that I could express 100mls of bm in the beginning and now I can only get 20-40mls? :(

HELP!!!

I even bought a new pump thinking it would be better but it doesn't get any more milk out than my other one.

Am I losing my milk or what? :shock:
How can I increase my milk supply? I tried drinking more... nothing.
:cry:
Should I ask my midwife about that medication that is supposed to increase milk supply?

Renee
My pediatrician told me anything with malt in it. Like Ovaltene or Malt O meal I don't know you if you have that but there is also malt in beer and non alchoholic beer that seemed to help me. Also maybe if you nuzzle Sophie close to your breasts before you pump that may also help your let down. I would also talk to your midwife she might have different ideas.

Eva,
Sounds like we went through a similar ordeal, DS#1 latched at 7 1/2 weeks I pumped before that. I am so glad that your DD latched and had a mommy willing to wait her out.

There's no substitute for having baby at the breast. They suckle differently, the pumps cannot mimic that. AND, those hormones are being released, causing let down and further milk production.

Wow, Tara, I didn't know that. Tfs!

Renee, I would ask the midwife about that, that is odd...

Immediately after birth your body prepares to make a ton of milk. It will level off depending on how much you nurse. It's all supply and demand. Unless you have a hospital grade pump, I wouldn't depend on it alone to maintain your supply. You can only trick your body for so long. I don't know your situation, but I hope the baby can nurse soon if she can't right now. As soon as you can, take a nursing vacation. Just offer all of the time. That will help increase your supply.

Fenugreek and oatmeal help too.

She won't nurse at all. :( I couldn't get her to latch on and stay on. She has this thing she does where she pokes her tongue out all the time and it pushes my nipple out. She does it with bottle teats as well :roll: I tried the nipple shields and at first she seemed fine but now she just screams her head off and pulls away all the time. She won't even latch on now.
And she never stayed on long enough anyway to be getting enough milk.

So I am relying on my pump to get the milk out. I know it can't mimic a babys suckling the same but unless I can get Sophie to start nursing again I don't have a choice. I bought a new pump that is supposed to closely mimic babys suckling (Avent Isis) and it is much better than my other one (Medela)... that just pulled my nipples into the thingee and it was uncomfortable sometimes. But the Avent one isn't getting any more milk out than the Medela one did. It just feels better.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'll try them all. I have tried to nurse again and she just won't do it. But I will keep trying.

Oh, my sweet Renee!! ((((HUGS)))) I'm so sorry. I had difficulties with b/f also and I know how furstrating it can be. I'm praying for you sweetie. Love you sweetheart! :wink:

Renee,
I am so sorry that Sophie won't latch. I can totally relate with that struggle and I am sure it is much harder since you have Abby to deal with as well.

You could check out the EPers group on yahoo I am sure those ladies would have the best advice since they are in your current situation. You could also check out this web site www.exclusivelypumping.com/ and I just browsed the message board at http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppexcluspump and it looked like they had a whole section on the board on supply issues.

I don't know about the Isis pump but on my Medela I could vary the speeds to mimic sucking like starting off with soft but quick suction and then switching to hard and slow suction and back again this seems to help me get more out. Also you could put on Lanisoh before you pump and that could ease your discomfort.

... Okay I just pulled out all my old epping info since you say Sophie is not latching at all. According to my info to keep your milk from drying up you should be having a minimum of 7 pumping sessions of 20 minutes a day. Pump at least 5 minutes past milk flow and one of your pumps should be between 1am and 5 am (that part killed me). To increase milk flow you can try power pumping which is pumping every 2-3 hours for three days including pumping that often at night. I didn't do this :oops: and never quite caught up with DS demand until he had latched and had been nursing for quite awhile.

If you have any questions pleas feel free to pm me. It is so amazing that you are still trying to give Sophie bm even though she isn't latching.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

So sorry to hear that sophie isn't latching Renee. :( I know how hard and frustarting bfing can be. Will be praying it gets better. ((HUGS))

Praying for you sweetie *hugs*

When you bring baby to the breast, try having as much skin exposed, on both of you, as possible. You didn't mention the baby's problem as falling asleep, but still, maybe the skin to skin contact will help ?? Just a thought.

When you bring her up to the breast, get her to open her mouth wide, gently pull down on her lower jaw to open it nice and wide, then insert as much of the breast as possible. Just as you would for improper latch on. Maybe she's not getting latched on properly. Not wrong in the way that it hurts you, that you can feel it necessarily, but just in an awkward way that's causing her to thrust her tongue (and anything in the way) out as well ??

Just kinda thinking outloud here.

The *only* problems I've had had to deal with babies with a little mouth and/or not opening fully.

Thanks Tara. I was never told to pull down on her lower jaw... that sounds like a good idea. I will do that. All they told me to do was to rub my nipple up and down over her top lip and that she would open her mouth wide. Yeah right LOL She opens it so little that I can't get my nipple into her mouth. That's why I started using the nipple shields because she will suck on a bottle teat and she had no problem with the nipple shields and then all of a sudden it's like she just doesn't want to nurse.
I think when she was latched on she was latched on right. She was getting heaps of milk out. I could see it on her mouth, in the nipple shields and hear her swallowing.

