Where Did All of My Breastmilk Go?

You are making milk just fine. Pumping is NOT the way to gauge your milk production. 1/4 of your production is what is pumped out... the baby's mouth can suckle out 100%, not the 25% the machine can get. Most women are not able to pump large amounts - which is why I advise women to start pumping immediately after the first week to start stockpiling their milk in the freezer. Once you reach the 4-5 months mark - chance of pumping ANYTHING immediately decreases because your body has custom fit to your baby, not your pump.

You need to see an IBCLC about whether you have a slow let down... to me, that sounds like your main issue. Also, every 2-3 months your infant will go thru a growth spurt, which means they will be nursing A LOT more than usual and seem unsatisfied, but that is because they are priming your body to start upping the milk production.

From your post, you sabotaged your milk supply the first time around by offering formula instead of letting the baby cluster feed to build up milk production.

Stop offering formula!!! Breastfeed OFTEN. Pump while nursing the other side. Take fenugreek and blessed thistle pills in a combination - they work together to give a greater outcome than either would alone. Eat oatmeal, veggies, fruits and drink plenty of fluids. Get as much rest as possible - preferably napping and sleeping WITH your infant. Your breasts will never feel full again, unless you have another newborn.

Don't worry what other ppl can pump - that has NO BEARING on YOUR production. You are already at that point where you should have had a stockpile of expressed milk, now it's too late to be pumping due to the body already conforming to what your infant needs. Don't stress what you can pump... just pump and save what you can, supplement with formula ONLY when you are not physically around to feed your baby.

First what you pump and what baby gets are vastly different. The body responds very different to each and baby is far more adept and getting milk.

There are a few things to consider-bottle feeding is much easier for baby and some baby's are lazy at the breast and get frustrated. they have to work at the breast while the milk just pours from a bottle. Try using the playtex slow flow latex (brown) nipple. It is very similar to the breast.

After those first few weeks your breasts really shouldn't feel "full". Can you imagine how uncomfy it would be if our body didn't regulate and adjust and we had to walk around engorged for a year!?

I successfully breastfed both my kids for 16 and 20 months respectively and was never, never able to pump vast amounts. With my second (who took right to the breast unlike her preemie brother) I was never really able to pump anything but she nursed like a champ and gained weight great. My body responded to her but not to the pump. A very high quality pump doe help though. In your case you might look to rent a hospital grade pump.

Watch your baby's cues too. Don't wait till he's too hungry to put him to breast. That does lead to frustration in some babies. Also, you could try getting your milk going before putting him to breast by hand expressing or using the pump. That way he gets more of an immediate reaction at the breast and he'll keep nursing.

Also, you will never keep up a supply if you don't put baby to breast as often as possible. They are the best at stimulating your supply. I would nurse him before leaving the house for work. Only nurse on the weekends-no bottles.

Eat well, drink lots and lots of water.

And the weight thing-I learned after I weaned my first that it's very common to keep 5-10lbs above your pre-pregnancy weight while nursing. I couldn't figure out why those last 10lbs hung on! lol I really think it's the body's way of making sure you and baby have enough stores for running your body and making milk.

I hope some of this might help a little and help you feel more confident in your ability to feed baby!

Upon returning to work from maternity leaves, I had supply issues as well. What worked for me to help increase my supply:

-Fenugreek, 3 capsules three times daily (yes, smelling like maple syrup is a good indicator you're taking enough)
-Oatmeal (not quick oats, but regular kind)
-Tons of Water
-Eating regularly, healthfully
-Resting & relaxing enough -- this includes not stressing about feeding, pumping, breastfeeding woes, etc....much easier said than done, I know!
-Pumping every 2 hours while away from baby (do you have a double electric pump?)
-Nursing baby in the morning, followed by 10-15 minutes of a pumping session
-Nursing baby at night, after he's in bed (I've also had friends who got up in the middle of the night, even when their babies were sleeping, in order to pump...worked for them, but I wouldn't have been able to do it!)

I would check out resources:
www.kellymom.com
La Leche League
Lactation consultant (at your hospital or in the area)
OB or midwife - do you have a medical condition (PCOS, or other?) that might hinder your supply? You can take a Rx med to see if that helps too...

