Why isn't my supply keeping up?!

[Emberblu]

I'm currently ebf ds who is 6 weeks old. I have always fed on demand and despite ALOT of pain and tears the first few weeks we are finally getting the hang of it.

However he has always cluster fed all day everyday not just for growth spurts etc. He has no tongue tie. As horrid as I find this I am happy to sit and feed him all day if he is getting all he needs.

However I am once again dealing with a frustrated screaming baby as my breasts aren't making/letting down milk fast enough to keep up. I thought by now my supply would have kept up with what he needs but the constant frustrating feeding doesn't look like it's going to end :(

I feel like my boobs are failing us and just want little one to be happy and satisfied. He was 95th centile when born and is gaining weight ok I think. I would happily ff if he would be happier. I can only express when he is on me and only ~1oz at a time but don't do that as he always feeds from both breasts each 'feed' (feeds tend to run together).

Does anyone have advice or similar experiences to share? I'd hoped it would be getting easier by now...

We moved out of the carry cot really early on as they all hated being flat on their backs and had good head control. Would that help?

I've got a sling and front carrier, he will sleep in the carrier but only if walking, he doesn't seem as enamoured with the sling...
maybe I'll try him sat up a bit in his pram then, thanks. And thanks again for all the suggestions, I feel I've tried so much but maybe I'll try again

My aunt had 5 babies and she helped me, basically feed, wind, sleep and repeat. She’d feed at 6,10,2 pm and repeat again. I found this hard personally but stated taking my babies for walks after feeding so they went to sleep - definitely wind them though, definitely

I found by about 6-7 weeks with my first child that I had to combi feed as it was all getting too much and she wasn’t sleeping and was always desperately hungry to feed and it was affecting my wellbeing (later I found out I had DMER which wasn’t helping feeding with either or my kids!)

I combi fed my second from 2 weeks

For me this worked and they’re both doing well (9&5) and both slim, not greedy but love milk still - just do what you can

Have you tried a dummy? It may be your baby is a sucky baby whonjust needs that comfort - my second child did, self weened around 6-8 months

Thanks. He doesn't like dummies much but will happily take a bottle. I would combi feed and he does sometimes get an evening bottle if I need sleep but I wanted to make sure I had established my supply but that doesn't seem to be happening. And I can only express when he's feeding on me so can't do that while he's bottle feeding iyswim. I am trying to go with my instincts and follow his signals but maybe his desperate hand sucking while crying is about comfort not hunger? My dh has been away since ds was 2 weeks (he's in the forces) so I've been staying with his lovely parents but think it doesn't help the situation, missing him, being away from home etc.

This is not he NHS approved method but since you asked:

Bouncer so they're not quite flat on their back but well reclined. Soft, stretchy blanket laid on the bouncer ready to wrap baby tight. Get baby to sleep in arms using horizontal jig around the kitchen with dummy. Then into bouncer, slightly on their side and wrap blanket tight coming up to chin and around cheeks slightly so their eyes, nose and dummy are all you can see. Sometimes stuff a rolled muslin under their cheek to lean on. So they are literally snug as a bug. If they start to fuss or wake a bit I jig the bouncer till they doze back off.

Then grab cup of tea and lie on couch beside bouncer to watch tv for hopefully 30mins to 2 hrs😀

Oh yes. Drinking a cuppa, using your foot to jiggle the baby bouncer. Sigh, takes me back.

Thanks ZigZag I'll try anything 😅

At that age for us it was a dark room, dummy, white noise and lots of rocking. She wouldn't sleep unless she was on us (don't know why I'm saying wouldn't, she still doesn't 🙈).

At 6 weeks, when he’s been awake for an hour, whatever he’s been doing, start getting him off to sleep again. So put the dummy in at start shh-patting in a dark/boring room.

Babies only look tired when they’re overtired. Overtired babies struggle to fall asleep. Tired babies often don’t look tired and fall asleep much easier. Makes perfect sense!

