Not expressing any milk

[Mrsharper88]

Hi, I have a 8 week old who is breastfed. He has one bottle of formula every few days when my DP steps in go help.

I have a manual pump. The last time I pumped was when baby was a few days old because I was in pain. I was expressing at least 90ml in twenty minutes. I have tried expressing again for the first time today and it has taken me an hour to get under 60ml. My baby is a terrible sleeper and I am up quite literally all night with him. I am wondering if this is all a sign I am not producing milk efficiently enough for him?

There have been no concerns about his weight but I am really struggling with his sleep (as he doesn't sleep) so I feed constantly.

Anyone with any experience or understanding of this situation? Xx

I suspect you’re just not very efficient at pumping, or you aren’t getting a proper letdown with the manual pump. Babies are always better at making milk than a pump so I wouldn’t worry. Just make sure you’re drinking loads, eating well and keep feeding on demand. You’re likely making plenty for baby but your body doesn’t respond as well to the pump.

I was wondering why I expressed so much more so quickly when baby was just a few days old and now I'm struggling to get much despite using the same pump. Do you think that's normal?

Could you try and electric pump and pump more regularly ?

I think your breasts get used to the different types of suction. I could express loads in the first few weeks too. You could rent a hospital-grade pump if you really want to express? Although the occasional bottle of formula probably costs less than the price of hiring a pump. Plus baby WILL get better at sleeping for longer. It’s tough, but that’s why we need maternity leave!

OP this is completely normal and surprised other posters haven’t mentioned this. When your milk first comes in your body usually makes loads of it as it doesn’t know if you’ve got one baby or two, how much food it needs and when etc. In the first 6-8 weeks your breasts adjust to the amount of milk your baby is actually taking, so your supply reduces to that amount and it’s completely normal to be able to pump less unless you’ve been regularly pumping in addition to feeds (as this tricks your body into producing more). It has absolutely no correlation to your milk supply. I have never been able to pump more than a few mls as my baby is always with me and always feeding! (She’s 8 months now). As long as your baby is producing enough wet and dirty nappies there’s nothing to worry about. Sadly you can’t expect good sleep at 8 weeks!

Yes it's normal. You produce loads in the first few days and then it settles down. It's typical for a pumping session to yield 30-60ml from both sides combined. There are tricks to pumping so you can get more, but I never got the hang of these.

Hey OP. A lot of good advice here already. My 2 cents. Manual pumps aren't very good and you also need to have a clear few hours of baby not feeding to build up enough milk for a decent pump. For context, I have a 10 week old and an electric pump. If he has a full feed from 6-7 and sleeps, when I pump at 10, I get between 120 and 150mls. But if he wakes to snack at 8:30, I would probably only get 60/80ml at 10, if that makes sense.

Keep going. I found 8/9 weeks to be a real turning point and BF/expressing feels a lot easier this week. They get a little bigger, can take more milk on at a feed and last a little longer between feeds.

Finally, a bottle of formula here and there is/was a life saver for my sanity, so don't fret if you add one in here or there x

I had twins and loads of milk. I still couldn’t get very much pumping. The babies had no bother accessing it though.

My DS, who ate like a horse and was a big, fine boy never slept much either.

Go and see your HV for advice, if you are worried but it sounds normal to me.

I was bursting with milk when they were first born. It settles down as you go on.

One thing you shouldn't forget, Eat nutritious foods feed yourself so that you can be productive.

I couldn't pump more than a tiny dribble at the bottom of a bottle but made enough milk to turn DD into a ginormobaby. She fed all the time though.

I wondered if I was producing enough milk but very slowly so baby has to feed all the time. I am starting to think that I should stop breastfeeding. He struggles to stay awake for longer than 10minutes when I feed him, and then will want feeding all the time. I know this is normal for some babies but it is making me miserable as most nights I am not getting any sleep at all as he will only sleep when in my arms (I'm not exaggerating here, he wakes the moment he's put down) and I also have a toddler to care for. DP works away most weeks so he's rarely about to help during the night.
I wondered if I could try ffing for a few days to see if being fuller leads to better sleep at night but there's no way for me to trial this if I can't express milk efficiently to keep up my supply. Hiring a pump is too costly for us. So confused!xx

OP it’s completely normal. This is just how babies feed in the early days - nothing to do with your milk supply. Tiny babies have tiny tummies that need to be filled often. Have you tried feeding lying down? If you can do this for the night feeds you can doze while doing so and get a bit of a rest that way. You’ve done really well getting this far and the frequency of feeds should reduce over the next couple of weeks. A lot of people I know I introduced a bottle of formula before bed as they thought it would help their baby go longer. It didn’t, but it did mean that someone else could put the baby to bed so they could get a break. Is that an option?

I've tried feeding lying down but baby does not like it, he fusses and cries so I have to sit up. I try sleeping next to him but he won't sleep next to me, he will only sleep when held or in the sling. There is no putting him to bed as he won't go down in any bed/Moses basket/swing.
I know with my toddler his sleep only improved when he was on formula for all his feeds. When I saw how little I was pumping it made me wonder if baby is just never full so this is making sleep worse.
i am absolutely miserable from the lack of sleep, I am a being a terrible mum to my toddler as I'm short tempered. I have no energy to drive or even make it out the house as I am getting zero sleep and as the baby has got older it's got worse. I had PND when my toddler was newborn and I wanted it to be different this time but with so little sleep I am struggling again.

I suppose I was almost hoping that switching to ffing would be the magic fix to being able to get a couple of hours sleep without holding the baby. I'm not expecting to get a full nights sleep but just a couple of hours each night would be an improvement xx

You wouldn't lose your supply from a day of FF if that's what you'd like to do. Just express when you get engorged. In fact even if you decided to FF for a few days you could just express for the stimulation and then do a combination of BF/FF until your supply comes back up if you wanted to go back to it.

You have to prioritise your own mental health. Would it help to assign some feeds as FF, and BF when it's easier to do so?

It might be worth having him checked for any issues like tongue tie as well by someone who is qualified to check for it, just to see if there are milk transfer issues. But I'm afraid some babies are just very clingy.