Breastfeeding is a lot of work, no? And as a working mom, even moreso, I believe!
I hope you find what works best for you and your family, Mama~

my daughter is a working mom and her milk supply dipped also; she figured out it was these peppermint candies that someone had brought in and she probably ate 6 of them in a day, only later to find out that peppermint is actually recommended for gals who want their milk to dry up!! Frenrugreek worked well for her - she took it in capsule form from GNC and the lactation consultant told her that when she smelled like maple syrup, she had enough. And this was true. It at least brought her milk supply back to where it was. She also added a time or two of pumping during the day to give it an extra boost. And of course, no more peppermint. She is not able to "get ahead" in her milk supply, but managing day to day. You may want to consult with a lactation consultant about this. They have wonderful ideas and are down in the trenches with the latest and greatest advice. In NY where my daughter lives, the hospital has consultants around the clock and they are available to her until she is done breastfeeding.
Good luck to you.

i never lost weight while nursing either, it just made me hungrier... lol. there are prescription meds you can get from your doctor that will increase your milk supply, they worked for me. but what it really sounds like is that you are not nursing enough and thats why your supply is less. a baby that is not yet eating food will normally nurse every hour - hour and a half while awake. ( you measure the time between nursings just like contractions from the beginning of the first to the begining of the next) and should have about 20 min on each breast at each feeding. obvoiusly this is next to impossible to do while working. just nurse as long and as much as you can... supplement with formula. thats what i ended up doing and it worked great for me.

I'm a SAHM but with my first son, I had low milk supply. In my opinion it was due to stress and lack of experience. I saw the lactation consultants after leaving the hospital twice. I pumped for 5 minutes after every feeding. I took Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle (both 3 capsules, 3x daily until both bottles were gone). My dr gave me a prescription for Reglan and I took that per the lactation consultants instructions. I can't remember specifics but it was 4x a day for a few days, then 3x, then 2x then once daily. It increased my supply, so that I only had to supplement 6 to 8 oz of formula per day, where as I had been doing at least double that. I weaned him at about 6 months.

Fast forward to my now 13 month old son. I assumed I was going to have problems so I decided to take the herbs on my own after talking with the lactation consultant. I always had a large water bottle with straw nearby, made sure I ate enough to cover the calories needed to breastfeed. (I'm not skinny, so losing that baby weight was/still is a concern for me.) I'm still nursing this time.

So my suggestions: water, water and more water! Eat enough calories to support breastfeeding. Take the herbs. And talk to your doctor about Reglan.

Wishing you luck!

You sound like me! I would pump every 2 hours and not even get enough to make 1 feeding for a premie - very frustrating!!!! I took fenugeek, and whatever else the lactation specialist told me to do - with no luck. I was so frustrated and it was getting way too stressful on me so we switched to formula as well. I also could not lose any weight breastfeeding.

My mom had the same issue, so I think it's probably genetic. Her Dr told her that some cows are just good milkers, others aren't. Not the nicest analogy, but it got the point across.

Good luck!

I built supply back up from nearly nothing (after no nursing for 3 months) and started nursing again. it takes alot! I pumped every 2 hours and every other time I would alternate pump 10 min, stop 10 min for and hour. It was exhausting but worked.

Contact your local LL group and they can help you get it back.

Good luck!
***Added***
I wanted to mention like alot of ladies have....calories, calories, calories (and tons of water)!! it takes nearly 1300 calories a day to produce milk for a new born. Your body needs between 1200-2000 to sustain itself. That is alot of calories. If you are not eating enough then your body will take what it needs first and give any leftover calories for milk production. i used to eat full plates of baked potatoes, brown rice, turkey every 2 hours (I was on the Elimination Diet also for his allergies). It was difficult to eat healthy at such high volume but I could tell a decrease on a day I didn't eat enough or drink enough water/

I have four children and I have found that right after I have my baby up until about 4 months I can produce a lot of breastmilk. After about 4 months I have found that my breast don't feel as full as much and when I pump I didn't as much either. However, I didn't let it worry me. I would continue to put my babies to my breast..sometimes even every hour. I know this is very hard for some moms as it is very time consuming, but with me I was determined to give my baby only breastmilk. At about 8, 9 months I would feel that my babies weren't as interested in sitting to nurse as long as it took to get a full belly so I brought in some formula and would give it to my baby after a nursing session...and you can do that too. Just keep nursing and nursing and include formula when u feel your baby isn't getting enough from the breastfeeding. Even if your baby is getting a little bit each day it will help his/her immune system, help with digestion, and a bunch of other things. Even a little bit is better than none at all in this first year. Don't get frustrated because that can make it worse. Make sure you are also getting enough food. Just nurse your baby as much as you can and have good formula on hand for if he/she is not getting enough from a nursing session. When you are at work try to pump more than once. Have you ever felt "letdown"? That is your body's way of telling you that your breasts are making milk and are ready to feed. Feel free to ask me any questions if you want to. I have nursed all four of my babies and am still nursing my youngest who is 9 months and I too would only get an ounce or 2 from pumping. Good Luck!! :)

