Supplementing at Night

Anjel_9@hotmail.com

My daughter is 24 weeks old, and has been breastfed, and bottle-fed expressed breast milk.  Per our pediatrician's recommendation, we also started feeding her solids when she was about 4 1/2 months old.  She now has solids twice a day.  Her milk consumption has increased, and she now drinks two 6-7 oz bottles a day while I am at work.  I nurse her in the morning, and at night before bed.  I love it and want to continue for the remainder of her first year, however I'm concerned about producing enough milk.  I pump twice a day while at the office, but am only able to produce about 7-8 oz a day, total!  We are going to have to start supplementing one bottle a day with formula because the math just doesn't add up.  I tried taking fenugreek, but it didn't work and it made me dizzy.  i can't drink the Motehr's Milk tea because the licorice smell/taste makes me gag.  I know that our babies are more efficient than the pump, but I'm concerned that she may not be getting enough milk to get her through the night, because lately she's been waking up every day at 4am, needing to be fed or soothed before going back to sleep until 6-6:30am.  If I were to supplement (with expressed milk or formula) to help her sleep through the night, how would that work?  Normally she falls asleep at the breast and goes down happily, but I imagine I would want her to nurse first so she took the maximum amount from me as opposed to the bottle.  Any recommendations/advice?

MrsWindyCity

Can you nurse her after work in addition to before bed? Can you do a weighted feed to see how much she is getting from nursing? BF babies on average take in about 25 oz./day so if she is getting 12-14 while you're gone, she would need somewhere around 12 more from you, so 6 oz. per session. 

I would not associate STTN with getting enough milk. Some babies STTN early, some don't for a long time, regardless of how much they are eating. Waking up once at 6ish months is still totally normal. 

I'm not saying don't supplement (obviously you need to during the day if you are not pumping enough for her bottles), but I wouldn't worry that she isn't getting enough when she nurses based on what you've described. If you wanted to get more calories in her at night, I would either try nursing her after work and/or when she eats solids mix them with a little formula.

MrsG071809

I agree with nursing more, that is the best way to increase your supply as well..  I may be reading it wrong but it sounds like you are doing solids as a meal, but from what I know you should be doing it in addition to meals, so you would nurse before giving solids.  

You might also post on the BF board for additional input.

MrsWindyCity

MrsG071809 said:

I agree with nursing more, that is the best way to increase your supply as well..  I may be reading it wrong but it sounds like you are doing solids as a meal, but from what I know you should be doing it in addition to meals, so you would nurse before giving solids.  

You might also post on the BF board for additional input.

this too.