I just had to post: Made it to 12 months on EBM.....woohoo for me!!!!
Stopped expressing about four days ago and just about finished the reserves of EBM but ......WE MADE IT!! Never thought we'd get this far but we made it to twelve months....now I just have to find AF again so we can go back for number 2! LOL
Hi ladies - I am after some advice please. For the last 4 weeks I have been exclusively expressing and before that, I was expressing 3 or 4 times a day and getting 1 or 2 BFs in. I am 8 weeks pregnant and DD has totally given up on the boob. Thankfully she will still drink my EBM from the bottle. I am still offering her the breast but absolutely no success. I think she's done. I am not really struggling with the EE thing, I was pretty much doing it before anyway and she's been through periods of breast refusal before. My problem right now is supply. I am struggling, struggling to get 500mls/day in 5 expresses!! I used to get 260mls in the mornings and this morning I got 150mls. What should I do? Please help me? I previously took fenugreek and made lactation cookies but the cookies didn't do anything and I don't think I can take the fenugreek while pregnant. I am getting desperate because I am running out of supply and I really don't want to supplement with formula.
Hugs hun. It's so stressful when you see exactly what amounts you're getting!
Have you tried brewer's yeast (don't need to have beer to have it - you can drink it in water although it's pretty yuck!) (can also make casserole/bread with beer which I think cooks the alcohol out)?
You can't have raspberry leaf tea. Can you have fennel?
Can you have motillium when you're pregnant?
Aktavite?
Maybe some of the others will pop in with ideas. xoxo
Melbel - huge congrats on your 12 months, what an awesome effort
starangelelk - oh i'm sorry to hear it. I think Surprised made good suggestions. I think there's also some recipes around for lactation cookies, try googling them (oh darn just re-read your post and realised you've tried cookies - sorry). I'd also second the aktavite or milo. And finally, the only other thing that always used to increase my supply was pumping more... ? Also, try to distract yourself as you pump, watching the bottle never helps either (easier said than done I know). If it is possible to try her at the breast again or maybe some nice baths together, maybe that would also help your supply? Lots of nice lovey dovey hormones?
Last edited by belfie; February 14th, 2011 at 06:43 PM.
: duh re-read about the cookies
Thanks heaps ladies, I am seriously clutching at straws here. I will try the aktavite, I had forgotten about that...... I don't think expressing more often is going to help at this stage, my body just isn't making milk even if I express every 2 hours. Apparently milk supply dropping is really common in early pregnancy so I just have to keep praying that it will increase again soon. I knew the EE would have some fab ideas for supply though, thank you SO much. Xx
Yes I remember hearing the same about supply dropping in early preg I'll cross fingers for you to pull through it. My only other thought - are you taking a good multi-vit, getting plenty of rest & drinking plenty of water? (ok so I'm going back to basics here... but when you're pregnant with a littlie, it's easy to forget).
StarAngelK - I'm more of a stalker than a poster in this thread, but I've always had low supply (500-600 expressing a day is my max regardless of how often) and now that bub is 9 months, she is mostly happy to just have what I can give her plus a variety of solids and water / apple juice. Just thought I'd post because your bub is about the same age, so it might be ok, but if you're worried, ask Barb Glare in the professional advice section maybe? Also, I think I read that during pregnancy around the three month mark when the placenta takes over is usually when women see a significant drop in supply, the placenta produces high levels of progesterone which is why we don't start lactating before we give birth usually until the placenta comes out as it inhibits the prolactin from working. The body's priority will be the new pregnancy, so I hope you can maintain your supply or it comes back more, but you might be fighting nature a little bit too, so try not to stress about it too much, your bub is getting older and soon won't be needing as much so I hope it works out for you whichever way it falls. All the best, and congratulations on Bub #2!
Sas - thank you so much for your advice and also to the other ladies. I am so grateful. I am now expressing morning and night but we have started topping DD up with formula bottles. She's been sick for the last month and just wanted to feed feed feed and I just could not keep up. I agree with you though Sas, right now - she probably could go with just solids, water and the milk from me. It's some definite food for thought. I did put a message in the Barb Glare forum but she never responded I know she is probably very busy.
I'm after some advice and it seems that people here have a wealth of experience in EBMF.
I have been expressing every 3 hours since coming home from hospital about 10 days ago. I have had terribly sore nipples (with a history of sensitive nipples) and attachment issues and left hospital without establishing breast feeding.
DP is currently at home but going back to work next week. DP has been handling the feeding whilst I express during the day and I do both at night. One of my questions is how do you juggle both the expressing and responding to your baby? For example if you are expressing and your baby becomes unsettled.
The other question I have is that I have read about some type of bra which means that you can be hands free. Does anyone know where you can get one?
Congraulations on the birth of your little miracle bubba.
Juggling is hard but it does get easier...I know in the first few weeks/months I would get so frustrated and angry at the whole thing...I even threw the breast pump across the room a couple of times in the early days.