L.,
You are not in anything different han where i have been for all my children. I have lupus of the skin which for the first two children even though i don't take drugs for it people was saying its because of that. Than I did research tthe third child and actually went to see an endocronologist. Nope that had nothing to do with it. the endocronologist said all he could find out was my ducts wher small. All lactation consultants gave me courage and all lache legues did too. they say when baby is sucking there suck is different than the pump and that we really don't know what baby gets for the next two I changed my eating habits to more protien and good foods like veggies and fruit and tons of water no difference. Didn't matter what I ate. So basically its me having to deal with that I can feed my child to the first month after that they need to be supplemented after feeding on me. I total stand behind breastfeeding moms i envy the ones whi spit out 6 oz at once or more. To answer your ? on weight. With the first 4 never noticed anything other than looseing it because i was either pumping or the baby was feeding and i lost weight not alot never be 125 again but i was a decent weight this last one i had i breast fedd and pumped and for 6 months i noticed the first 3 months came off real quick lost almost all extra weight i put on before baby. than after 3 months platued than started loosing some and milk decreased gave it up and boomb all my weight plus came back on than did research on that found out that breastfeeding parents do not get there actually weight back from just breastfeeding they also have to excersise with it along with have to breastfeed up to a year before the weight stays off. It starts to fall ofat first and than around 8 months it fall of more also those who have high matabilism are the ones who are skinny minis too. So if you didn't have high metabolism before baby you are gonna have to work to get it off. When breastfeeding you need to give it a year to see results. If you can find a good lache leaugue coach that might help but I really also think it has to do with a good support system meaning the dads support if you don't have that and someone who believes like you do on how good this is for the baby its a battle. I don't have that support but know women who do and the difference is fanominal. So I say keep it up the reason you went down is stress from going back to work and that may decrease after being back ina couple weeks also relax and staying relaxed is a key to success too. Good luck and if you have further ? I can talk with you not a big deal email me just to let you know your not alone i have the same battle and will be rebattling agin on this next child yes i am 14 weeks and going to be doing all over again in july so Enjoy the little squirt don't allow this to stress you. You have done alot for him now and he is growing you do what your gut says is right ans your an awesome mom!! Remember that!

I'm not sure if this was suggested already, but I would recommend LOTS of skin-to-skin contact, even when you're not nursing. Just lounge without a top or bra on if possible, and have your baby in just a diaper., lay tummy to tummy. This is a great way to naturally stimulate your milk production! Best of luck :)

I do not know what others have said so if I am redundant please forgive me.

I was a mom who could not keep up with my oldest. He was taking 8 oz every 3 hours at 4 weeks old. I also work full time so I started pumping right away with all 3 of my babies.

When I had my second baby. I started pumping immediately when I got home between feedings and she liked to bottle so I became a Pump only mom. But when I went back to work I was away from her for awhile so I could understand. I pumped every 2 to 3 hour around the clock. You can not just pump every 2 or 3 hours during the day and then not do it during the night. Your body needs to be trained to produce the milk. I was pumping over half a gallon of breastmilk a day. Yes it was 72+ oz a day. After about 2 months or so I started to wean out some of the night pumpings and by about 3 months I did not pump at night anymore. Just before I went to bed and as soon as I got up. I also would pump for 30+ min at a time. because I had so much milk. You can also pump for 5 min past when you stop producing the milk. That tells your body that it needs to produce more milk. When I got rid of my night pumping I would get up and pump 20+ oz in the morning. I had to give myself an hour to pump and 30 min to get ready for work. I was getting up at 4am to be ready for work on time. But this allowed me to freeze a lot of milk and wean myself from pumping and still feed my baby breastmilk past 1 year old.