My advice with these things is always to take care of yourself the restorative powers of ten minutes with a large mug of tea and some buttered toast are phenomenal. There are lots of things you can do to boost supply, I swear by garlic. Not everyone's ideal but maybe good to try whilst DH is away :)

RockinRobin if he screams an sucks at his hands do I continue trying to get him to sleep? He just works himself into a frenzy and his crying cuts right into me 😖 he's been awake about 3 hours now but just won't sleep and is back on boob with white noise blasting

I'm so sure he must be tired but won't sleep... will try getting us both dressed in a minute ( it's one of those days) and getting outside in the carrier. If he's full that usually gets him to sleep. Means I can't rest but maybe he'll be happier plus I'll build up my weak back and hip muscles if I have to constantly walk between every feed

Emberblu it won't probably help now as he'll be so overtired - definitely a time for the car/pushchair/sling and walking in the fresh air til he gives in. When he's caught up, try again with the timings and it work. Getting the right moment in time to get him over was a real game changer for me - it became very easy to get him to sleep when he wasn't overtired anymore

So I've given him a bottle and he took 6oz so surely he is hungry? He is now in his carrier on me but is wide awake and looking around... expecting crying in a few minutes

I'd try going and standing in a dark room now with him in the carrier. Sway, shh and pat his bum. Fingers crossed he'll drop off.

He's gone after a walk to the shops in the carrier. Now sat with him on me but at least he is asleep for now...

Oh good. When he wakes up next, just make a note of the time and start again an hour after he wakes up...

Enjoy your sit down in peace!

Hi op feel for you as my first was always overtired & found it v hard to wind down

We started winding him down 75 mins after he last woke. Blacked out room, white noise, swaddle, dummy, held in our arms while bouncing gently on a birthing ball

Or walking in carrier like you said, with muslin draped over top so he had nothing interesting to see

Re constantly feeding & crying for more -- would def recommend u go to a bf advisor & they watch him feed, can reassure you if he is feeding well or make suggestions

Plus can your in laws help by taking him after a feed, rocking him in their arms with dummy? My dh takes baby so baby can't smell the milk on me - and settles better this way

Good luck

Thanks, he has had a good sleep with white noise blasting. I will try and do some kind of wind down routine when he next needs a nap.
My mil is good at getting him to sleep, he definitely settles better for other non milky people 😆
I will go to the brasserie when I go home next week and see what they say about his eating habits. For now I'll try and get a routine going as much as I can which may involve 3am walks in his carrier but I hope not haha 😖

My dd is similar re feeding but sleeps well so for her it isn't tiredness. I think I do actually have low supply though as she had bad tongue tie and my nipples got so damaged I often couldn't feed at all in the first couple of weeks and even expressing was painful. She still has a terrible latch despite having the tongue tie divided so milk transfer is inefficient and my supply probably isn't being stimulated enough. If feeding isn't painful for you then I guess this isn't the problem but what people suggested to me was getting baby weighed at a breastfeeding clinic before and after a feed to see how many oz she's actually taken. Unfortunately they don't have scales at my clinic so I haven't done this but the lactation consultant there did observe that dd was 'nibbling' rather than 'drinking'. She only swallows about once for every 5-10 sucks when it should be once every 1-2 sucks. This is what I've gathered anyway after spending the last 5 weeks googling everything to do with breastfeeding! I'm definitely no expert.

I now top up every bf with formula which is definitely not advisable and a situation I'm desperate to get out of, but even with the top ups she still behaves as you describe with the constant feeding cues and not sleeping if she is windy. We use infacol and wind her as much as possible but she still gets windy sometimes and gets into these feeding loops where only milk will calm her but drinking it just adds to the wind. Eventually after 6 hours or so she'll do some huge farts and settle down!!

Chances are your supply is fine but I second getting yourself to a feeding clinic or lactation consultant today to have the latch checked and until your supply is very well established and you're confident with it I'd not give any formula at all.

Most babies will guzzle down a bottle of formula; it doesn't mean they're starving.

Make sure you're drinking plenty of water as this makes a noticeable difference to supply. Eating oats is also proven to increase supply.

I was advised while still in hospital to limit baby to 20 minutes each side as feeding for longer than that baby will just tire out.

After every feed I pushed my baby to sleep in the pram unless she fell asleep of her own accord in the cot.

It took me ages to cotton on to the fact that most of DD's crying was due to being overtired. It's still the same now at 6 months but I've got better at knowing when she needs a sleep and can get her to nap before she has a tired paddy!

You're doing really well. Keep going. I remember very clearly the anxiety that my milk supply wasn't enough.