Low supply

Jmj070211

I'm sure a lot of moms post on here about low supply, so I'm sorry if this is a duplicate post. I guess I just need some support and encouragement. My daughter is almost 8 months old and she's been EBF since birth. I've been struggling to pump enough since I went back to work 5 months ago, pumping 5 times a day if I need to. I built up a small freezer stash while I was on maternity leave, but depleted it completely when I went to an overnight bachelorette party. The last month I've been just sending 3 4 oz. bottles to daycare and I still haven't managed to build up a surplus. My daughter eats 3 solid meals a day. I nurse her before bed, in the morning, and 1-2 times during the night. It seems like I've been having to work harder and harder to get those 12 oz. I pump 3 times during my work day and then sometimes at night after she goes to bed and in the morning right before she goes to daycare. I've started taking fenugreek again. I've taken it before, but I feel like it stopped working for me. Today I only pumped 7.25 oz, so I'm going to have to pump after she goes to bed and in the middle of the night. I plan to nurse until at least 12 months, but I'm not sure how I can sustain this. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

BootsOrHearts

Some women have trouble maintaining supply when they are pumping, supply can slowly erode over time. The only way to improve it is really to pump - add some pumping sessions during the day if you can, make sure you're pumping for at least 15 minutes at a time even if the flow has stopped or slowed to almost nothing. You want to make sure you are emptying every time you pump. And try doing breast compressions consistently, that can really help get the milk out. Google 'hands-on pumping' for demos. Power pumping can help too, but for me adding pump sessions and doing compressions really helped the most.