Aww hun Firstly you're doing an amazing job. Expressing isn't easy at all!! I had supply issues from about 3 weeks for about a month until my supply came up again so I know it's not easy. What was your daughter's birthweight?
Try to attach your daughter at every feed - start the feed with her at your breast, then top up later with EBM or formula. You're milk is just perfect for her and you can increase your supply. The main thing that will increase your supply is to have her at the breast, sucking. The next best thing is expressing (although it's not as good as her sucking). As she gets a little older and bigger, she'll be able to stay awake longer and finish the feeds, especially as your supply increases. In the meantime you will be busy cause you'll be feeding her, then expressing afterwards for the next feed. Other things I tried were fenugreek, drinking plenty of water, eating a good diet, taking my b'feeding vitamins and getting lots of rest, including an afternoon nap when possible. Forget the housework! Your body makes more milk when you're sleeping so get plenty of rest.
You can also ring the ABA hotline - I think it's 1800 MUM 2 MUM. Those counsellors are awesome and I found it a real help to speak to one when my DS was 6 weeks old.
Have confidence hun. You can do this. It's not easy but I found it was all worth it once we were back to just feeding from the breast and we're still feeding today. DS's weight has consistently been just above the 10th% too. Don't worry about those charts too much. As long as she's gaining weight she'll be fine. Try to look at her gains/losses over a 4 week period too, rather than week to week.
You've posted this in the mother's group section - there is a breastfeeding support section - hopefully a mod will come along and move this. Have a read of some of the other threads too - lots of other BB girls have way more experience than me in this area.
Bookmarks