not producing enough milk for breast feeding

[newton]

I have a 13wk DS, who is 14lbs15oz. He was very big born and continues to grow well. But in last week has become fractious during feeds and also bringing back milk after feeds. (Which he is not done before). I have recently tried expressing milk and only getting 3oz so thinking I no longer have enough milk, or it is drying up. Is that possible? How can I stimulate more milk and I am currently in a billiant routine similar to Gina Ford, but to suit us. He previously slept 7pm till 7 am and is now waking at 6am. Should he sleep that long and should I wake for 10pm feed??? Please help x

Firstly, expressing is not really reliable as a way to see how much milk you are actually producing - the action of a baby's jaw/tongue is far more effective.

I'd also say he sleeps a long time at night without feeding, and night feeds are important for keeping up supply at this age, so waking him for 10pm feed will almost certainly help. As he grows, his need for milk will grow too, so your supply will have to increase to meet his needs.

If he is growing well, having plenty of wet/dirty nappies and is alert and active, then you can safely assume you have enough milk for him!

to make more milk you just feed more often. gina ford type routines don't often help breastfeeding go well.

expressing doesn't show how much milk your baby is getting, it just shows how much your equipment can get out of you.

your baby will change how often he wants to feed as he goes through growth spurts, has illnesses, teeths and so on. you have to go with the flow, so a strict routine often hampers this.

The amount of milk you can express bears no relation to the amount of milk you are producing or your baby is taking, so don't worry on that score.

You can stimulate more milk by feeding more, which will probably mean forgetting any thoughts of a routine for now - just feed when he needs feeding for a while rather than trying to do a routine just at the moment.

It's fine for him to sleep so long; if he is hungry and needs a feed he will wake for one.

if he is suddenyl fractious during feeds and waking for food more, hes having a growth spurt. wait it out and he'll be through it in a week or so.
expressing is totally different to real feeding, hes getting loads more than you think.
bf'ing is optimum. optimum amount, with exactly what he needs when he needs it. if hes hot, youll make more watery milk, if hes extra hungry, youll make it creamier. tis v clever.
trust your body to do what its designed for.

I was told by a midwife that a feed between 10pm and 2am is important for stimulating your supply for the next day. Can anyone confirm?

Crypto, night feeds are important and may be crucial to some women's bf....I would be surprised if the 'window' was as precise as between 10 pm and 2 am though, but maybe there is some research on this that she has read.

thanks for all your comments and advice, I guess I will wait it out, but still not sure if I should be waking him for 10pm feed. Obviously did this when new born but he was soooooo difficult to wake when asleep it was taking an hour ++ so I gave up with it. Should i try again?

personally im a path of least resistance woman myself. if he dont wanna wake up, i wouldnt wake him. id just feed him as and when he wants it or your boobs are bursting during the day and thank my lucky stars he was sleeping at night!

that was my thought really, I don't want to get him into the habit of waking when he is already good at going to sleep and settling himself. As he has woken in the night previously it makes me think along the same lines, if he was hungry he would wake!!

could you try a dream feed? He may well latch on even though he is asleep.

ooh id maybe try a dream feed. if only coz im nosy curious as this dreamfeed concept is something ive only heard of on here....

will try it and let you know how it goes!

Newton, sometimes you can catch your baby at the top of sleep cycle, when they come out of deep sleep into a lighter bit, sometimes they stir, wake a little, and then go back to sleep (that's the theory anyway, sometimes they don't but that's another story). Anyway, there's no way a baby will feed when they're deeply asleep, but they might if you try feeding when they get into the 'nearly awake' part. So if you hear DS mumbling around the time you're heading to bed yourself you could try a dreamfeed then, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.
There's a growth spurt at about three months, and another at four (oh joy), so you'll have quite a lot of unsettlement around now. The fractious during feeds thing - is she bobbing on and off? Starting to feed and then pulling away? You could try swapping over to the other side - I don't know why but in my antenatal group we had a spate of babies doing this around 13 weeks, and this solution was discovered by one of the mums - it worked for most of us.

sorry, he, not she.

I feed my ds (21 wks) before I go to bed every night but he never wakes up. Just lie down next to him and he barely stirs except to open his mouth and root around for a boob (very sweet and quite funny ).

Another thought - have noticed that ds tends to bring milk back when he's overtired.

have tried the dream feeds.... they work. Must be catching him as he stirs a little and I just sit with him, he turns his head latches on and we are good for 15 mins. Then back to bed no problems. His feeds have settled a bit but few days after problems started I developed "man flu". Anyway things are much calmer, for the minute anyway. So thanks for all the advice.