Hi,
My baby girl refused to breastfeed for one month and five days. I pumped on and off. I did not punch much because I was already facin leaking breasts problem (my breasts were leaking all the time and I had to wear breastpads). After about one month and five days I was successful in helping my daughter breastfeed. Now that she is about 2 months and 10 days old I think she is not getting enough milk. She is asleep all through the night and only gets up for some hours during the day time. I try to feed her at least three to four times at night but she is so sleepy that she keeps on dozing off after 5 mintues of nursing, and since the last couple of days she is sleeping through the day as well. My breasts dont feel full now, I read somewhere that baby's refuse to feed when mother's milk may not be coming in enough quantity to fulfil baby's need. She only urinated twice last night. And pooped after four days today. The poop was alright in consistency and quantity.
I also read somewhere that if you are unable to feed your baby early on, your milk supply will be lowered considerably.
How do I increase my mild supply to feed my baby? How do I know my baby is getting enough milk? Is there some way I can check how much milk my baby is getting? Why is she sleeping so much?
I had the same boat during breastfeeding DD..My best friend recommended me Healthy Nursing Tea by Secrets Of Tea that naturaly sweet delicious tea.It helped a lot ...
and I was able to nurse my beautiful daughter until she was 16 months when she quit on her own.
Best of luck!!
I had low milk supply from the beginning. I've been pumping every 3 hours around the clock. I'm also using a product called Breastea (order from their website), and my milk supply has increased a lot. I'm now pumping 5 ounces compared to the half an ounce I was pumping before I started it.
I know this is going to sound crazy and it may get some snarky commnets, but I've heard that drinking one beer a day will help increase your supply. I know several people (most of them health nuts) who swear by it (one M.'s supply dried up while she was in the hospital and it brought it back). Nothing crazy, just one a day, maybe after the baby goes to bed so your body has time to process it out of your system.
Sounds like she is going through a growth spurt. To keep up your supply, you may need to wake her every 3 hours during the day to feed, even if she doesn't eat much. 4 times a night, seems like a lot. From birth, my daughter only got up twice during the night to eat and at 10 weeks, slept through the night (my son at 8 weeks). You breasts won't have that same feeling, as they get used to what she needs from you.
To find out how much she is getting, make a weigh in appointment at the peds. Take her in for a feeding. Weigh her before, don't change her diaper, feed her, weigh her. You can measure how much milk she gets. Many breastfeeding support groups also have scales that can do that for you too.
If you need to increase your supply, drink more water, and you can try fenugreek too.
I agree with drinking a beer a day. It helps over night. My doctor actually told me to try this. I have also tried the Fenugreek (sp?), but my doctor said to not take it more than two weeks so I have been taking it here and there to help with my supply.
Your baby is sleeping the whole night means she is full & getting enough milk supply from you & thats why you dont feel full.If she dont get milk then she must be hungry & then she will be awake very often which is not the case,you can also talk to your doctor about it but I feel this is the case.ou can also check her weight to make sure,For your milk supply to increase drink plenty of liquids ,best is milk other wise you can have plenty of water too. I have four daughters & I breastfed them & I asked the same question that why is she sleeping a lot :) ,he said sleeping is healthy as it increase the growth cells.
I feed my daughters myself & some time faces the same problem bur increase in liquid content minimize it to some extent.
GOOD LUCK
Here is what helped me with my supply:
1) Mothers Milk Tea (any CVS or WholeFoods)
2) Eating oatmeal in the morning (Not instant, the real stuff)
3) Taking MotherLove More milk pills (safe, herbal and effective)
4) Pumping for 15 mins after baby has "finished" which signals your breasts that the baby did not get what it needed. There wont be milk coming out during that 15 mins, it is the stimulation that is effective.
5) One dark beer in the evening - it does work!
6) Here is the hardest one... lowering stress. Understand that no matter what your baby is going to be ok. You will figure it out and when she is a healthy gorgeous toddler you will think back on this as a fading memory.
Good luck mamma.
To increase your milk supply you need to nurse more, which is hard if she doesn't want to. The best way to know if she is getting milk is to listen to her swallowing, she needs to be swallowing in there. More milk coming out means she will swallow more. There should be a swallow every suck, every other suck, or maybe every 3, but this might not be enough (depends on how long she is actually nursing that way, if it is at least 5 minutes of every 3 sucks is a swallow, it probably isn't much).
I had a lot of problems and didn't breastfeed for a month starting when my son was a couple of weeks old, and lost my whole milk supply. I started back up after a month, and it took me 5 weeks to get my supply back up. I used a nursing supplementer (Medela SNS), which you put formula or breastmilk in and the baby gets that through a tube while sucking on your breast. If they are getting milk from the breast, the formula will not go down as fast (and you will still need to listen for the swallows, if you don't have the tube in the right place on your breast, or it is blocked, the formula won't go down then either).
Since you are saying she is sleeping through the day as well (not a good sign to be sleeping that much more than usual unless she is sick), and it sounds like she is having less pees and poops (at least less than you are used to), I think you need to make sure you do have enough milk. Those are both signs that you don't. You can try pumping, although that isn't really a great way to tell, although if you got a lot out before and you don't get much out now, that could be a sign of lower milk supply. If you didn't nurse or pump a lot for that month, you could have affected your supply, but you can do something about it. See a lactation consultant, they will help you a lot, and I would suggest getting a supplementer if your supply is low (they might have one). If you are hearing a lot of good swallows, then you probably are fine, but if not, or if you are still worried, get some help.
