Experienced Nursing Moms - please read

[bellaterra]

I am now 8.5 months into nursing and really proud of myself for going this long. (My goal was to get to 6 months.) I want to make it to a year.

My concern is that I am not getting the amount of milk my daughter needs...( I end up having to supplement one bottle a day) ...so I have two questions:

1.) I know that the more I pump/nurse...the more my milk will increase...how much pumping exactly are we talking? Should I do it every 2 hours, every 4? AND....when should I see the results...does it take a week of doing this...or only a few days?

2.) I realize everyone is different...but I am lucky if I get 3 ounces a pump session while at work. Is this pretty typical for this stage? (My daughter is eating baby food 3 times a day and usually has about 20-24 oz of milk a day. I nurse her before and after work and she gets 3-4 oz bottles with her day care provider.)

There is just not enough info on what is normal and what you should expect when trying to increase your supply.

Thank you in advance for your help, thoughts and advice.

Nicole
Mother to Bella - born 8/30/07

[@llli*jessica.sypolt]

Hi mama,

3oz is a good amount to get! Typically you'd pump for every session your missing (so if you give 3 bottles, you'd pump 3 times)
It's so individual that sometimes it's hard to have one concrete answer.

Can you tell us a little more about what your routine is currently?
How many times are you pumping at work?
How much milk your daughter is currently getting in daycare?
About how often your nursing at home?

[bellaterra]

Jessica-

THANK YOU so much for your response. Here are the answers to your questions:

Can you tell us a little more about what your routine is currently?
Current weekday routine is:
nurse baby been 6-7:30am
I pump around 10:30am & again at 2/3pm at work
<baby eats 4 oz at 9:30am, 1pm, 3pm - a total of 3 bottles>
I nurse again at 6:30pm...she goes to bed.
I pump at 10pm (before bed)


How many times are you pumping at work? 2 times...I could do more than that but probably not every day.
How much milk your daughter is currently getting in daycare? At daycare she gets 12 oz...at work I only pump a total of 4-6 oz...and then I get about another 2 or 3 with my before bed pump session...leaving me consistently 4-5 oz short...sometimes more.
About how often your nursing at home? I nurse her first thing in the am, as soon as we are together in the evening and of course all weekend long.

I am very, very interested in your thoughts. I'm willing to do what I need to do to correct this if I can, but just want some help setting my expectation for what's involved and how long it'll take to get there.

Thank you again!

[Leigh323]

Have you seen this link? http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

You might want to try nursing baby more often when you're not at work, and limiting solids to just when she's at daycare. That should help increase your milk supply, and she probably won't need as much milk at daycare if she's nursing more often at home.

I'm not a pumping mom, but I would guess that pumping more often, even if it couldn't be every day, would help, too.

[@llli*jessica.sypolt]

First congrats to you for meeting and exceding your goal!

Am I right that it seems like she's nursing/taking a bottle, about 5 times a day? And you are nursing/pumping about 6 times?

Adding a session at work would be something to consider, it doesn't have to be a long one, even just a short 5 minutes. On the pumping forum there have been some great discussions about how to keep your pump ready so there is very little set up/tear down time.
It's really different for every mom, most mom's find that if they add one or two sessions they will see an increase in a few days to a week. How much of an increase often depends on the mom. For some mom's this creates too much milk, other's not so much.
I don't know if you are comfortable with this, but often having more skin to skin contact with your baby (a lot of times via safe cosleeping) is a good way to help baby to nurse more and your milk production will respond accordingly. If that isn't something that will work for your family, encouraging your daughter to nurse more in the evenings and saving all solids (like previous poster mentioned) for during daycare may help.
You are getting a really good amount when you pump now! Please be aware that when you start to pump more or nurse more, it may seem like your getting less but it will build and yield more milk.

If you were able to get your LO to nurse a little more at home, you could slowly decrease the amount she is getting in bottles (I mean .5oz for the whole day, then see how she does) if she's eating solids well often a good solid (high in good fats and calories like avacado) is a suitable replacement for forumla.

Making sure you are eating well, and that your fluid intake is good will help you out too. Many mom's find that drinking plenty of water and eating oatmeal in the mornings is the little boost they need.

You can slowly work on this, increasing sessions/nursing, it shouldn't be stressful for you. If you added one short session a day expect to see a difference in a week or so, if you started nursing all night then changes would be coming in a couple of days. I hope that gives you a good idea of what to expect.

[@llli*mom2a]

I agree with pp...also try to get some rest. It really helped me when I was working and pumping if I noticed a decrease in my output to take a "sick day" and stay in bed or at least in our jammies all day and do nothing but nurse (and feed yourself of course).

[bellaterra]

All-

Thank you so much for your thoughts/advice.

Jessica...a special thank you to you. I am definitely going to try some more skin to skin contact and pumping/nursing more. I think I need to just be more patient...but your advice helped me to realize what I need to do (based on my personal routine) and how long it'll take to see the increase.

My sincere thanks.

Nicole

[@llli*buff24]

Wow, I think I could have written the original poster's post! The only difference is that my LO nurses all night long! My LO is 7.5 months old, and I am consistently coming up short for what DD needs at daycare. She is currently drinking 3 bottles, 4oz each and I used to be able to pump that much in 3 pumping sessions at work... Now, I have added a 4th session and I'm lucky if I get 8-9oz total for the day. Just this week we have had to start having daycare give one of her bottles as formula I know it's not the end of the world, but I just didn't want to have to start supplementing... I talked to my OB about Reglan but he says it causes drowsiness and I'm already exhausted so I can't afford to be any more tired.

I guess I'm just going to try getting more rest and taking more fenugreek??

Buff

[@llli*newmamma08]

would taking more fenugreek than recommended help???
or can you?

Wow, I think I could have written the original poster's post! The only difference is that my LO nurses all night long! My LO is 7.5 months old, and I am consistently coming up short for what DD needs at daycare. She is currently drinking 3 bottles, 4oz each and I used to be able to pump that much in 3 pumping sessions at work... Now, I have added a 4th session and I'm lucky if I get 8-9oz total for the day. Just this week we have had to start having daycare give one of her bottles as formula I know it's not the end of the world, but I just didn't want to have to start supplementing... I talked to my OB about Reglan but he says it causes drowsiness and I'm already exhausted so I can't afford to be any more tired.

I guess I'm just going to try getting more rest and taking more fenugreek??

Buff