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#1
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supply issues
Hello everyone. I am the mother of a 4.5 month old preemie. He has an
adjusted age of 2 months. I have been BF since he came home from the NICU. I've posted here a few times but I had a few questions about my milk supply. I was originally pumping about 9 times a day while he was in the hospital. Under the advice of the LC at the NICU, I continued pumping about 4 times a day when he came home until we hit his orginal due date, then she said to just pump if DH was giving him a bottle or if I felt full. When I went back to work, I began to pump twice a day while a work. When I am at home we exclusively BF, and only give bottles while I'm at work. We don't seem to have any bottle confusion as he latches on great when I'm home. The problem I'm having is that he is starting to sleep about 6 hours at night and my supply has really dropped. I know that I could get up in the middle of the night and pump but I have a fairly high pressure job and I really need to get the sleep. Anyway, I bought some fenugreek capsules but I don't know how much I'm supposed to take. Also, I heard that mother's milk tea will help your supply. Which is better and should I do both or will that have adverse affects? Also, as a side note, I make sure to eat oatmeal every morning and I drink at least 8 bottles of water a day. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience or issues with all of these. Thanks Danielle |
#2
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supply issues
"Dani" wrote in message oups.com... Anyway, I bought some fenugreek capsules but I don't know how much I'm supposed to take. Also, I heard that mother's milk tea will help your supply. Which is better and should I do both or will that have adverse affects? Also, as a side note, I make sure to eat oatmeal every morning and I drink at least 8 bottles of water a day. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience or issues with all of these. Thanks Danielle When my daughter was eating more than I could pump (we now have solids to fill the gap), I took 3 fenugreek capsules in the a.m. and 3 in the pm. I tried to take a couple at lunch too, but rarely made it. I drink one or two cups of mother's milk tea per day. I don't think fenugreek and fennel are something you can really "overdose" on, in terms of them being dangerous. However, too much can make you nauseous, or for that matter, engorged. My baby also sleeps well at night, and when I was really hitting the fenugreek and mother's milk tea, I woke up in serious pain a couple of mornings from being engorged, so I reduced the dosage. Pumping more often can really help too. GL, Amy |
#3
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supply issues
When I went back to work, I began to pump twice a day while a work. When I am at home we exclusively BF, and only give bottles while I'm at work. We don't seem to have any bottle confusion as he latches on great when I'm home. The problem I'm having is that he is starting to sleep about 6 hours at night and my supply has really dropped. Amy has some great advice, and I'd just like to add that if you are working full time i.e. 8 hr days, then you probably want to add another pumping to your day. Ideally you (not you paticularly, I'm using it as a general "you") want to pump every 3 hours, that would mean for example, once at 9 a.m ( or pumping at home before work) then at 12 noon, and then at 3 p.m. then go home and nurse baby at 6 p.m. If you pump at home instead of the 9 a.m. pumping at work, you may have to adjust the rest of the pumping schedule - but my experience is that pumping 3 times in 8 hours is usually required if one wants to keep up one's supply. I did not have to worry about the night pumping though, my daughter still doesn't sleep (at 6 months) for more than 2 hours at a time. !! PK |
#4
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supply issues
You could fit in some additional pumping. After sleeping for 6 hours, for example, you could pump one breast while nursing on the other breast. (Perhaps ending by nursing on the breast you pumped.) Or, choose a convenient time of day and pump a small amount before nursing (or after nursing perhaps); maybe do this a couple of times a day in addition to the pumping at work, to add up to the equivalent of pumping one feeding. These are just suggestions. I konw your schedule is very busy already and I'm not implying you should do any of these things, just offering ideas. |
#5
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supply issues
Thank you so much for all the advice. I'm going to try to add the
mothers milk tea and do the fenugreek dose Amy mentioned. I think I'll also try to pump after some feedings. I can't really add another one at work. It just takes too much time already. I really want to continue breastfeeding. I'll see what works and hopefully some combination will help things pick up. Thanks for the help! Dani |
#6
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supply issues
"Dani" wrote in message ps.com... Thank you so much for all the advice. I'm going to try to add the mothers milk tea and do the fenugreek dose Amy mentioned. I think I'll also try to pump after some feedings. I can't really add another one at work. It just takes too much time already. I really want to continue breastfeeding. I'll see what works and hopefully some combination will help things pick up. Thanks for the help! Dani When you say it takes too much time, how long are you pumping? I've found that after about 8 min I get so little yield it's almost not worth it (my baby typically nurses for 7 min per session, so that's what my body is used to). I find I get more yield if I pump 3-4 times per day for 8-10 min each than if I do fewer but longer pumps. Now, I have a pretty immediate let down, so I'm not waiting around for milk to start flowing. Anyway, just thought I'd mention that it might work best to keep your pumping as similar to direct bf'ing as possible. On wknds my 6mo nurses every couple of hours for 7-10 min on one side. Since I double pump, that means I can do both sides at once every 4 hours and still have the same frequency. Since pumping isn't as effective as nursing, I pump a bit more often than that, but keep the length similar to typical nursing sessions. Amy |
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