Ok, so we have surpassed the 12 week mark!This is my Baby #3, and with the first two, I started supplementing at 4 weeks and quit BFing completely at 10 weeks. #3 is still strictly a BM baby! Woohoo! We've both done so awesoem with it that I'm not ready to give it up yet (even though my husband is pushing me to go to pumping only
).
Now, I've been back to work since she was 6 weeks. Pumping at work has been no problem, and I was producing more than enough for her bottles for the following day. She usually takes three or four 4-5 ounce bottles when at home with my husband or when with the babysitter, that is usually over a 10-12 hour period. She usually gets 3 feedings direct from the boob on my work days, one in the morning, one in the evening, and one I usually have to wake her for around 11pm when I go to bed. She is sleeping through the night about 5 out of 7 days a week. She has lots and lots of wet diapers and poops about twice a day. I only work Mon-Thursday, so when I'm home with her the other 3 days, we pretty much strictly BF and she eats 6 times a day, sometimes 7 if she wakes up in the middle of the night.
For the past week or 10 days though, my left breast is NOT producing much milk at all. For example, at my first pumping at 9:30 at work this morning, my right breast produced 3.5 ounces, and my left produced just under 2 ounces. I just pumped again at 1pm, and my right breast produced almost 4 ounces, but my left breast only produced 1.5 ounces. (I am double pumping with a Medela Pump in Style). In the past, I was producing 4-5 ounces per breast, which helped me stock my freezer because I made double what she ate. But we've burned through most of the freezer supply.
I will probably pump again at 4:30 before leaving for the day. Hopefully I'll get a little more.
I've done all sorts of reading on here, and am reading about oatmeal and fenugreek to help increase supply. (I'll have to do a google search on fenugreek though, I have no clue what it is). I've done all the massaging I've read about. I reposition my body and my breasts while pumping to make sure I'm getting out every last drop. Is there anything else I should be doing? Is it normal to have just one breast decrease? I am on a Progesterin only BC pill. I REALLY don't want to stop taking it, I'm a Fertile Myrtle and my oven is closed for business!Should I pump after every actual breastfeeding? Please don't tell me to get up in the middle of the night to pump, I'll cry. I don't mind if she wakes up on her own, because I bring her in bed with me and I doze while side laying feeding her, it's not too disruptive.
Thank you ladies!