Keep in mind if you need to stop expressing to deal with bubba you can come back to it, there is no hard and fast rule you have to x amount of expressing ime right at that moment. In fact he more you express and stimulate the better your supply will be especially come the 6ish week mark when supply becomes less homone driven and more supply and demand driven. You will get to a stage when you may not need to express overnight if you can do a late express before sleep and then one as soon as you wake up so that will mean that middle of the night feed you may not need to express but that's a few weeks of. I tended to feed bubba put bubba back to sleep and the express while they napped, I even found putting him in the pram after his feed and sitting down to express, the sound of the machine would lull him off to sleep a lot of the time......as they get bigger you can put them under the play gym if they are awake and grab a bit of expressing time.
For good hands free expressing you need a pumping bra. It was a godsend for me.....we are not allowed to link but they are available from nursingangel and are called the hands free pumping bustier...i just checked and it is your lucky day as they are reduced from $49.95 to $29.95 bargain!! Mine lasted the twelve months I epxressed but would not do a second baby as the lycra was starting to go but still for twelve months it was well worth the money.
I hope that all helps a little bit...and Good Luck! It is tough road and is not for everyone but if you are determined to give breastmilk like I was it is well worth the effort....I am so glad I did it even though it nearly did my head in!
Mel summed it up really well. I used to sit there & stress about whether he would stay down/happy while I pumped, and I soon learned that the best thing was just to go to him if I really had to - as Mel said, you can come back & keep pumping. I found as he got older i got better at predicted when to do what. I do remember coming home from an outing with boobs bursting & him screaming for his bottle... arrgh! But honestly that didn't happen often and you do learn to juggle it. Having him in the bouncer at my feet as a littlie was handy. As he got older I used one of those exercise centre thingos. My record one day was double pumping while he held his bottle (a bit older obviously), having a cuppa & chatting on the phone! Expressing hones those multi-tasking skills like nothing else!! You'll have some bad moments when they're unsettled and you're trying to pump, but you can do it. How is your supply going with the pump?
Oh and I'm another one who swears by the pumping bustier too, mine is still going strong with 18 months use (admittedly not using it as often these days) - it's a godsend.
I made my own pumping bra by cutting holes in two old bras, it worked well enough for me.
The early days were really hard, I had the exact same questions and it seemed like sometimes she would need me just because I had sat down to pump! But it gets easier so quickly, really it was a matter of weeks. I started out expressing every 3 hours and after 3, or 4 or 5 weeks (I think?) I had stretched it out to 4 hours. That alone made it easier.
I second what everyone else said; it's much less stressful to just do what you need to & go back to pumping when you can, sometimes you don't have a choice; just do what you can & what you have to. And hang in there, because it does get much easier as time goes on.
Thanks Belfie and Melbel. I think you've both given me some really helpful advice and some confidence to persist with expressing.
Belfie - my bub is about 2 weeks old and I get about 80-100mls every 3 hours with a 15 minute double pump. A week ago I was getting about half that. I'm hoping that it continues to increase as I know that he will soon need more. I top up with formula maybe once every couple of days as I don't quite have enough to get through each feed - just depends on how hungry my little man is.
hi Lisa,
Don't know where you are in melb, but I saw a fab lactation consultant (IBCLC) who helped me to successfully feed my DD after EE'ing for my DS. The LC is based outer-east melb. Let me know if you'd like the details, I can PM them to you. To my foggy memory it sounds like your supply is going pretty well. I would definitely say as a "been there, done that" that it's worth trying your guts out to get your BF'ing going successfully. Your hungry little fella will change and grow (and most importantly his MOUTH will change & grow), and BF'ing may become much easier. EE'ing certainly can be done but it certainly is a lot of work too. I realise you're not in here for "pro-BF" advice, but I feel i'd be remiss not to encourage you. I remember being in the fog of pain, frustration and EFFORT that early EE'ing and comp feeding involves... and when I looked back after 10 months of EE'ing I wished I'd tried even harder to BF. So basically the door isn't shut yet, and as long as you are doing some expressing whether exclusive or not, you're still keeping that BF'ing door open - so huge congrats to you I know you're working hard right now .
Also, my nipples were excruciating at initial latch for the first few weeks - we're talking toe-curling, couldn't talk through it kinda pain. I still feed with nipple shields, and get a little discomfort at the start of a feed (flat nipples - i think it's discomfort as she draws them out) but NOTHING like it was. So that's the other thing to think about trying, with the right support from a good LC.
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and good luck with number 2!
I'll cross fingers for you to pull through it. My only other thought - are you taking a good multi-vit, getting plenty of rest & drinking plenty of water? (ok so I'm going back to basics here... but when you're pregnant with a littlie, it's easy to forget).
hope you can get through hun.
I know you're working hard right now
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