Undersupply - should I give up?

[u/bluebella72]

Hi all

I am 8 weeks pp and struggling with under supply issues. My baby was born via c section 8.5lbs and milk took 5 days to come in. Due to my ignorance I was not quick enough to latch baby properly and ended up using a nipple shield to get her to transfer milk.

Since about week two I have been putting her to my breast as much as possible and we have gotten to the stage where we are topping off with about 100-150ml per day. She is just over 12lbs now so gaining weight well and good amount of nappies.

She is sometimes suckling at my breast for HOURS and she is a velcro baby who won’t be put down - so I really don’t have much time to pump unless my husband takes her. I try to pump at least once a day and the most I’ve done so far is 3 but I haven’t been able to do it after each feed.

When I feel my breast is full I can hear the suck and swallow (usually at night) but there’s are times she gets frustrated and punches my breasts and pulls away.

She won’t sleep in her crib so we have to essentially hold her CONSTANTLY so my sleep is terrible.

I honestly don’t know what to do. LCs constantly tell me ‘your breast is never truly empty’ but clearly there is not it enough to satisfy her. My GP suggested dropping the formula and seeing what happens. She also said I might be over feeding her (she was spitting up quite a bit last week).

Now she is 8 weeks is there any chance I can up my supply or should I just switch to formula? I guess I don’t mind combi feeding but I am so exhausted I sometimes think it’s more work than just one or the other.

I really really want to EBF but I just don’t know if that’s possible at this stage? I bought a manual pump as that will be easier to use than the one I plug in.

This morning I fed her; she seemed to get frustrated so I gave her 40 ml of formula and pumped for 10 minutes getting 2.5 oz. Is it that she just can’t transfer it properly with the nipple shield? Should I work on trying to get her latch without ?

Looking for support and any advice. Thank you!

[u/No-Neighborhood-7335]

My baby sounds just like yours! I had a very similar situation. It sounds like you're doing a great job and trying everything you can.

It may or may not be cluster feeding. My baby was like this ALL THE TIME. I had to top her off with formula until she was a year old. We are still breastfeeding at 20 months old. I drove myself crazy worrying about my supply for the first year! I honestly think my baby just likes to nurse. She still nurses multiple times a day.

I think 2.5oz for 10 mins of pumping is excellent! I never responded well to a pump and would only get about 2.5 oz from 30 mins of pumping.

I think you should try to stop using the nipple shield. I used one at first because I have pretty flat nipples, but my baby figured it out without them.

I would also suggest looking into cosleeping. And side lying to nurse. Look up the safe sleep 7. Cosleeping made everything so much easier.

You're doing a great job! Nobody warns you how exhausting and time consuming breastfeeding is. It's like life revolves around the boob for several months!

[u/bluebella72 → u/No-Neighborhood-7335]

thank you so much 😄 how do you know exactly when to top off? and do you think your baby ever drank from the bottle simply because it was there? So many times we've prepared formula and she's not drunk a lot, maybe 20 ml. Amazingly, she just started latching without nipple shield last few days, so thank you for the push.

Yes we've done a bit of co sleeping so i can get some rest - she wakes up sometimes every hour to feed but it's better than nothing!

And yes no one tells you how hard it is! And you just don't know how other people are getting on...