Right from the very beginning, I was worried about having supply issues. I felt that I had enough to feed Baby H while she was nursing, but I generally assumed that I would struggle to keep up with her needs during the day when I went back to work and had to rely on pumping. Looking back, maybe my fear was a bit irrational, but we did get off to a rough start as far as nursing goes, so I do think I had reason to be concerned.
You see, my milk didn’t come in until about Day 5 after Baby H was born. During that time she became dehydrated, lost 10% of her birth weight (a full pound!) and our pediatrician had us supplement with formula until my milk came in. As an emotional new mom, this was pretty scary. Signs of dehydration in a newborn include a dry, raspy cry, cracked lips, a dry mouth and minimal dirty/wet diapers – Baby H had all of these symptoms and it was awful.
Fortunately we only had to use formula for 1 day before I had enough milk to nurse her. The formula definitely helped eliminate the dehydration, and the formula followed up by a lot of my milk helped significantly with weight gain at her next weight check!
Baby H bounced back to be a happy little baby, but I was completely scarred: in the back of my head was always “not enough milk, not enough milk!” By not producing enough in the early days, I somehow convinced myself that I would never have enough.
I didn’t pump very often at first, but I started pumping regularly about 5 weeks ago. We wanted to begin giving Baby H a bottle a day to get her used to them, and allow me to get out of the house once in a while without her. I also wanted to begin building a milk stockpile in the freezer before returning to work. Since I returned to work the end of last week, this gave me about 5 weeks of pumping before working full-time again.
At first things started off slow. I’d get maybe a total of 3 ounces if I was lucky (usually it was far less). Yet again, I had that feeling of doubt in myself and my inability to provide enough milk! After a week I bought More Milk Plus supplements to help things along. The suggested dosage is 4 capsules a day, but I could never remember to take them so I probably averaged 2-3 per day. I took these for about a week, and while I started pumping a little bit more than usual, I don’t think it was a drastic increase.
Eventually I stopped with the supplements and tried to pump smarter and very regularly. Instead of just randomly deciding to pump, I picked times that would work for me every single day. While it’s suggested to pump in the morning when your supply is best, mornings are difficult when home with a baby. Obviously you have to choose nursing your baby over pumping!
Instead, I began pumping at 11:00pm every night. Since we put Baby H to bed between 8:00-9:00pm, this gave me a 2-3 hour break for my milk to “refresh” before pumping. Baby H also wasn’t sleeping through the night – she would wake up about 3:00am for a short feeding. After I put her back down, I would pump then as well. Since she nursed so lightly at this time, I had plenty left to pump!
I began regularly getting 3-5 ounces per session at these times. To decide what to do with the milk, I set some guidelines for myself: if I pumped less than 3 ounces it would go into the fridge to be used for a bottle. If I pumped 3 ounces or more, it would go into the freezer to be saved for later (I fill my freezer storage bags with 3-4 ounces each).
Building my freezer stockpile went slowly at first, but consistent pumping and freezing means the ounces in the freezer start adding up! By the time I returned to work I had 115 ounces in the freezer.
Now that I’ve returned to work, it’s a completely new ballgame. I’m pumping when Baby H would normally nurse throughout the day. I get anywhere between 4-6 ounces per pumping session, for about a total of 15 ounces pumped during the work day.
Through this process I’ve learned to have a lot of faith in my body. I was so quick to doubt myself instead of focusing on the positives. Whether or not I was pumping a lot of extra milk in the beginning, once my milk came in I was providing more than enough for Baby H when she nursed. But instead of feeling awesome about how well she was eating, I got my feathers ruffled about not supplying extra milk. And while I believe that supplements to help produce more milk are great when needed, I jumped to take those instead of giving my body the opportunity to produce more on its own.
Now that I’ve laid the groundwork, I feel like my body knows what it needs to do and is making plenty of milk around the clock! Pumping sessions at work are providing much more than Baby H is eating while I’m gone, and since she’s not nursing in the middle of the night anymore, I can pump even more when I’m at home. Milk, milk and more milk!
Have you had milk production struggles? If so, what have you done to help boost your supply?