That's exactly my problem (the last thing you said) ... that she has a little mouth and that she doesn't open it enough. :roll:

Renee,
I am so sorry that Sophie won't latch. I can totally relate with that struggle and I am sure it is much harder since you have Abby to deal with as well.

You could check out the EPers group on yahoo I am sure those ladies would have the best advice since they are in your current situation. You could also check out this web site www.exclusivelypumping.com/ and I just browsed the message board at http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppexcluspump and it looked like they had a whole section on the board on supply issues.

Oh thank you sooooo much! I will definitely check them out.

I don't know about the Isis pump but on my Medela I could vary the speeds to mimic sucking like starting off with soft but quick suction and then switching to hard and slow suction and back again this seems to help me get more out. Also you could put on Lanisoh before you pump and that could ease your discomfort.

Both my pumps are manuals. I wanted to get an electric this time but the one I wanted was $260 and I couldn't justify spending that much not knowing if it would be any better than my Medela one KWIM?
Thanks for the suggestion to use Lansinoh! I never thought of that. At least I will still be using it ... I bought the large tube and feel like I've wasted so much money. I've only used it like 2x.

... Okay I just pulled out all my old epping info since you say Sophie is not latching at all. According to my info to keep your milk from drying up you should be having a minimum of 7 pumping sessions of 20 minutes a day. Pump at least 5 minutes past milk flow and one of your pumps should be between 1am and 5 am (that part killed me). To increase milk flow you can try power pumping which is pumping every 2-3 hours for three days including pumping that often at night. I didn't do this :oops: and never quite caught up with DS demand until he had latched and had been nursing for quite awhile.

Thanks for that :)

If you have any questions please feel free to pm me. It is so amazing that you are still trying to give Sophie bm even though she isn't latching.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Renee, PM me NOW! If you want a free electric breast pump, that is, lol. I don't know how much more life it's got in it, but I'll send it out tomorrow if I get your address tonight. I couldn't afford one of the pricey ones, but I got a Bailey Nurture III, and it's served my purposes with 2 little ones. I'm still using one of the two I bought (long story there), because I was blessed with an overabundance of milk and I'm donating to a milk bank. I know it's not a Medela, and all of my fellow pumpers at the EPing board I used to frequent were down on it because it wasn't a Medela, but I think that obsessive brand loyalty like that is kinda silly.

Anway, I was going to say that with Audrey (my first), she had a very poor latch and I ended up having to pump for quite awhile. I had the same problem with the manual pump. I just couldn't seem to get as much as I knew was in there. After I had to deal with mastitis, I decided I wasn't doing the manual pumps anymore, lol!

But, you may end up having to pump for awhile until your baby 'gets' it. I had to pump for six months. I was afraid to try to put her to the breast after awhile, but I finally did, and I was sooo happy when she took it! Just please don't give up on breastmilk for your baby! It is the absolute best for her; please do whatever you have to to give it to her!

But, I can tell you for certain that you can't get as much milk out with a manual pump as with an electric. You get more, also if you double pump, rather than just pumping one breast. I became a little bit of an expert when I pumped for so long with Audrey, lol. And I know it's going to sound weird, but when you pump, mash down on your breasts intermittently to force the milk from the ducts. I get more milk that way.

I know they say that a breast pump can't get as much milk as a baby can; that just scares me if it's true, lol. Because there came a point when I was pumping with Audrey that I was getting over 50 ounces a day! :shock: Please don't let anyone think that you can't do it if you decide to pump for awhile. YOU CAN, and your little one needs you to! As my pediatrician told me once, it doesn't matter how she gets the BM, what's important is that she does get it.

In the meantime, keep pumping if you can't get your baby to eat normally. In the beginning, I pumped every two hours around the clock, but reduced that to every 3 hours once my supply was established. And, once my supply was established, I also didn't get up in the night to pump AT ALL. Even if my daughter woke. I needed sleep, lol! And after a couple of months, I changed my pump schedule to every four hours until she took the breast.

I also have a slightly used breast bottle if you want to try with that. Just PM me if you want any of this!

I've PM'd you. Thanks :)

I saw my midwife today and she told me to nurse often (and that she'd need to feed for a good 30 minutes first time) to get my milk supply back.

Please pray that she will nurse for me.

Praying for you Renee.

Renee Iam finding the same thing - it's more than annoying ...

Matilda is a really BAD attacher and always was and I don't have time to have her mucking around at my boob for half an hour with two other kids to take care of; thus the expressing - she was like that in hospital and the midwife kept telling me to "pin" her head on my boob but this was distressing for both of us... I always say to DH "as long as she is getting a bit of me, it doesn't matter how"

Anyway I do find the same issue! I pump and pump and regularly too, now I just take the same attitude "as long as she's getting a bit of me"
she's happy and growing and putting on weight and that's all that matters.

When I don't have much I just give her what I can and then fill her up on formula, works for us! :wink:

How's it going Renee?

HA! I got a decent amount this morning - yaaaay.

I was about to dance around and say "mooooo!" as a joke.

Matilda gobbled it down too.

Good luck Renee :wink:

I have a cherub manual pump and I really like it.