I think my supply has dried up 😭

[iamsuchatit]

DD is 7 days old and I haven’t been able to get her to latch. (Large breasts and flat nipples, lack of DH support and I couldn’t get nipple shields to work)

I haven’t been expressing that much because I’m an idiot although I did manage to express a fair bit yesterday. I had been waiting for a better pump to arrive. I woke up today and my breasts were really soft and I’ve tried expressing this evening and nothing’s coming out

Will it come back or is that it?

It is usual for your breasts to go soft again so don't worry too much. Plus what you get from expressing has no bearing on actual supply. Does sound like you need support though, is there a breastfeeding clinic near you or contact a lactation consultant or your midwife

Which shields are you using? Only mam size two work for us and since having them I've heard similarly from several others.
Pumping def doesn't always indicate supply. Have you tried all the usual - lots of skin to skin etc?

Meant to add, try pumping when your baby is there, ideally being cuddled skin to skin.

Keep pumping. Every 2 hours. It won’t have dried up especially as you got a fair bit yesterday!
What pump are you using?

Also boobs do go soft - don’t panic!

At 7 days your milk may not even be in properly yet, doesn't mean it won't come, plus as pp said pumping is not always an indication, I got sod all with pumping but was able to feed dd until she was 9 months just fine.

What was the birth like? Sometimes with a traumatic birth or c section supply can be affected.

Get support and good luck

Are you still trying to get your baby to latch on or have you given up with that now? Pumping was much harder for me than breastfeeding and I often didn't get much out even though there was clearly enough in there (as DC was EBF).

Recommend to phone ASAP the national breastfeeding network and have a professional give advice. They may be available at night just now. Otherwise La Leche phoneline I think should be.

If you expressed yesterday it’s probably not all gone already. Drink loads and loads of water, tea, any fluids, a few sips now and again is not enough, keep it nearby at all times and set reminders if you need to. That is the single biggest supply booster that no one seems to mention in my experience!

Agree that soft doesn’t necessarily mean nothing there, after being so full when milk comes in it does come as a surprise not to be firm.

Have you tried hand expressing? I found it hard getting anything out with a pump to start with and hand expressing much easier. My wee girl didn’t latch for 10 weeks and had to use a nipple shield, I used Medela.

Thanks all.

I do skin to skin. I did it a couple of days ago and got loads of milk but this morning nothing

I’ve tried two manual pumps although they are cheap ones.

I did have some milk come out today but was literally the tiniest amount as I was trying to get DD to latch again this morning. She stayed on for like 2 minutes on and off.

Whoops posted too soon! I’ll give le leche a call today.

I found a breastfeeding support group in my town which meets up on Tuesday so I’ll see if I can go to that. Assuming my supply doesn’t dry up by then

Fingers crossed OP. In the meantime I'd do loads of skin to skin and just keep trying to latch. I don't know how much of a difference it made but I had lots of oats and breastfeeding tea

When are you pumping? I was told the most important pump time was around 3am. Increase th3 demand of milk from the breast then the breast will make more. More pumping session maybe for longer duration can help. It did for me, I however did find pumping more draining than breastfeeding.

How long should I be pumping for?

I pumped at midn

Whoops!

How long should I be pumping for?

I pump at midnight but I can do it at 3am. My aim is to do it every two hours today. I will also be hand expressing.

If you look on Kellymom they also talk about power pumping to increase supply

You need a good electrical pump.
I aim to pump for 25-30 mins but sometimes just do 15 mins.
Definetly have a look at power pumping.
Breast compressions whilst you’re expressing too.

Good luck all is not lost.

(I’m exclusively pumping by the way so a bit of a pro at it!)

And yes prolactin highest from 1-5am so try and pump then

Thanks again everyone!

Is there a good electrical pump that isn’t expensive?

I’m also worried DD prefers formula to breast milk I did manage to get to to take the boob for like a minute or some (still don’t think I did it right) but she guzzled down her formula.

The Ardo Calypso is meant to be a good one and is reasonably priced on Amazon.

She won’t be preferring formula it’s just hard work for them on the boob!

They will always guzzle formula, it's a reflex and they don't have to work hard to get it. So please don't worry about that as a sign. My little boy guzzled formula in the hospital when we had feeding difficulties - then vomited most of it back up!

Thanks everyone!

I’ve been able to express more over the past few days and although it’s not a huge amount it’s something. I spoke to an amazing woman at La Leche who sent some information and I’m going to a breast feeding support group on Tuesday so I’m hoping they can help her latch.

Thanks again all!

So glad you are still managing to express. Well done!

Still not having much luck getting DD to latch although I’ve managed to get some expressed milk into her.

I’m half tempted to give up and just express constantly and give her a mix of formula and breast milk

Make sure you are drinking enough. My baby was very ill and needed to be admitted. When I tried to express, nothing came out and I was so disappointed. The evening nurses, (very old school) were so patient and kind gave me a glass of milk, then encouraged me to drink lots of water and to eat well. It was turned around they thought that for me, dehydration had been a factor so don't neglect yourself. x

Have you thought about going to Boots and trying out other nipple shields.

Having been in a similar situation re latch and come out the other end 10 weeks later, if you are inclined at all to persevere I would really encourage you to keep at it, some babies just take a bit longer to figure it all out.

I was using nipple shields plus expressed bm (to top up in evening when my supply dipped). Was worried my supply would dip further if I supplemented so was just nipple shields/ ebm. Got so tired of trying to put baby on to latch because she never seemed to get the hang of it so I stopped bothering. Then when she was about 10 weeks old, after a nipple shield assisted feed when she wasn’t super hungry, someone I was with suggested I try again so I took off shield and bam she latched. Simple as that...

and suddenly all the past 2+months fiddling about with washing up & sterilising equipment & carrying bottles everywhere & warming up etc was behind us, and could ‘plug baby in’ for a feed immediately at any time.

If it wasn’t for that person telling me to try again I wouldn’t have bothered,, thought it was a lost cause. And I’d still be faffing about with all the faff of bottles now.

Anyway so just to say I hear you, it is such a huge effort, and it is so tempting to give up! If you have any inclination to keep trying, try once or twice a week, it might just be that your baby will get the hang of it eventually.

It’s still not going great

She’s 17 days old now and I really feel like we are running out of time.

She latched on today twice for a minute at a time, one with nipple shields, one without but that was earlier in the day and I’ve had no luck since.

Also tried expressing more and still not getting enough out. She’s so greedy and drinks so much formula I don’t see how I’ll ever make up enough of a supply I also don’t have enough time to express and DH has been as much use as a fucking chocolate teapot today.

I’m heartbroken that I can’t do this