Pumping & Increasing Milk Supply part 5 of 11
1. Increasing Your Milk Supply by Checklists2. Pumping Up the Volume by Mrs. Bee
3. My Pumping System by mrs. wagon
4. Don't Pay for a Breast Pump Until You Read This by Mrs. Tricycle
5. More milk, more milk, more milk! by Mrs. Hopscotch
6. Building up a Breastmilk Freezer Stash by mrs. wagon
7. Exclusive Pumping vs. Breastfeeding by Mrs. Bee
8. How To Clean a Medela Pump by Mrs. Bee
9. My Pumping, Freezing, and Defrosting Strategy by Mrs. Bee
10. Project Milk by Mrs. Bee
11. Feeding and Storing Expressed Breastmilk by Checklists
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Yes I have. I tried taking fenugreek but the stuff smells so bad, I can’t stand to take it. Plus, like you, I forget to take it. I’m horrible about taking pills – thus why I went on the patch for birth control before baby!! My milk didn’t come in until late, as well and M lost almost a full pound, as well – she went from 7.3 to 6.6. I supplemented with formula and then decided to supplement with breastmilk. Now I am pumping exclusively (another story completely) but I’m finding I’m pumping what she needs and a little more. I think it just took my body some time to get my supply where it needed to be.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
We had some supply issues as well in the beginning but not to that extent. Probably because M made it well known from day 1 she was not getting enough food! We supplemented from day 1 and now she still gets 1 bottle of formula a day and I’m completely fine with it. As long as she is gaining weight appropriately that’s all that matters.
pea / 16 posts
I have had major supply issues but am a success story! My LO wouldn’t latch so I’m pumping exclusively. I tried everything to get my supply up, including pumping for 30 minutes every 2 hours for weeks. Eventually I started taking Domperidone. It’s a rx GI drug that’s main side effect is lactation. It’s only meant to be used as a last resort but it worked great for me. My OB prescribed it and I’d encourage someone in my situation to speak with their doc about it!
When I started the drug (LO was about 1.5 months), I was pumping 11 oz/day, and now at 4 months I get 31-33/day, more than enough to feed her.
guest
Since you need to wait 2-3 hrs between pumping sessions, how did you decide when to pump vs. nurse when you were still home? I go back to work in less than 2 weeks. Right now, my LO drinks 5-6 oz ever 3.5-4 hrs of pumped milk but my supply seems to be lower and I can’t quite keep up with her. Unfortunately, if I nurse there always doesn’t seem to be enough so I’m stressed about when to nurse vs. pump to ensure she’s getting enough.
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
@Ms. Sweet Potato: I pump when I have long breaks from Baby H – usually when she’s sleeping! Since she goes to bed around 8:30pm, I will pump at 11pm. And when she was still getting up in the middle of the night, I’d pump around 3am or whenever the feeding was, because she’d barely nurse for that feeding.
And stop stressing! Your body will do what it needs to do
Once you go back to work just space out your pumping enough so that you get a good amount in a session. I pump about every 3 hours at work (around 10am, 1pm and 4 pm) and get 4-6 ounces per session. Seeing that milk flow the first time I pump for the day helps encourage me to relax and know I’ll pump what I need for the rest of the day. And if I don’t pump quite enough for her for the next day, I know that I can get a good pumping session in that evening. Just keep up with it and be consistent. My doula suggested imagining rivers of milk while you pump!
guest
I have been breast feeding and using formula since my little boy was 2 weeks old I got a fever of 103 and it basically dried me up so I had to start over but I really want to use less formula but he eats every hour and a half-two hours during the day and he eats about 4-5 ounces every time then sleeps through the night and he’s 3 months old. He’s a big boy! He doesn’t like to nurse he latches for a little bit then pulls off the longest ive had him latched on is about 8 minutes which is teally good. so how do I increase my supply when I pump I only get 2-3 oz a session and I’ve tried fenugreek and prescription I just order the stuff you suggested. So what do I need to do? Help!!! P.s. I’m a stay at home mom so I can exclusively pump and am willing to do that.