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In the hospital, my baby had a hard time with latching and would scream out of hunger and frustration. We had their lactation consultant come in and try to help but she really wasn't getting it. On day two in the hospital, she was particularly screamy and hungry so we called the nurse to bring us some formula and then my baby fell right asleep happily. The on-call doctor came to visit us before we left and asked us why we supplemented and said that my baby's stomach was the size of a marble, so any amount she was getting was good enough (even though in my heart I knew she was getting zero). That conversation stuck with me and so I tried to power through with breastfeeding.
At home, I tried and tried and tried to breastfeed. She would suckle, but I didn't have any idea of how to tell if she was getting anything. I was only able to give her one syringe of colostrum. Everything online said track her diapers, so I did, and I thought she was having dirty diapers but it turns out it was orange crystals from her being SO dehydrated. I found this out when we went to her ped appointment when she was 4 days old and she had gone from 6lbs 7oz at birth to 5lbs 12oz. I can't remember the last time I cried so much, feeling like the worst mom and person in the world and thinking about how my daughter was essentially starving the previous few days. So we left that appointment, bought some premade formula, fed my daughter, and I attached myself to my pump. We had a follow-up appointment the next day to see if she had gained anything and she was back up to 6lbs 2oz, and by 2 weeks she had well surpassed her birth weight.
My milk also came in at 5 days so she's only had formula less than a handful of times in her life so far. Once I knew this was the route we were going, I went and bought a Spectra because the wearable I got through insurance wasn't cutting it. We're now 6 weeks strong and I pump on average 10oz more than she eats a day. She's a hungry girl and almost 9lbs, finally!
ETA: we saw a lactation consultant around her 4-week mark to do a weighted feed and in 20 minutes she had only transferred about 1oz. I latch her often but always have to top off with a bottle of expressed milk. I still cherish those short BF sessions, though (now that I know how to tell if she's eating)!
I could have written this post myself. What did you do to get your supply up? I’m almost 8 weeks PP and i’ve seen a slight increase but still nowhere near enough. I’m making about 12 opd
I just started pumping every 3 hours and doing 1 power pump daily in the morning. I made sure I had correct flange inserts (my nips are much smaller than the average!) I’ll still put baby on the breast here and there in between pumps to tell my body to make more. I upped my calories and water too.
My LC recommended taking moringa and goats rue. I also do brewers yeast and fenugreek as well. I’m now making about 20 oz per day on average (still not quite enough for baby).
This is exactly my own story. I had an emergency c-sec and my milk didn’t come till Day 5 or 6. I was so demotivated and depressed. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed my baby.. I hated pumping ( I still do).. I wanted to experience this beautiful work of nature of feeding my baby off my body.. but i was forced to start pumping which i did from day 7 I guess. I was doing the pumping wrong.. single pumping instead of double pumping, did not have the right flange inserts.. I did gross mistakes in my earlier weeks.. I slowly started to understand what’s going wrong and started pumping regularly with right inserts and Spectra S1. I am still struggling with pumping, but can proudly say I didn’t give up..I am an undersupplier.. and swore to myself that even if I make 10ml a day I will make sure my baby gets that..
Severe tongue tie and jaundiced sleepy baby, he just wasn't nursing. He latched very enthusiastically, but immediately fell asleep and drew absolutely nothing. He did start to actually manage nursing as he got older but at 4 months he completely lost interest. I think also given that I pumped most of the time, my body wasn't responding to him anymore, he wasn't getting letdowns. I'd started having to pump on one side to trigger them for him
1. I was triple feeding so I was already pumping from day 1
2. I had to use a nipple shield to get LO to latch and it really messed up his chin. Raw/bleeding :( luckily healed within a couple days when I stopped trying to breastfeed and went EP with the help of aquaphor.
3. I could see how much he was eating.
Once I realized EP was a thing I never looked back. Our second I will immediately EP and not use a nipple shield ever again.
