fluctuations in milk supply and growth spurts

[muslimah28]

hi
my DS is 13 weeks and over the last week he's been very unsettled and wasn't feeding well early last week.now he seems to want more again,or his normal amount but because he wasn't feeding well i feel like my milksupply has gone down and now hes getting frustrated.

is this normal? how cani increase my milksupply? ive tried doing lots of skin to skin but couldn't help feeling cold and ive tried expressing as much as i can between feedsto stimulate my body to produce more, but i find this a) difficult and tiring and b) it feels like by doing so i'm notallowing my milk to build up again so in turn DS has even lessat the next feed.

i tried calling the NCT breastfeeding helpline yesterday, and i did get some useful advice about watching more what he's doing in the feeds. but they didn't seem to understand my basic initial concern that i have less milk than i did before.

ive been through thisbefore, and i sorted it out by a weekend of skin to skin and lots ofsuckling.but right now i don't have the energy, and also because it was the weekend i had lots of support and encouragement fromDH who was around then.

its just hard because ive worked so hard at BFing (soo hard at it given what the traumatic birth i had followed by a traumatic postnatal recovery).i just want to give him whats best and when i see him frustrated and i know its because there's less milk there i just dont knowwhat to do.

oh btw, the subject included 'growth spurts' becuase i had a question about that too but then id written so much about low milk supply that i thought id leave thegrowth spurts to another day! but to avoid confusion, he's not( i don't think) on a growth spurt right now, he seems to be going back to his usual feeding demands but i don't have enough for him like i used to ( i used to have loads of milk)

I have had a similar issue, where my DS2 drank less for a few days and then wanted to go back to normal and my breasts just felt like empty balloons! . I contacted our local breastfeeding support group and they advised me that your breasts need a bit of time to register that they need to make more milk again. I just kept feeding him as often as he wanted, making sure he'd drain the breast he started on then giving a second. And at the next feed started at that second breast. And within a day or 2 the issue had resolved itself. There just seems to be a delay for your body to respond to a change in demand. Hope you r supply will be back to normal soon.

thanks pimskie. the advice you got makes sense, the NCT lady was helpful but just didn't seem to understand my concern about low milk supply, just sayhing there's always milk in the boobie....

bumping the thread to see if anyoneelse has any advice...