LucyLea

weebos8

I know you have mentioned in previous posts that you had a low supply with your DD and now you are able to BF your DS and pump for your friend's child (which is amazing awesome by the way!).

Did you do anything differently this time?  Did it just happen?  

I had a huge oversupply in the beginning and then basically starting drying up after 6 months.  I am so worried this is going to happen again, but I would love to succeed in BFing to at least a year with this new LO.

I would love to hear more about your story if you would like to share!

lucylea

ETA:  I'm sorry that ended up being a novel.  Apparently I felt the need to spill my entire breastfeeding life story to the interwebz!   

I'm pumping as I type so please excuse any mistakes!  The biggest difference this time around was truly just being confident in my decision not to supplement with formula.  With DD she lost just shy of 10% in the hospital so they insisted we give her a bottle of formula.  Once we were discharged she started gaining steadily, but wasn't back to birth weight by 2 weeks so we were told we had to supplement with 1 ounce of formula after each and every feeding.  They failed to mention that I needed to pump while she was getting it to indicate to my body that we needed more milk.  Eventually we stopped supplementing at every feeding, but started giving a full formula feeding each night.  From there my supply just never caught back up.  

This time when DS lost over 10% I started pumping after feedings and supplementing with that.  It took about a week, but my supply came up and we were able to stop supplementing.  I'm constantly recommending weighed feedings to people because we did them weekly so I knew for sure that DS was getting enough milk in a feeding.  I still do them monthly or so just for peace of mind!  I think I just was more confident and informed on the supply and demand nature of breastfeeding and that helped a ton.  

A lot of it was probably just blind luck as well, though!   

Thanks for the props on donating.  It all started because I was terrified that my supply wouldn't be good enough.  Once I was able to stop pumping after each feeding I still pumped three times a day to build a freezer stash "just in case".  When that hit 500 ounces I realized I probably wasn't going to need it and looked into donating.  Initially I donated through Human Milk 4 Human Babies, but then when my Goddaughter was born and her mom struggled with supply issues I found a long-term recipient.  Its terribly rewarding even if some days I loath pumping.  

Obviously, not everyone is successful (my mom attempted to BF all six of us, but never had enough), but I think with a good amount of dedication and a good support system a lot more people could be successful.  Good luck to you! 

weebos8

Thank you so much  for this.    It really does give me lots of hope!