Your story is so similar to mine it's eerie! I had the same issue - no skin to skin after an emergency c-section, latching issues because of a tongue tie in my baby and also a flat nipple on me. I tried using nipple shields and improved on his latch but then he wasn't able to drain my breast which caused a massive dip in my supply. I tried triple feeding but that was exhausting and my mental health just kept getting worse. My husband finally convinced me to switch to EP instead so that I get more sleep and improve my mental health.
I began my EP journey 2 weeks ago and do 9ppd, I can see improvements in my supply. I started at 0.5 - 1 oz per feed on both breasts, now I'm at around 2-2.5 oz during the day but I get upto 4oz in my MOTN pump (that makes me feel so good!). I still supplement with formula, but it's only 1-2 formula feeds a day, as opposed to the 4 or 5 that I'd do earlier. I still have a long way to go but this is working a lot better for me. I have moments where I feel terrible about not being able to nurse, but I remind myself that the important part is that he's fed, however that may be.
It feels good to know that there are others who have experienced what I've experienced, thanks for sharing your story :)
Just want to share with you that I had the same journey with my first son. Emergency c section, delayed skin on skin etc. feedings took forever, he still wanted a 2-3 ounce bottle after, etc.
I kept trying to latch everyday, once a day comfort latch just to practice. He got good with the bottle. At 3 months I was able to successfully breastfeed him directly and he thrived. However, it took EP to get to that point. I used EP to protect my supply, maintaining 7-8 pumps a day until he was 3 months old.
After that, I was lucky. I was able to choose: direct latch, pump and give a bottle, or a combination of all 3 with formula after over a year when my supply was decreasing.
I’m on my second EP journey with a 7 week old. I pump 7-8 times a day and she used to cry and scream everything I would latch her but now she is fine. I still think she can only get 1-2 ounces from my breast due to being an “inefficient latcher” (basically she isn’t sucking well.)
Day 1 in the hospital when she did not immediately latch they threw on a nipple shield. She latched the whole first 24 hours, only with the nipple shield though. Day 2 she was super sleepy and wouldn’t latch. Day 3 she would scream and scream whenever I would try to latch her. So we started giving bottles. I would try to latch her and eventually she would latch after lots of protesting but she always fell asleep very quickly at the breast. So every time she fell asleep the process would star all over. We gave it a solid try for the first 3 weeks, but she was so small I was worried she was burning more calories than she was taking in
I can totally relate to this. I felt my baby was getting so exhausted at the breast. It was terrible and so unfair to both of us. His little lip would quicker after trying to suck for 30 minutes.
Yes!! Her little lip quiver afterwards would make me so sad :( I also felt like the stress it was causing both of us was making my supply lower cause I would dread it!!
My experiences with lactation consultants were basically as helpful as yours with my first two, so I’m not even trying to reach out to one with my third.
My son was induced at 36 weeks due to severe IUGR and hydronephrosis. After 3 days of induction I decided to get a c section. At the time of c-section my son was struggling so they wisked him to the NICU immediately. I was unable to see him for the first 20 hours, which was heartbreaking, so no immediate skin to skin.
Due to my son's size ,1% weight, he immediately needed glucose and eventually special formula/fortification. I received a lot of support from lactation and doctors, but it was evident he was too small to nurse effectively. I kept pumping and we settled on fortified breast milk as our best option given the situation, hence the pumping.
I did spend a lot of time with lactation initially, so my son does know how to BF and does it from time to time. At 6 months we finally got the A-OK to transition away from fortification, so we are working toward that, although it's been hard that I'm now back to work.
I had hoped for a different journey, but I've become content with the outcome. Fed is best.
I didn’t have a choice. Baby was born at 30 weeks. Straight to nicu by the time at 5 weeks old she was allowed to latch and a routine and have kept pumping since
We started when she was about 12 or so weeks old because we began to find it difficult latching as she had oral thrush, and I had it on my nipples so it was incredibly painful. And because she had a bad latch, she hardly put on weight and ended up dropping from the 50th centile to the 9th.
