hello everyone. first of all allow me to apologize for the lack of capital letters. i am writing from my phone and for some reason i cannot create a capital letter!anyway, i am new here and i suppose i will begin with some background information. my daughter will be 3 months old this week. i breastfed her, with a great deal of difficulty, for a little over 2 weeks. i was overwhelmed and emotional, she would scream most of the time when i tried to get her to latch, and i was sleep deprived. i made the decision to switch to formula because i could not emotionally handle the stress of breastfeeding any longer. fast forward 9 weeks to now and i greatly regret that decision. i miss breastfeeding as i always was determined to breastfeed for at least 6 months. my daughter also seems to be having a lot of trouble with formula...gas, reflux, etc.
i desperately want to breastfeed my daughter again. ideally i would like to build up my supply enough that she is only getting breastmilk either through breastfeeding or pumped milk once i return to work. i began this journey 5 days ago and i have 2 months before i have to go back to work. i have started pumping and have managed to do 8 times 2 of the days and between 5 and 6 the other 3 days because we had visitors. i plan to pump every 2 to 3 hours everyday from here on out. i have also started putting my daughter to the breast and she will latch on for about 2 minutes at a time though i am almost positive she is not getting anything and i am also not certain how good her latch is though it feels comfortable. i have also been drinking mothers milk tea twice a day and taking something called lactation blend. i have also been trying to eat oatmeal once a day as well as upping my intake of water.
i do have a few questions if anyone would be so kind as to answer.
1. the supplement im taking has many different ingredients including fenugreek seed extract, red raspberry leaf, goats rue aerial parts, blessed thistle aerial parts and quite a bit more. when i went to the store i had intended to buy fenugreek seed but then i saw this. now i am wondering if i made a mistake as i just saw that this only had 50 mg of fenugreek so i am only getting 100 mg a day which is way, way below what i see is recommended. should i discontinue this supplement and just get fenugreek to take 3 3 times a day?
2. the first day i pumped i got thick, sticky drops of yellow liquid which reminded me of colostrum. is that what it was? does your body remake colostrum even when you have not just given birth?
3. since the 3rd day i was pumping i have gotten a drop of milk from one breast or another at one or two pumping sessions. these drops do not fall off my breast. the rest of the time i get nothing. i assume that i am seeing any milk is good news, yes? i am not known for my patience and am getting a bit frustrated that this isnt increasing. i would be happy to see even a few drops fall off the breast though really i am just anxious to start seeing milk collect in the bottle. i think back to when i pumped after my daughters birth when she was briefly in the nicu and how easy it was to fill a bottle and i get so angry at myself that i stopped. anyway, when can i expect to see this one tiny drop turn into something more substantial?
4. like i said, my daughter will latch for short amounts of time. i have read that babies typically get more out than a pump. so is it possible she is getting any milk even though i am seeing essentially nothing when i pump? how do i know when she is getting something someday?
5. what else should i be doing to try to make this happen quicker? i am just so anxious to start giving my daughter some breastmilk even if it is just a little.
thank you so much to anyone who has time to reply and give me some guidance. i am so determined to do this but am so impatient and want to make sure i am doing everything correctly.