Milk supply dropping

Start drinking the tea again, three cups a day, keep pumping intermittently during the day. It would definitely help if you could get baby to latch as well. I understand he’s on a special formula but that’ll stimulate the milk ducts. Also from my own experience, if you’re pumping for ages and not much is coming out then stop, it’s so mentally draining and hurts when you don’t see much happening. Give yourself a break and go back to it a bit later. Good luck 🤞🏼

@Sarah thank you! He struggling to latch he only latched for a little while because how early he was born now he’s used to the bottle and refuses to latch 😭

Skin to skin 🫶🏼

Oxytocin! Like it says above, skin to skin, massaging breasts, thinking of baby being cute, cuddling, relaxing while pumping, drinking plenty of water and eating plenty of protein… i hope it works out! Good luck

My midwife told me to pump between 2 and 4 am It helped to stimulate my breast and my milk supply became good.

Have your periods come back?

@Susan yeah I pump at this time every night don’t know what happened 😢

@Reena not yet x

@Nikki you’re doing amazing! Could be worth trying to find a local breastfeeding group just to get face to face support if you want to try to get him to latch again. I’ve found hand expressing can get a lot more than a pump but not sure if that’s the same for everyone 🤷‍♀️ Lots of skin to skin, quiet time with baby, or you can have a bath with him if you can to help you relax x

@Rachel thank you! I worked so hard to get it back up now it just dropped again 😭xx

Pumping isn't an accurate representation of your milk supply! Nothing works better then a childs latch if possible

@Suzanne he was born at 32 weeks so it was hard for him to latch he has been on but he’s not putting enough weight on with my milk so he’s on special milk so it’s fed through a bottle, I was devastated when they said he can’t feed off me

I’ve been power pumping, drinking my tea and drinking coconut water with pineapple and it’s slowly increasing with each pump!! X

@Nikki you’re doing all the right things. Could also be worth looking at open cup feeding if that could be an option, it is much more similar action to breast feeding and reduces risk of bottle preference. Takes practice but can be done from birth xx

Congratulations on your little one, i feel like i was in a very similar position to you as my first was a 32 weeker and I also had to pump as he found it hard to latch. I had certain times my milk supply reduced but found it to be around my period as they came back pretty quickly. What I did find helped was taking fenugreek capsules and eating porridge oats for breakfast everyday. I hope you are okay as i understand the pumping is quite intense. I managed 10 months in the end but couldn't do it anymore as i found it hard going. Also had quite a set routine with it 6 times a day at certain times of the day. Eventually managed to stop the night pump when he stopped his night feed. As hard as it is stress will also reduce so maybe try come back to it x

@Grace thank you so much for your advice! My first born was born at 36 weeks and I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing with my 32 weeker and she’s only 15 month🙈😂 I’m currently eating porridge in the in the morning, drinking camomile tea and drinking coconut water I’m hoping it comes back soon because when it came back the last time it two weeks of power pumping and lots of tears and stress lol I’ll have a look into they capsules! Thank you again x