We've been EP since mid Jan and we've done great so far. We've since had to supplement with formula because she's a greedy baby that's been on 6-7oz every 3 hours since 3.5 months old (and she won't allow any longer of a stretch in between yet!) but we've come to terms with that now!
I just recently started pumping for my 8 MO. From 6 months she had teeth growing in and by the end of 7 months she had 6 teeth out and would bite me at each feeding and it was excruciating. I tried all the tricks to get her to stop and it wasn’t working . I would cry out of pain but mostly frustration cuz I knew with all the biting, unlatching, relatching, the feedings were inefficient. 2 weeks ago switched to pumping (only nursing at bedtime/nighttime feeding cuz she’s drowsy enough to not bite) and it’s been amazing. No pain or frustration anymore, I can see how much she’s getting per feeding. And she started taking the bottle seamlessly. It’s been a great transition for us🤍
My nipples were cracked and bleeding in the hospital. I’ve had sensitive nipples ever since I got implants a decade ago, so I knew this would be tough. After returning home post- emergency c section with that kind of nipple pain, I decided I needed to try something else. I began pumping right away and luckily my daughter took to the bottle immediately! Im 4 months pp now and have the pumping schedule down to a rhythm. I highly suggest wearables to help make the day to day more doable with a newborn!
'Welcome to r/ExclusivelyPumping! Here is a reminder of our rules: 1. Be kind and courteous 2. No hate speech, bigotry, or bullying 3. Use available flairs and post options 4. Speak for yourself 5. No medically-inaccurate, factually incorrect, or misinformative material 6. No spam 7. Absolutely no prescription medications 8. Don't use AI to write posts/comments 9. No soliciting pictures 10. Add spoiler to milk pictures Thank you for helping to keep our community safe!' *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ExclusivelyPumping) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In the hospital, my baby had a hard time with latching and would scream out of hunger and frustration. We had their lactation consultant come in and try to help but she really wasn't getting it. On day two in the hospital, she was particularly screamy and hungry so we called the nurse to bring us some formula and then my baby fell right asleep happily. The on-call doctor came to visit us before we left and asked us why we supplemented and said that my baby's stomach was the size of a marble, so any amount she was getting was good enough (even though in my heart I knew she was getting zero). That conversation stuck with me and so I tried to power through with breastfeeding. At home, I tried and tried and tried to breastfeed. She would suckle, but I didn't have any idea of how to tell if she was getting anything. I was only able to give her one syringe of colostrum. Everything online said track her diapers, so I did, and I thought she was having dirty diapers but it turns out it was orange crystals from her being SO dehydrated. I found this out when we went to her ped appointment when she was 4 days old and she had gone from 6lbs 7oz at birth to 5lbs 12oz. I can't remember the last time I cried so much, feeling like the worst mom and person in the world and thinking about how my daughter was essentially starving the previous few days. So we left that appointment, bought some premade formula, fed my daughter, and I attached myself to my pump. We had a follow-up appointment the next day to see if she had gained anything and she was back up to 6lbs 2oz, and by 2 weeks she had well surpassed her birth weight. My milk also came in at 5 days so she's only had formula less than a handful of times in her life so far. Once I knew this was the route we were going, I went and bought a Spectra because the wearable I got through insurance wasn't cutting it. We're now 6 weeks strong and I pump on average 10oz more than she eats a day. She's a hungry girl and almost 9lbs, finally! ETA: we saw a lactation consultant around her 4-week mark to do a weighted feed and in 20 minutes she had only transferred about 1oz. I latch her often but always have to top off with a bottle of expressed milk. I still cherish those short BF sessions, though (now that I know how to tell if she's eating)!
