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Are you doing anything to support your supply?

Aka - taking fenugeek or drinking mothers milk tea or eating oatmeal

Also don't stress about it!

I think you are doing okay so far... I had to supplement for the first month with this LO and now at 3 months old ... he hasn't had any formula for a while now.. probably the last 1.5 months. I'm an exclusive pumper though so I know exactly how much I'm pumping and if anything I'm doing is working or not... and it's still unclear... stress definitely affects me... and I have to keep telling myself... formula is okay.

I guess my first question would be if you know what's causing the transfer issue? Has your lo been checked for tongue or lip tie?

In terms of milk volume, my understanding is that newborns should be eating up to 25 ounces per day so 1.5oz at that one feeding isn't too bad if you're doing 10-12 feeds in 24 hours. It's also possible that your lo was only having a snack rather than a meal as such, sometimes you can get a much clearer picture if you can do a day of weighted feeds or at least several in a row.

Do you have any plans to meet with your IBCLC again and does she have a plan to improve your lo's transfer issues?

My other suggestions would be to do lots of skin to skin, nurse as much as possible (are you using a paci at all?), eat plenty of good nutritious calories and get plenty of rest.

Hang in there Mama, you're doing great!

I was in the same boat with low milk supply as well as latching issues. Our LO dropped 12 percent birth weight and we had to supplement with formula for the first 3 weeks until my supply was established and he was latching properly. You are doing all of the right things to keep your baby fed so try not to stress too much about giving formula as I know that was really hard for me to accept. If you aren't already get some fenugreek and blessed thistle and take alot of it (3x 3 per day of both) and just keep pumping Like you are doing. I know it's soooo hard late at night to feed baby and then pump, at 2 weeks PP you are at the peak of your exhaustion so don't worry it will get better.I also recommend a double pumping bra (even use an old sports bra and cut out small holes for the pump) as then you can multi task while you pump which made a huge difference for me. Also use breast massage and compression as you pump as you'd be suprised how well that can help increase your supply. I also found drinking tons of water and eating a big bowl of oatmeal each morning really helped.

As for transfer issues, your baby will learn and get better at sucking. He is just so young and might not be fully developed with his sucking yet. He will get there and won't always be so sleepy/lazy.

I am now 6 weeks PP and my son is EBF after all of the syringe, SNS feeding tubes, bottles and nipple shields. I'm really glad I stuck it out and I think if EBF is your goal you will get there too. PM me if you are ever going crazy and super stressed and need support as I know it was so hard at first. Good luck!!

This sounds very similar to our story. My DD ended up in the NICU for jaundice and dehydration, kept losing weight, was a very slow nurser so the nursing/supplementing/pumping process took 1.5 hrs each time. I had a breast reduction a few years ago so knew there might be potential supply issues.

I had a breakdown around 3weeks and Dh suggested that I try EPing for a bit, so I did. It saved me a lot of time and sanity. EPing is not for everyone, especially if EBFing is your goal (it never was a huge goal for me so I wasn't too upset to give it up) but I did end up EPing and supplementing for 6 months and overall had a good experience.

Another thing that really helped boost my supply was a Domperidone prescription.

Those first few weeks are the hardest. I know a lot of moms say EBFing gets easier with time, so if that's your goal there's lots of women here who can give you great tips.

Good luck!

@sunshinemcc It was probably around 4 weeks that we stopped supplementing with formula. We ended up using nipple shields for a whIle as well and only just weaned him off those a few days ago.

@SunshineMcC: pumping was actually easier for me in terms of supply - I got more and had to do less sessions. I know that's not the case for everyone, but pumping agreed with me. Dd was a very slow and inefficient nurser. Maybe she would have gotten better but I didn't have the energy or desire to tough it out and see. Once my supply was established I only had to supplement an ounce or two of formula total per day. the domperidone really helped.

At the beginning I tried to pump 6-7x a day. After a month I dropped to 5x a day. At 2 months I dropped to 4x a day which was very manageable and I did that until she was 6 months and I switched to FF exclusively. My pump sessions were always 10-15 mins in length. Occasionally I would power pump to boost my supply after illness or a missed session.

Good luck!

@Raindrop: great job with the pumping - I know it's not easy! I never noticed a drop down to 4x a day....it didn't matter whether I pumped 7x a day or 4x, I always got around 20oz. I tried to do 3x a day for a while and I did notice a drop in supply , so it seems like 4 was my magic number!

Your post could have been me and DS verbatim. DS passed out while nursing for like 5 minutes and we could not keep him awake no matter what we did, so he never got enough to eat and would wake up 20 minutes later screaming in hunger. So I was BFing round the clock in 30 minute increments and then trying to pump right afterwards. We did this for 3 weeks, including naked feeds with ice packs against him to try and keep him awake (no dice, slept through ice packs!) DS was also colicky and had reflux so BFing/pumping wasn't working in terms of our sleep and keeping up DS' weight. So we began bottlefeeding and pumping with formula supplementation because he wouldn't fall asleep on the bottle.

Pretty quickly after we switched to this plan, I stopped pumping at night. DS would get his last feeding at 10pm by DH (formula) and I would do 2 night feeds with DS around 1am and 4am of pumped milk, then DH would do the first morning feeding of pumped milk while I pumped for 30 full minutes. Then I would take a morning nap and take over feedings at 10am, 1pm, 4pm, and 7pm and pump during DS' naps. Because of my low output I was pumping 30 full minutes 6 times a day. By 12 weeks I found that I could pump 4 times a day and still produce the same amount, with one bottle of formula a day. At that point I was pumping at 8am, 1pm, 5pm, and 10pm.

I will say that I took every supplement and pumped all the time but for whatever reason, my supply really didn't kick in until like 8 weeks (max output of 18-22 ounces per day) and I don't think it fully established its maximum output of 24 ounces until 4 months.

I hope you'll be able to get things going with your baby and that the sleepiness will wear off. DS never did lose that sleepy thing - we breastfed for comfort a few times a day even after switching to bottles and he ALWAYS fell asleep, up until 6 months (at which point I stopped because he was biting me). Pumping itself sucks but I'm glad I've been able to provide DS breastmilk this long. He's 7.5 months old and I'm in the process of very slowly weaning to formula. He got 1 bottle of formula until 7 months, and 2 weeks ago I got down to 2 pumps a day, at which point he started getting 2 bottles while I pumped enough about 2.5-3 bottles per day. Based on this, I believe he will get 50% breastmilk until 9 months and then he will probably transition to 25% breastmilk at 10 months and do full formula for 6 weeks before we start weaning to milk.