If you would like any more information please Private message me

The best thing to do is get some advice from a Le Leche League Group Leader,but here goes... I breastfed 3 sweeties and went by the rule that breastfeeding is a supply and DEMAND activity. If you don't pump or breastfeed for 12 hours at a time your body believes baby doesn't need (demand) it....supply goes down. Are you still getting enough rest? Drinking PLENTY of liquids? Pumping at work? You might even need to wake baby at night to nurse or get up and pump to get things moving again. I never had a supply problem but some moms at Le Leche meetings said that beer helped their supply. You are doing the best thing for YOU and BABY by breastfeeding. Try not to stress about it...that will diminish supply too. Relax, eat well, drink lots of water and nurse or pump whenever you can. Another thing is, are you sure your milk is actually "letting down" Keep in mind there is no better "pump" than a nursng baby. Plug him in whenever you can. Again, you might call a Le Leche League Group eader...those ladies are great! All the best to you!

I agree with Pamela below. The fenugreek tea does nothing other than give you extra fluids. You have to take fenugreek in a large amount for it to help
http://www.kellymom.com/herbal/milksupply/fenugreek.html#...
It does sound like slow letdown. I know when I first started nursing I didn't recognize the let down feeling but after a while I noticed a tingly/slightly burny sensation and then this big feeling of relief/relaxation would drop down on me and then poof, the milk would be flowing. It is hard to simulate that with pumping but I would close my eyes, think of my baby, deep breathing and just imagine myself nursing him. I never got as much milk pumping either, but a pump output doesn't accurately measure your supply and some women react better/more to a pump than others. To increase your supply, you have to stimulate your breasts more. Nurse more, pump more, skin to skin contact. This is the best way to get supply going. Feed whenever baby seems the slightest bit interested. If they are not getting enough they will try to feed more and the increased feeding triggers you making more. If they are getting bottles instead you get no stimulation, they get overfull and and then don't want to feed for quite a while. It is kind of a self fulfilling prophecy....you start giving more bottles you lower your supply and eventually your supply is gone. I pumped for 14 months and several times I had to kind of recenter myself, take a day off work and just lay in bed with baby skin to skin and nurse like crazy, lots of fluids and good nutrition and lots of fenugreek. It would get better for a while and then all the pumping would take it's toll again. ALWAYS nurse when you can when you are home and do the supply building "boot camp" when needed. Also doing some limited co sleeping usually helped my supply too cause he could nurse off and on all night and my sleep was minimally disturbed.

There are some things you can do to help with let down as well http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/letdown.html
and herbal tinctures ...rescue remedy, fennel, red raspberry. Lots of info on Kellymom and out on the internet.

I had trouble too losing much. I lost about half my baby weight, and then couldn't seem to lose more. A big part of it I think was that I was extra hungry so it was hard to cut back, plus I didn't want to cut back too much that it would affect my milk supply, that was always most important to me.

I feel your frustration!! My daughter is about 8 months now and I wanted to breastfeed. She wanted nothing to do with it so pumped every 2 hours. I would get maybe 2.5 oz a breast in the beginning. Then it slowly decreased. After 2 months I just gave up because I was only able to get 4 oz maybe the whole day. I tried Fenugreek capsules and they did not work. I never tried anything else.

When you breastfeed you need more calories so while breastfeeding you may not notice the weight loss but when you stop you do, also the main thing it does is shrink yoru uterus back to normal size. As far as producing more milk make sure you drink a lot of water! Even though you only pump an oz. that is not an indicator of how much your baby gets when he breastfeeds.
Good luck

Are you drinking enough? When I was nursing I noticed that when I had a sore throat and was CONSTANTLY sipping water to soothe it I got a lot more milk. After I noticed that I made sure to drink plenty of non-caffeinated drinks (mostly water - caffeine dehydrates you more).

Also remember that a baby is able to get more out of your breast than a pump,. although I don't know how much more.

Just make sure your baby is wetting enough diapers and gaining enough weight. and don't hesitate to call your pediatrician if you have any concerns. That is why they are there :)

I am sorry I don't have any advice about your milk supply, I hope someone on here can help.

Your weight loss sounds exactly right for a breastfeeding mother. I kept on an extra 10-12 pounds for about a yr after each of my kids were born, I exclusively bf and once they were eating enough table food to actually decrease their demand the rest of the weight come off...bf takes a lot of calories and a certian amount of reserve weight/fat is neccessary.