets any better results. Hopefully things will get better after her frenulum gets zapped.

I have decided to take a break from pumping. I am just getting too burned out. Now that she is gaining more weight, I am only supplementing her 2 ozs a sitting instead of 3. That way I don't have to worry about filling up the SNS a second time. I think both of these things will help keep me from buring out. I just started both today and they seemed to have helped my mental state. That and I got some sleep last night.

 

[Heather Feather]

One more suggestion for you would be to try a nipple shield. I used one with my dd for 2 weeks while trying to solve nursing issues and nipple confusion. It worked great. Good luck.