Increasing supply for 8mo DS?

[Alieight]

I've been back at work full-time for two months now, expressing milk while I'm at work for 8mo DS. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed a distinct drop in the amount I am able to express. I realise this is probably because the pump isn't as efficient as DS, but is there any way I can get my supply up again? I'm really struggling to produce enough for him - he's a little milk monster and solids are going fairly slowly.

I currently pump 3 times at work, and usually once just before bed as well, as well as pumping 2-3 times a day at weekends. DS feeds directly first thing in the morning, as soon as we get home from nursery, before bed and usually once during the night. At nursery he currently has 3 9oz bottles (started at 6oz and have been going up as he guzzles the lot), and having to produce 27oz in a day seems to be beyond me!I'm currently managing to express 15 - 20oz in a working day, and I make the rest up at weekends.

I'm not sure he really needs that much milk at nursery - it seems an awful lot, but he gets very upset if he doesn't have enough.

So any suggestions? Would taking supplements like fenugreek help at this point? I really don't want to give him formula if I don't have to.

Are you pumping as efficiently as you can ? Double pumping, breast compressions, and then hand expressing at the end ?

That does sound like a huge amount of EBM though - DS was having 3 x 4oz at nursery. Are you using a very slow flow teat ? It could be that as they are used to FF babies who would be having big bottles, and he finds it easy to glug it down he is overfeedng a bit

Thanks for the reply . Yes, I'm double pumping, breast compressions and hand expressing at the end. When I hand express, there's plenty more milk there, I'm just really crap at hand expressing - it takes too long and I find it hurts more than a pump.

We're using a newborn teat still. When he started at nursery he had a faster flowing teat, but I changed it back to a newborn one after about 2 weeks as he started getting incredibly frustrated at the breast. It takes him a pretty long time to drink his bottles at nursery, but then he's always been a leisurely feeder on the boob as well - a feed is usually a minimum of 30minutes, and can be over a hour and a half sometimes.

Kind of wish my boobs had a gauge on them to see how much he has from them at weekends...