Aa
It's not over yet ladies!
Now that (if I'm not mistaken) we've all had our babies, that does NOT mean the end of our forum. Now we have new things to talk about, baby sleeping through the first whole night, smiles, rolling, crawling...we can continue the journey of motherhood and share our experiences together. I'm hoping you all stick around, and I had planned to write this a while ago, but as you all know I'm sure, babies keep you busy!
i'm using the medela symphony. I was using it in the hospital too. They gave me a list of places to rent it. Works great. I took an old sports bra and cut holes in the front to feed through the pump pieces and that way I don't have to hold them down. I have the pump at my desk so i can so things on the PC while pumping. It's way less boring that way!
as pumps age their suction strength decreases....
the pump and style is a great pump for maintaining your supply, but you may want to look into renting a hospital grade pump for a month or 2. a friend went this route and it made a huge difference for her and let her build her supply (her baby has a cleft lip/palate and cannot nurse so she has to exclusively pump)
the pump and style is a great pump for maintaining your supply, but you may want to look into renting a hospital grade pump for a month or 2. a friend went this route and it made a huge difference for her and let her build her supply (her baby has a cleft lip/palate and cannot nurse so she has to exclusively pump)
what kind of pump are you using? you may have to go with the more powerful hospital rental pumps....
I have trouble keeping the nipple shields on as well. She won't latch to my breast so I have just been pumping, but so far I'm not really getting but a few drops everytime I squeeze, :( GRRR I need this to work!!!! lol.
Well the progress ghas halted again. She's back to screaming when I give her the breast :(
I also have an issue with flat nipples, sometimes it's not bad but most times it barley gets hard and then flattens in her mouth. The nipple shield is a real PAIN in the .. for me cuz my breasts are D's and even with water it won't hold down and it's a struggle.
The Dr gave me DomPeridone to try out and so far the milk supply is going up. still only at about 10-12 ounces a day but it's only been 3 days since i got them.
I donno some days I feel like i'm losing this battle with breastfeeding. Hopefully I can keep the milk up to a point that all I give her is breast milk and no need to give her formula. Even if it means pumping, i'd rather at least that alternative if I won't be able to BF.
I never knew breastfeeding would be such a challenge ~!
I also have an issue with flat nipples, sometimes it's not bad but most times it barley gets hard and then flattens in her mouth. The nipple shield is a real PAIN in the .. for me cuz my breasts are D's and even with water it won't hold down and it's a struggle.
The Dr gave me DomPeridone to try out and so far the milk supply is going up. still only at about 10-12 ounces a day but it's only been 3 days since i got them.
I donno some days I feel like i'm losing this battle with breastfeeding. Hopefully I can keep the milk up to a point that all I give her is breast milk and no need to give her formula. Even if it means pumping, i'd rather at least that alternative if I won't be able to BF.
I never knew breastfeeding would be such a challenge ~!
you can also skip a bottle and feed with a spoon or cup. takes practice, but if it lets you out of the house now and then....
Thanks ladies....I have tried almost every brand of bottle...and I have family members try to give her the bottle, but she still refuses and has been refusing for almost a month now, I think I'm just going to give up...I dred her getting teeth lol!!
Hey ladies.. its been a while since I've been on here. My precious baby girl is 2weeks old already!!
Here is some info on our breast feeding:
We started out BF with a nipple shield at 3hours old and shortly after supplimenting/tripple feeding (BF, Pump and Feed pumped back to baby). I knew from last time I had an issue with flat nipples as well as a low milk supply- before I was lucky if I pumped 8-9oz/day.
In addition to my nipple problem, my baby girl has a recessed jaw and an A-semetrical lower jaw muscle which has caused much dificulty for her to latch on even using a shield. We've been pushing our selves each day to try harder.
After a week+ of tripple feeding my baby was finally on a gaining rate of more than 1oz of body weight per day, so our LC advised us I could slow down on the pumping and start to take fenugreek seed pills. Due to our exclusing use of the nipple shield every time we nurse, I have to pump a minimum of 3x per day and if she ends up needing a suppliment I have to pump again. (I have a sheild in the diaper bag for travel and one for at home)
So far MarLea is still gaining 1oz or more per day and I only pump about 4x/day. I do how ever take 16pills of fenugreek seed/day (4pills 4x/day), but I produce somewhere in the ballpark of 4-6oz/day from puming, we havent had to use formula for the last 48hrs, which means my baby is getting about 10-12oz/day from breast in order to be eating 16-20oz a day and cauing her 1oz/day increase/weight gain.
