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?

[Celebelly]

Handsfree pumping bra! It's a game changer. That and a double pump mean you can be done in 15 mins and you're still able to hold your baby to comfort them or even bottle feed!

[Iwrotethissongfor]

What’s your real life support been like? Do you know you can hire a lactation consultant? Depending on area it’s just over £100 and spend the whole day at your house observing you and baby’s problem areas and giving lots of practical advice and support. It was £120 in my area including follow up support over phone and email. They usually come out the next day or two after you make contact as they know your baby’s food source is a majorly important and urgent thing to sort. Mentally, it’s a real lift too.

[iamsuchatit]

@Celebelly - that’s reassuring to hear. I had thought I would probably need to go down that route.

Can I just ask how do you fit in the expressing with a newborn? Mine doesn’t want to sleep...

[Celebelly]

Also while expressing is a bit time consuming, I don't think it's much more so than breastfeeding in those early weeks. You need to feed 8-12 times when breastfeeding anyway, and feeds can often take a long time
due to cluster feeding. The ladies in my antenatal group are sometimes feeding for 4+ hours of an evening in these early weeks, so if you have time to breastfeed then you have time to pump right now.

[Celebelly]

It's tough. My little one is five weeks now but was unable to latch for first two to three weeks. She can latch now but it's not a very good one and causes me a lot of pain so we tend to only do one breastfeed a day and that's mostly where she comfort sucks.


I've pumped exclusively therefore since we left hospital. It's hard work - I pump every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-4 or 4-5 overnight, depending on her sleep, and I just about keep up with demand. We maybe supplement with 100ml formula every few days.

If you want her to have breast milk but latching is an issue then I'd recommend starting a pumping schedule. You'll need to do it often while supply is being established and you might not get much to start, but boobs work on supply and demand so the more you pump then the more milk they'll start to produce. You can power pump too, which mimics cluster feeding.

There's websites about pumping that might help. But I won't lie, it's hard work (although there are good points too in that DP can feed get expressed milk at any time and that helps me get longer periods of sleep) but if you really want to feed breast milk then it might be worth looking into. You can rent hospital
grade pumps too, which are much more efficient at getting milk out.

[iamsuchatit]

@BunloafAndCrumpets - no one has checked for tounge tie. My issue is more flat nipples but other people have managed with that so it’s clearky just me that’s the failure there. I just don’t like having the choice taken from me also wherever I go for help all I see is “breast is best” which just feels like even more of a kick in the balls.

I really want to mix feed since I don’t see exclusive breast feeding being an option but I’m expressing but unable to do the 8-12 times a day that is suggested.

Thanks @BunloafAndCrumpets but I don’t feel amazing. Just fed and changed DD and I got really frustrated with her so I’m feeling super shit tonight.

[BunloafAndCrumpets]

Oh OP I hear you. I had the same sadness when I struggled to feed my first baby. She had tongue tie (have you had your baby checked?) and could only latch on for a couple of sucks before popping off again. We had the tongue tie cut but it still didn't really work. I was heartbroken too but with the benefit of hindsight I'm ok about it now.

Here is what helped me and what I told myself with her and then going in to feeding my second baby

-she had the colostrum which is the really important stuff
-you can spend loads of time cuddling and bonding while trying to get feeding to work. It's not just the milk actually going in which is beneficial. The closeness is too
-we are so lucky to have formula and clean water and it's absolutely perfectly ok to use formula for any reason at all

• I mix fed both babies for five months. By the end with my daughter she was barely getting a drop from me I don't think but she was still happy to try and have a cuddle in bed

-it is so much better to have a happy mum than to have one sending herself doolally (am referring to me here not you!) stressing about feeding and waking self at all hours to pump

Practical tips:
-You can keep breast pump parts in a clean bag in the fridge and then they only need washing and sterilising every 24h (lifesaver for me!)
-if you're formula feeding a lot get a perfect prep, it will save time making bottles and you need all the time you can get when pumping and feeding!

Lastly: you are amazing. Most people don't have to try this hard to get breast milk into their babies. Especially given that your DH isn't helpful with it. You're doing a great job. It's ok to stop at any point if you feel overwhelmed. Wishing you all the best.

[iamsuchatit]

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

[ForumGirl]

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.

[puttingmytwopennethworthin]

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

[Iamsuchatit]

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

[ForumGirl]

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

[iamsuchatit]

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!

[FrowningFlamingo]

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!

[RogueV]

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!

[iamsuchatit]

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.

[RogueV]

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

[RogueV]

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!)

[SnuggyBuggy]

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

[iamsuchatit]

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.

[iamsuchatit]

How long should I be pumping for?

I pumped at midn

[Earthmoon]

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.

[SnuggyBuggy]

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

[iamsuchatit]

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