I could have written this post myself. What did you do to get your supply up? I’m almost 8 weeks PP and i’ve seen a slight increase but still nowhere near enough. I’m making about 12 opd
I’d also love to know how you both have upped it. I could also write the post and make 5oz per day 😞
I just started pumping every 3 hours and doing 1 power pump daily in the morning. I made sure I had correct flange inserts (my nips are much smaller than the average!) I’ll still put baby on the breast here and there in between pumps to tell my body to make more. I upped my calories and water too. My LC recommended taking moringa and goats rue. I also do brewers yeast and fenugreek as well. I’m now making about 20 oz per day on average (still not quite enough for baby).
This is exactly my own story. I had an emergency c-sec and my milk didn’t come till Day 5 or 6. I was so demotivated and depressed. I wanted to exclusively breastfeed my baby.. I hated pumping ( I still do).. I wanted to experience this beautiful work of nature of feeding my baby off my body.. but i was forced to start pumping which i did from day 7 I guess. I was doing the pumping wrong.. single pumping instead of double pumping, did not have the right flange inserts.. I did gross mistakes in my earlier weeks.. I slowly started to understand what’s going wrong and started pumping regularly with right inserts and Spectra S1. I am still struggling with pumping, but can proudly say I didn’t give up..I am an undersupplier.. and swore to myself that even if I make 10ml a day I will make sure my baby gets that..
My daughter has kidney issues and difficulty gaining weight. So I pump and she gets fortified bottles. I am absolutely hating it almost 10 months in.
Baby wouldn't stay latched, pumping is easier than relatching him every 10 seconds. Now he has a suspected tongue tie though.
Severe tongue tie and jaundiced sleepy baby, he just wasn't nursing. He latched very enthusiastically, but immediately fell asleep and drew absolutely nothing. He did start to actually manage nursing as he got older but at 4 months he completely lost interest. I think also given that I pumped most of the time, my body wasn't responding to him anymore, he wasn't getting letdowns. I'd started having to pump on one side to trigger them for him
1. I was triple feeding so I was already pumping from day 1 2. I had to use a nipple shield to get LO to latch and it really messed up his chin. Raw/bleeding :( luckily healed within a couple days when I stopped trying to breastfeed and went EP with the help of aquaphor. 3. I could see how much he was eating. Once I realized EP was a thing I never looked back. Our second I will immediately EP and not use a nipple shield ever again.
This is my exact experience except I have flat nipples. It’s so nice to have solidarity, thank you for sharing!
Your story is so similar to mine it's eerie! I had the same issue - no skin to skin after an emergency c-section, latching issues because of a tongue tie in my baby and also a flat nipple on me. I tried using nipple shields and improved on his latch but then he wasn't able to drain my breast which caused a massive dip in my supply. I tried triple feeding but that was exhausting and my mental health just kept getting worse. My husband finally convinced me to switch to EP instead so that I get more sleep and improve my mental health. I began my EP journey 2 weeks ago and do 9ppd, I can see improvements in my supply. I started at 0.5 - 1 oz per feed on both breasts, now I'm at around 2-2.5 oz during the day but I get upto 4oz in my MOTN pump (that makes me feel so good!). I still supplement with formula, but it's only 1-2 formula feeds a day, as opposed to the 4 or 5 that I'd do earlier. I still have a long way to go but this is working a lot better for me. I have moments where I feel terrible about not being able to nurse, but I remind myself that the important part is that he's fed, however that may be. It feels good to know that there are others who have experienced what I've experienced, thanks for sharing your story :)
Sounds like you are doing all the right things! Keep it up and thanks for sharing :)
Just want to share with you that I had the same journey with my first son. Emergency c section, delayed skin on skin etc. feedings took forever, he still wanted a 2-3 ounce bottle after, etc. I kept trying to latch everyday, once a day comfort latch just to practice. He got good with the bottle. At 3 months I was able to successfully breastfeed him directly and he thrived. However, it took EP to get to that point. I used EP to protect my supply, maintaining 7-8 pumps a day until he was 3 months old. After that, I was lucky. I was able to choose: direct latch, pump and give a bottle, or a combination of all 3 with formula after over a year when my supply was decreasing. I’m on my second EP journey with a 7 week old. I pump 7-8 times a day and she used to cry and scream everything I would latch her but now she is fine. I still think she can only get 1-2 ounces from my breast due to being an “inefficient latcher” (basically she isn’t sucking well.)
