all dried up

[rockyroadahead]

this Christmas has sucked !!!
so dd 3m has bronchiolitis since Friday we have had 3 trips to hospital for struggling to breath and not feeding .
she is now doing a lot better bar a very bad cough . boxing day I was sick all day only getting out of bed for feeds .. (not to mention dp rushed in for appendix out on wed lw and ds with extremely bad cold)

anyway we r all on the mend ... but dd is struggling to feed I have just breast pumped for an hour and got out less than an ounce of milk - both breasts I called la lesche and the lady said my milk should come back if I keep pumping and feeding but I am worried as dd seems starving and needs nourishment to continue to fully recover from her virus and I need sleep to fully recover from sickness bug .... both of which aren't going to happen tonight if she is starving...

has anyone experienced this any advice out there ?

Hi - sounds like a tough time for you. I know for sure that how much you can pump does not indicate how much the baby gets. I can't express more than an ounce ever and my baby seems satisfied and growing. I suppose what I'm saying is - stay positive! Let her suck and suck (if you can) and give up on the pumping is my advice.

ps I have loads of expressed milk in freezer but dd completely refuses the bottle .... still trying to trick her into it as we speak

i heard about spending the whole day and night in bed with baby. a lot of skin to skin, and just feeding or letting them suck on your nipple, this will help encourage more breast milk. I also remember reading about pumping for 5 mins each breast every hour for the day...i forgot exactly the mins and timing, but something like that....to stimulate the breast. Try looking at the kelly mom breastfeeding website.

I think spend the day and night in bed breastfeeding and doing skin to skin...if u think she is starving you could give her some formula (after trying breastfeeding) and when you give her forumla, pump to keep your breasts producing milk. Do skin to skin as much as you can. You can watch movies in bed or read....while your baby feeds and gets skin to skin. Good luck!

Tons of skin to skin - can you co-sleep and have your boobs out all night so baby can keep having another go? It's the act of emptying the milk ducts that prompts a hormone response to increase supply and make some more, so the more frequently you empty them (regardless of the actual amount your baby gets) the more you will produce. It should go up pretty quickly then.

I'd spend as much time with baby attached as humanly possible. Forget housework etc. for a few days. DD will be getting your antibodies to her illness as well, and she'll also be being calmed and comforted by being on you.

Eating oats is supposed to help increase supply slightly - do you like porridge?

we r naked drinking pints of water and she has been sucking away for hours now... and pumped while she slept for an hour .

tried formula but she just refuses .

on the plus side the sucking has relieved her constant coughing but im so worried about how hungry she is going to be all night

ooh never heard of the porridge before will defo try that in the morning does ready break count .......

also I am worried about co sleeping is there a safe way to do this ??? would love the excuse to cuddle my baby all night

Have you tried feeding her expressed milk from a syringe or a little cup. We fed this way for a couple of days when I stopped breast feeding due to extreme sore nips , I continued to express and we went back to breast feeding after a couple of days, 19 weeks on still going strong xxx

yer I was just thinking about that bex but is there a special way to do it as I am worried about choking her especially as she keeps having really severe coughing fits anyway

Not sure, we just took it slow send let her do it at her own pace, I found the syringe better than the cup. Kind of tilted her head just a little and almost licked it from the end. It was a bit messy and took a while but she got the hang of it in the end , good luck and hope she and you get better soon xxx

Safest way to co sleep - kick your other half out of a king size bed so its just you and her. Thats what I've done! let baby sleep on the side nearest the wall so she doesn't fall out or use the cot as I do (think my lady has slept in it 6 times in 5 months) I find co-sleeping is the only way to survive breastfeeding in the first few months.

What I actually do is let baby sleep in the middle and I swap sides in the night depending on which boob I'm using. Means I don't have to move her and she doesn't wake up between feeds. She does sleep on a thin pillow (not advised I know) and I use my lightweight duvet on which I try keep off her as she has a sleeping bag. I know once she starts rolling I will feel less comfortable with this arrangement but hopefully by then she will be feeding less and can go in her cot.

Ready break is oats, so yes! Marginal difference but every little helps!

Pumping doesn't get much out of some people; I get a tiny amount but DD is a good size! Pumping is just suction where feeding is suction plus the massaging/milking action at the same time. hand expressing is just the milking action alone, and only on a couple of ducts at a time, so also get less than feeding naturally. She is getting more than you think, and a night of feeding little and often will help with the cough anyway!

Well done on sticking with it

I think it's fine to co sleep as long as u r not drunk or smoking. I've been co sleeping half the night since the hospital (although will stop in the next month or two). I have my son sleep right next to me chest to chest , well his face is next to my chest lol. This way he can get milk when he wants through out the night. I bring him into bed when he wakes for his night feed and he spends the rest of the night with me. I'm not worried about rolling over him, as it's just an instinct, u know baby is there and won't roll over.