We just hit 7 weeks on Friday and I am still battling with breast feeding success. Some of you may remember me from previous posts asking advice. Quick recap: In a nutshell I have been having supply issues from the beginning. I never feel engorged if I don't release the milk, never have felt a let down, nothing. I got help immediately on here, at a lactation support group and with me pedi. I have done literally every last thing I can do with little luck. I made the decision about 3 weeks ago to try and mostly pump since I was already having to give her so much formula and pumping would be a way for me to monitor how much milk I was getting. The average was about 3oz a day until this week when it dropped severely. I will admit it has been hard to have a constant pumping schedule since during the day I am alone with my LO and she wants to be held, played with etc. So I do the best I can but it definitely isn't enough. She is currently drinking 25-30oz a day and if I'm lucky 3-4 of that is breast milk. We still nurse at least at morning and night time feedings. I don't know how much she gets but I know it isn't a ton since she still takes a full bottle at those feedings too. My question for you ladies is if there was some way I could get help for this upcoming week and try and pump on a schedule every day would it make my body make more milk again? Or at this point is it just going to keep dwindling?? I can't seem to give up on this even when I feel like I've hit my last wall. I always try again. But I go back to work the following week and I know that once that happens if I haven't gotten in a routine that works it's probably not going to happen. I really wanted this to work out. It was like the one thing I wanted. So if there's any chance of turning this around I guess I'll try once more. What do you guys think?
I'm going to post to the BFing board too as soon as my app stops being weird.
Re: 7 weeks and still struggling with BFing
No matter what you do your LO will love you and will grown :-). I still EBF but am considering starting to supplement. I don't have a huge supply and it scares me that I go back to work in 2 weeks and I'm the only food source for LO. I keep thinking to myself that I was a FF baby and I turned out ok! I still love my mama .
(((Hugs)))
That said, anything you can get to baby is helpful.
What matters most is that baby gets fed (however that happens) and Mom is happy. Do what works for your family.
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ETA my MW also listed hops among the things that can help supply and said beer is OK (in moderation of course) and safest to have while nursing or pumping (won't get into milk instantly and then will have time to metabolize by next feeding). Though alcohol baby would get from one beer anytime is negligible. Plus reducing stress can help with supply. So have a nice hoppy IPA! (Sadly I haven't convinced my dh this is a good idea yet but I think I'll just buy some next time I go shopping)