I thought 50ml was enough for a newborn? They only have small tummies don't they?
I think there's a sticky about increasing supply somewhere, perhaps in the general bfing section. Frequent feeds is a great thing though, as bub sucking will stimulate your supply.
Perhaps google for the growth charts based solely on breastfed babies, I think the charts in our blue books are based on formula fed babies? Both mine were 'underweight' as babies, but Riv's fine now, and Si looks fine to me too. Charting your bub's growth on the breastfed charts (I think I found mine from the ABA website?) might give you some peace of mind too.
ETA: Oh, and as for one more than the other - common! So don't worry about that!
HI,
It sounds like the last 10 days have been very tough going for you. Perhaps you would share a bit more about what has been happening. How big was your little one at birth? What about now? Fullterm? How did the birth go? Is your baby feeding from the breast at all, or are you expressing and feeding her your eBM?
There is no right or wrong way to feed a baby -the only rule is that they must be fed! You have got the toughest of all loads at the moment - feeding, expressing and using formula for topping up. It's easy to find yourself wondering where it is all going, and whether it is really worth it.
The good news is, most mothers and babies transition to fully breastfeeding, and this time becomes just a memory. It is pretty normal for one breast to make more milk than the other - usually, when your milk supply is better, it doesn't matter. 70mls every 4 hours seems pretty respectable to me! Many mothers find that medications such as motilium do have a positive effect on their milk supply, and few side effects - it is worth exploring.
Tell me a bit more and hopefully we can provide you with some more information and support
My baby was 8 pound 13 at birth, she was four days overdue, the birth wasnt any harder than i thought it would be, she is my first...
She lost a lot of weight in hospital because she wasnt feeding, so we had to start topping her up with formula & she put weight back on. I had to rest my nipples after having laser treatment as she basically caused my nipples to bleed from the first time she tried to attach!! So we have a combination of issues at the moment.
* Small nipples - although this shouldnt matter (apparently) but even expressing is painful...
* Slight tongue tie with baby. Seeing doc about getting it snipped...
* Lack of supply...
* Stress & pressure to get it right...
She still wont attach without intense nipple pain & that just makes me avoid putting her to the breast - instead we express & bottle feed & add formula...
I know its not supposed to be easy but Im really struggling...
I had alot of trouble bf my DD so I know how hard things can be. I had lots of different things happen which led to the problems. I know about the pressure to bf, I put alot of pressure on myself, but had the opposite problem with my family not supporting me to bf, especially since it was so painful and horrible in the first weeks, they wanted me to be happy. not in tears at every feed like I was.
To be honest I never enjoyed bf until after 6-8wks. The same thing happened this time with my DS. I am only now really enjoying bf, after 7wks. It was hard this time too and I thought I'd have the same problems, and convinced myself I would, and started to comp feed DS in hospital, until after I saw the LC and she told me to stop and just feed him cause all was well. so I did and it has been all good so far thank goodness!
In the first weeks, DS was feeding 2hrly. I had blistered and very badly cracked nipples. Then I got mastitis. But I was determined and fed through it all, except for when my nipples were too damaged to keep going and DS was vomiting blood. And now we are fully bf'ing!
After all of the waffling what I'm trying to say is that is will be possible for you to bf your bub, it is a struggle for some women, a big struggle. But if you have the determination, support and will to do it, you will. See a lactation consultant to try to help you again. Feed on the breast as often as possible that's the best way to increase supply, maybe try a in bed day where you just rest and feed. Get a good book or a few movies and don't get out of bed for a day, and feed feed feed. I know how hard it is with sore nipples, but trust me it works! Have you tried nipple sheilds? Thye helped me no end with my DD. It still hurts with them, but less than without them. And with expressing, bub will always get alot more out than you could ever express, so your expressed 50ml would be even more if bub sucked it out him/herself.
Godd luck, I hope it all goes how you want!
I had heaps of trouble breastfeeding my DD also, your description of intense pain on attachment certainly rings bells for me! I dreaded each feed for a while there.
I am sorry I have no advice to offer about supply except keep up what you are doing! I think you have some good advice here, I agree with many of the other posts and I hope they offer you some help.
I just wanted to tell you one thing that helped me psychologically through that period while I struggled with every feed. I really held on to the thought that all women I had seen with older babies appeared to feed with ease, in fact without even really noticing! I figured that if I kept working on it, I would get to that point too.... and I did!
I think my turning point was around 8-10 weeks after I had a few appointments with a lactation consultant (through city of Melb), a diagnosis of nipple thrush, and the natural development of my little girl. Now when she finds the nipple herself and I don't have to be involved at all in her attachment, I still appreciate the ease with which it all occurs after what I went through in the early days.
I hope you are able to find the support you need to get through this really difficult time. It is really tough to struggle with the feeding as it is so time consuming and holds such charged emotions. I wish you luck.
Congratulations on both your baby and your determination!
It might help you not to focus on "exclusively breastfeeding", but instead on "getting as much BM as possible into your bub", which is a slightly less demanding way of saying the same thing
All the expressing and topping up isn't intended as a long term solution. Hopefully once your nipples heal you will find that your bub as she gets older and stronger learns to suck better and hence is able to increase your supply herself - meaning she will eventually gets all she needs at the breast.
All the present rigmarole is to try and ensure that both your supply and your baby's strength are maintained whilst this is happening. There is a vicious cycle, which you and your LC's are trying to avoid, of bad sucking => sore nipples and not enough milk going into baby => lethargic baby who won't suck => low supply and so on.
It seems for a lot of Mums on this board things get much, much better at around 6 weeks - so hang in there!
hugs
Kate
I just wanted to say Pushy that although bf is the natural thing to do, this does not mean it is necessarily easy. It's a learned skill, for you and your baby, and this can mean it takes time to get it right. Unfoturnately for some mothers it's much harder than for others. As Barb noted, you're doing lots of extra work right now, so well done on keeping it up!
I ended up using nipple shields for a time as, despite seeing LCs and working on it very hard, we just couldn't get the attachment quite right. It all came good after around 10 weeks - now it really is easy.
Don't worry if you have more milk on one side or the other - it really doesn't matter.
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