What ever you do keep trying and dont give up hope girls. I didnt succeed past 1month with my last baby- so considering we're doing good at this point I am very happy.
Here is some info on our breast feeding:
We started out BF with a nipple shield at 3hours old and shortly after supplimenting/tripple feeding (BF, Pump and Feed pumped back to baby). I knew from last time I had an issue with flat nipples as well as a low milk supply- before I was lucky if I pumped 8-9oz/day.
In addition to my nipple problem, my baby girl has a recessed jaw and an A-semetrical lower jaw muscle which has caused much dificulty for her to latch on even using a shield. We've been pushing our selves each day to try harder.
After a week+ of tripple feeding my baby was finally on a gaining rate of more than 1oz of body weight per day, so our LC advised us I could slow down on the pumping and start to take fenugreek seed pills. Due to our exclusing use of the nipple shield every time we nurse, I have to pump a minimum of 3x per day and if she ends up needing a suppliment I have to pump again. (I have a sheild in the diaper bag for travel and one for at home)
So far MarLea is still gaining 1oz or more per day and I only pump about 4x/day. I do how ever take 16pills of fenugreek seed/day (4pills 4x/day), but I produce somewhere in the ballpark of 4-6oz/day from puming, we havent had to use formula for the last 48hrs, which means my baby is getting about 10-12oz/day from breast in order to be eating 16-20oz a day and cauing her 1oz/day increase/weight gain.
What ever you do keep trying and dont give up hope girls. I didnt succeed past 1month with my last baby- so considering we're doing good at this point I am very happy.
You can get mothers milk tea at GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe, places like that. I'm taking 3 fenugreek 3x a day, 3 blessed thistle 3x a day, 3 Domperidone a day, and 4 Reglan a day to try to get my milk supply back. My midwife prescribed me the Reglan and Domperidone. The Domperidone has to be compounded and I paid 45 bucks for 45 pills. Thats only about two weeks worth or so. It's expensive, but I'm willing to try anything and luckily DH isn't giving me a hard time about spending money. lol. My dd has poor latch on my nipples because they're small and we're using a nipple shield. Good luck!
Great, Elixis! That is wonderful. If you have a health foods store in your area you will probably be able to find the tea and other herbs if you can't find them in the drugstore. Also you could check vitamin stores, too. I ordered all mine online because we don't seem to have a store like that here, but when I was in a bigger town a shop called "Mother Nature" had it all. So if you can't find it you can do an internet search and you'll see lots of estores that carry it! Good luck!
Hey ladies, I too havn't been able to BF and have been pumping. Althoough at christmas I started pumping less and my supply lowered. I'm able to get 2 ounces in the morning and maybe 1 ounce after that. But at the start I was getting 4-6 ounces easy :(
This made me depressed and I was about to give up. Seeing she was drinking formula all day and maybe 2-4 ounces of breastmilk. then I read up on a method called rebirthing. That is when you bring the baby in the bathtub with you and alow the baby to get comfy and latch. It WORKED. I got her to latch and suck for 10 mins.
Then later that night I tried again and again got a latch out of the tub. However my left breast's nipple doesnt seem to come out much so she had trouble with it and cried.
So today I attempted on the right breast again and she went for 20 mins!! Then the right one after a few tries came out and she latched for 10 mins there before crying. I didn't want to stress her too much so I finised off with a bottle of pumped milk.
Anyways this has gotten my motivated because I really was losing hope. I was still pumping some to give her but I didn't think the latch would ever happen. There is hope!!
I am now putting myself on a strict pumping scedule to try and get more milk and I will take a look for the mother's milk. I assume is found in a drugstore.
I hope this is the beginning of a good thing and maybe I can say goodbye to formula soon!!
This made me depressed and I was about to give up. Seeing she was drinking formula all day and maybe 2-4 ounces of breastmilk. then I read up on a method called rebirthing. That is when you bring the baby in the bathtub with you and alow the baby to get comfy and latch. It WORKED. I got her to latch and suck for 10 mins.
Then later that night I tried again and again got a latch out of the tub. However my left breast's nipple doesnt seem to come out much so she had trouble with it and cried.
