Milk drying up??

[zaalitje]

Hi
I've got a 2 week old baby who has only had breast milk and ideally this will continue. Milk has been mainly expressed and fed due to monitoring intake.

I had for the past week been able to express more than I needed, he takes about 65ml each feed and I managed an extra 100ml - 140ml over the course of the day which I used when out and about.

Today I'm currently pumping and struggling to get to 50ml, as had been the case for the past couple of feeds. Any idea what I am doing wrong and why I'm no longer producing enough for baby?

Do you want to keep feeding mostly pumped milk? Your baby is more efficient at the breast than a pump so the amount you can get out manually is not an indication of your supply, just how much you can pump.

With my eldest I breastfed and topped up with expressed milk and formula and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. I was exhausted! I'd be tempted to just keep offering breast to baby as much as they want to (even if it's hourly! - my youngest fed every 2-2.5 hours until he was 6mo!). However, I understand the comfort of being able to measure how much your baby has had so if you're keen to keep pumping google 'power pumping' and if you haven't already, invest in a double electric pump. I had an Ardo Calypso which I thoroughly recommend. Good luck! 

Maybe you are tired or stressed. I think the best thing with breastfeeding is to be really comfortable, having something ready to watch or read and a store of food. Monitoring it that closely would make me stressed and so would be counter productive. Is there a medical reason you need to monitor so closely?

As pp said, the baby is much more efficient than a pump. Also, IIRC, the physical closeness of breastfeeding encourages your breasts to produce more milk.
By all means pump if you want, but provided your baby is producing enough wet and dirty nappies, you shouldn't need to monitor intake strictly.

Is there a reason you need to monitor intake OP? Unlike formula fed babies, there’s really no need to worry about the volume a Bf baby drinks. A ff baby needs needs roughly 2.5 floz per pound in weight in 24 hours but the volume a BF baby drinks remains roughly the same from one to six months. This is because, unlike formula, your milk alters in content to perfectly adapt to your babies needs

Kellymom has some good information on pumping and quantities here

They also have some great information on pumping and quantities in I’m not pumping enough milk, what can I do?.

Agree with other posters about trying to relax and make yourself comfy too

One thing that helped me was pumping whilst feeding. I had an Ameda Lactaline and used to pump whilst DD fed off the other side and for about 10 minutes after she had finished feeding. I didn’t do this very often though, I bloody hated pumping

How are you getting on now @zaalitje?

Forgot to mention, with BF babies there’s no need to see what’s going in, unlike ff babies. Instead you look at what’s coming out. Have a look at Is my baby getting enough milk?

How often are you pumping, OP? If exclusively express feeding then you need to be pumping every 2-3 hours around the clock otherwise your supply will start to dwindle.
Is there a reason you're wanting to monitor LO's intake? Were there weight issues? Would you like support to go back to feeding directly?