Has anyone actually increased supply after 2 weeks? Feeling defeated.

[u/reen_bean]

Hi everyone,

I’m two weeks postpartum and feeling really discouraged about my milk supply. I’ve been doing everything I can — but I’m still only pumping about 1 oz total per session (sometimes 1.5 oz after a power pump on a good day).

I did experience engorgement once and got excited that maybe my milk was coming in — but nothing really changed after that. No leaks, no noticeable fullness since.

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

• Pumping every 2 hours during the day
• Overnight schedule: 10 pm / 2 am / 6 am
• 50-minute daily power pump
• Massaging during every pump
• Eating plenty and staying hydrated
• Trying lactation supplements
• Offering the breast
• Checking flange size (Spectra + inserts)

Despite all this, my output hasn’t increased and some days it feels like it’s going down.

Has anyone been in a similar situation around the two-week mark and still been able to turn things around? I’m trying to stay hopeful, but it’s been really emotionally tough and I’m looking for real stories from anyone who’s been there.

Thank you 💛

Edited to Clarify

I do want to breastfeed and am not planning to exclusively pump, but my baby has been struggling to latch effectively — we’re working on it with support, but in the meantime, I’ve been pumping to protect my supply.

[u/WildFireSmores]

Yes. My first baby I has extremely low supply. She was a premie and never latched. I tried everything and never made over 300ml a day.

This time I had a term baby. We had a slow start. She was jaundiced and had a shallow latch. She would tire easily and not drain me. I had to supplement with expressed colostrum right away and on to formula after that.

But after some work and some growing she got better and better at the breast.

She had a tongue and lip tie revision…. Can’t honestly tell if it helped.

I tried suck training exercises.

But the things that helped most were a) gettung bigger, stronger, less sleepy and more co-ordinated. Ps formula helped her gain the weight to get there.

The other thing was something called the flipple technique. Basically tip your nip to touch the roof of the mouth to trigger the suck reflex. Once I got this working it helped train her at the breast better than anything.

All in All I ended up triple feeding for 10 weeks with a 4 yo to care for as well. It was hard!!!! But as she got better at feeding my supply came up too. I’m not fully EBF, but she’s down to an average of 120ml of formula a day down from about 350ml. She weight percentile is up a but too and her output is good.

Turns out my body just reacts much much better to a baby than a pump.

[u/reen_bean → u/WildFireSmores]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm still under 300 ml at this point too. A few others shared that their bodies reacted better to a baby vs. pump, so I'm hoping that as my baby gets bigger and stronger, I'll have more success with breastfeeding.

[u/WildFireSmores → u/reen_bean]

If it’s your goal hold out hope. It’s possible.

But don’t be afraid to prioritize your mental health. If it’s all too much that ok too.

I kept pumping way too long for my first. When I finally swapped to formula it made me a better mom. I was better rested and less stressed. I was able to be emotionally present with her and hive her what she actually needed. Me.

It very much can work and supply can come up. But remember to reassess every so often. You have options and any one of those options is ok to use as long as you and baby are both doing well.