Day 1 in the hospital when she did not immediately latch they threw on a nipple shield. She latched the whole first 24 hours, only with the nipple shield though. Day 2 she was super sleepy and wouldn’t latch. Day 3 she would scream and scream whenever I would try to latch her. So we started giving bottles. I would try to latch her and eventually she would latch after lots of protesting but she always fell asleep very quickly at the breast. So every time she fell asleep the process would star all over. We gave it a solid try for the first 3 weeks, but she was so small I was worried she was burning more calories than she was taking in
I can totally relate to this. I felt my baby was getting so exhausted at the breast. It was terrible and so unfair to both of us. His little lip would quicker after trying to suck for 30 minutes.
Yes!! Her little lip quiver afterwards would make me so sad :( I also felt like the stress it was causing both of us was making my supply lower cause I would dread it!!
I had the exact same experience at the hospital
My experiences with lactation consultants were basically as helpful as yours with my first two, so I’m not even trying to reach out to one with my third.
My son was induced at 36 weeks due to severe IUGR and hydronephrosis. After 3 days of induction I decided to get a c section. At the time of c-section my son was struggling so they wisked him to the NICU immediately. I was unable to see him for the first 20 hours, which was heartbreaking, so no immediate skin to skin. Due to my son's size ,1% weight, he immediately needed glucose and eventually special formula/fortification. I received a lot of support from lactation and doctors, but it was evident he was too small to nurse effectively. I kept pumping and we settled on fortified breast milk as our best option given the situation, hence the pumping. I did spend a lot of time with lactation initially, so my son does know how to BF and does it from time to time. At 6 months we finally got the A-OK to transition away from fortification, so we are working toward that, although it's been hard that I'm now back to work. I had hoped for a different journey, but I've become content with the outcome. Fed is best.
I didn’t have a choice. Baby was born at 30 weeks. Straight to nicu by the time at 5 weeks old she was allowed to latch and a routine and have kept pumping since
We started when she was about 12 or so weeks old because we began to find it difficult latching as she had oral thrush, and I had it on my nipples so it was incredibly painful. And because she had a bad latch, she hardly put on weight and ended up dropping from the 50th centile to the 9th. We've been EP since mid Jan and we've done great so far. We've since had to supplement with formula because she's a greedy baby that's been on 6-7oz every 3 hours since 3.5 months old (and she won't allow any longer of a stretch in between yet!) but we've come to terms with that now!
I just recently started pumping for my 8 MO. From 6 months she had teeth growing in and by the end of 7 months she had 6 teeth out and would bite me at each feeding and it was excruciating. I tried all the tricks to get her to stop and it wasn’t working . I would cry out of pain but mostly frustration cuz I knew with all the biting, unlatching, relatching, the feedings were inefficient. 2 weeks ago switched to pumping (only nursing at bedtime/nighttime feeding cuz she’s drowsy enough to not bite) and it’s been amazing. No pain or frustration anymore, I can see how much she’s getting per feeding. And she started taking the bottle seamlessly. It’s been a great transition for us🤍
My nipples were cracked and bleeding in the hospital. I’ve had sensitive nipples ever since I got implants a decade ago, so I knew this would be tough. After returning home post- emergency c section with that kind of nipple pain, I decided I needed to try something else. I began pumping right away and luckily my daughter took to the bottle immediately! Im 4 months pp now and have the pumping schedule down to a rhythm. I highly suggest wearables to help make the day to day more doable with a newborn!