milk finally arrived???

[scaredoflabour]

hi, would love some advice or similar experience.
i always wanted to bfeed. ds was born by emcs and i tried to bf. after 4 weeks he was underweight and i had to top up. looking back at baby photos i now see he was painfully thin. i had tried everything! change of diet. checked latch with bf experts, fenugreek etc. nothing worked. i continued to bf but had to top up. dd continued to bf until dd1 was birn 20months later...
same agsin. milk there, latch fine etc but not enough weight gain. had to ff at 8 weeks.
dd 2 is now 7 weeks. lstched fine, milk there again but at 2 weeks she had lost weight and mw were telling me to top up so i did (with great sadness)
however.... getting finally to my point, inthe last week she hasnot cried for extra formular at all and her top ups have gone from 8oz down o 2oz top up!
could my milk finally be working??

[scaredoflabour]

sorry for the mass, solid block of writing!

[tiktok]

Sscared, wow, you are a determined lady :) :)

The main factor in milk supply (and you may already have been round this particular block so sorry if I am telling you something you know) is frequency of effective milk removal....nothing and I mean NOTHING drives milk supply more than this.

Latch has a lot to do with this, of course, as it enhances effectiveness.

So - it may be that the frequency is something you missed out on. Some women make gallons without it, but women who have less than generous production have to work on it....by feeding every time the baby looks as if he/she might take it, day or night, switch nursing (swapping from side to side and back again as often as possible), breast compression, and even a period of expressing in addition to all of this.

It may be that your milk has improved but it could also be a blip - 8 oz top ups are massive and don't leave much room to boost the breastmilk supply.

I don't think you are out of the woods, and all the stuff to increase your milk applies....but if you do that, you could certainly restore a milk supply :)

[scaredoflabour]

Ha ha. I meant 8oz in a whole 24hrs down to 2oz not 8oz in one go!
sorry, reading my post it's not clear.
I have expressed like a mad woman over the years and done the breast feeding holiday thing staying in bed, lots of skin to skin etc. Nothing has ever seemed to work. It is like theirs milk there but it doesn't fill my babies up. Maybe I produce a skimmed version
But like I said, dd2 seems to be asking for less formula. today she has had 4oz, spread out over two 2oz bottles. she's gaining weight so I can only assume that for the first time my milk is being sufficient almost entirely on it's own. Just can't think why now? will it last?

[tiktok]

I now understand about the 8 oz :)

The 'breastfeeding holiday' thing may have to last for a long time to ensure good production - I accept it feels like you have done everything but a weekend or even a week won't cut it....some women have to do this a lot and it is really difficult when you have other children.

Having said that, hope the good progress continues and shows up on the scales :)