So today I attempted on the right breast again and she went for 20 mins!! Then the right one after a few tries came out and she latched for 10 mins there before crying. I didn't want to stress her too much so I finised off with a bottle of pumped milk.
Anyways this has gotten my motivated because I really was losing hope. I was still pumping some to give her but I didn't think the latch would ever happen. There is hope!!
I am now putting myself on a strict pumping scedule to try and get more milk and I will take a look for the mother's milk. I assume is found in a drugstore.
I hope this is the beginning of a good thing and maybe I can say goodbye to formula soon!!
if you are introducing a bottle for when you are not going to be available, have someone else do it. leave the house when they are trying because many babies will refuse a bottle if mom is around. i am starting to pump this week and will have DH introduce a bottle this weekend in preparation for my first day back at work on 1/29...we'll see how it goes.
We're getting a SNS tomorrow from the hospital pharmacy. The LC told me to nix the tea for a bit an add blessed thistle with the fenugreek. I'm going to get a bigger flange tomorrow while we're out as well an see if that helps. The LC said not to pump again so I don't further damage my nipples, but I'm going to massage them. lol.
Trying- What kind of bottles are you using? When I was having to supplement before we went over to formula only we were using Tommee Tippee and the Playtex Nursers and she was switching back an forth wonderfully. She did better on the Tommee Tippee though. Have you tried the first years breast flow bottles? They're supposed to be similar to breastfeeding.
Trying- What kind of bottles are you using? When I was having to supplement before we went over to formula only we were using Tommee Tippee and the Playtex Nursers and she was switching back an forth wonderfully. She did better on the Tommee Tippee though. Have you tried the first years breast flow bottles? They're supposed to be similar to breastfeeding.
Hello again mommies!! Quick question, anyone have trouble getting their baby to take a bottle? MIne will just scream when we try and I've tried both formula and my breastmilk, she rejects my breastmilk faster than formula...thank GOD I don't have to go back to work anytime soon lol!! Hope yall are all doing well!!
are you sure your pump fits you well? i'd meet with one of your LLL ti see if anything can be adjusted. pumping is not comfortable, but bleeding should not be part of it
It is kinda gross and weird. I only asked DH because nothing of any consequence is coming out right now and the pump was making me bleed. He said he would haven done it to help me out if I hadn't held up my fingers an hour before when they were covered in blood. lol. He asked me what I cut my finger on an I said, "I didn't. My nipples are bleeding." An his face turned white an all he could say was, "that's some dedication. I hope they don't fall off."
Just wanted to point out, and I think this is totally DISGUSTING, but MEN breast feed...Am I the only one who thinks that's just WRONG???
Lol @ the Vampire teeth! My pump just bit me and my nipples are bleeding, so I have evidence. I'm getting to the point that I hate/dread using the pump because it hurts so bad and now causing trauma to my nipples. I don't think that manual stimulation alone is going to cut it. I'm desperate. Lexi won't latch with the nipple shield often bc she knows she's not getting anything from me. I'm so desperate I even asked dh to nurse and he refused.
I am certain this little one is secretly a vampire... I keep trying to catch those sharp fangs that are surely digging into my nipple before she retracts them, but man is she fast lol j/k.
But seriously, I hope these children appreciate this! haha Having done this twice before I am so happy to recall that it DOES get easier... and less painful... but wish I remembered exactly when that is going to be...Ow! :o) I read your journal post and I hear you on the pumping thing. I got rid of my pump after my 2nd child and sort of wish I had it still, but I am so glad to have not needed to pump b/c no it does not feel good lol. Trying to decide if I will buy another one or not. So far she is exclusively on the breast and gaining like a champ! Woohoo!
But seriously, I hope these children appreciate this! haha Having done this twice before I am so happy to recall that it DOES get easier... and less painful... but wish I remembered exactly when that is going to be...Ow! :o) I read your journal post and I hear you on the pumping thing. I got rid of my pump after my 2nd child and sort of wish I had it still, but I am so glad to have not needed to pump b/c no it does not feel good lol. Trying to decide if I will buy another one or not. So far she is exclusively on the breast and gaining like a champ! Woohoo!
Lol, I think every nursing mother knows that feeling very well!!! I'm trying to keep on despite the pain of it all. I got a lot more colostrum at my 11am pump, so I'm hoping this is good news that I'll have a decent milk supply once it comes back in. I didn't think it was possible to relactate, but I figure if I can get my body to work at this then anything is possible!
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