How long for milk to come in for second baby?

[kiwidreamer]

With our second DC due to arrive in about 6 weeks I've just started to take my head out of the sand and think about those early days :) With DS (2.7yrs) I was induced at +16days and ended up EMCS due to pre eclampsia and failure to progress, my milk took a good 5 or 6 days to come in and we were doing formula top ups as he lost about 10% body weight. Once my milk was in we were pretty much sorted and carried on exclusively BFing for 17mths.

I was wondering what people's experience was with second babies and if its possible my milk will come in faster this time or if anyone knows if there is value in taking supplements like Fenugreek prior to the birth to help my body produce milk quicker or should I just go with the flow and see what happens once baby arrives??

Just realised 'exclusively' sounds silly, obviously he ate real food at 6mths LOL but we didnt need forumla top ups etc once my milk was in :)

Day 6 for DC1
Day 3 for DC2
Day 1 for DC3 but it was about 20 hours

DC1 4 days (induced, he was 3 wks early, v sleepy & got v bad jaundice as did not feed, lost over 10% bodyweight, ended up pumping & syringe feeding etc)

DC2 4 days (unlike DC1 she fed immediately & constantly, lost v little weight, no jaundice - but made me panic as despite all that feeding/stimulation, my milk took as long to come in.)

I called the NCT helpline to check with DC2, btw, & they said 3-6 days normal, even on second baby.

HTH! Good luck.

dc1 3 days
dc2 1 day

On dd1 I stayed in hospital for 3 nights after she was born and my milk was in by the time we left.

I had dd2 at 1.30am and my milk was in by that evening.

I had some supply issues for a while on dd2 and looked into taking fenugreek. I had high bp at the end of the pregnancy that didn't resolve immediately after the birth. I was advised against taking fenugreek due to the high blood pressure. Just thought I would mention that as you had pre-eclampsia in your first pregnancy.

Just go with the flow! with my 2nd ds i thought i'd try bf or first few days but wasnt a big deal if it didnt work out i'd just bottle feed.....i swear due to this relaxed approach i'm now still exclisivly bf (no formula given ever) good luck :)