Supplemented this morning

I'm so sad!!

I gave the girls 1 1/2 oz of formula this morning in with expressed breast milk. I wasn't goign to have enough EBM for the day (I had to go to work) and my freezer supply has almost been completely exhausted. They ate fine and didn't spit up or anything. My sister (she watches the girls during the day) did say they were exceptionally fussy though.

Please give me some encouraging words that my supply will get back up there and I won't have to do this every day!! They eat about 30 oz total during the day so I know that 1 1/2 oz isn't hardly anything, but it still makes me so sad! And it scares me that I will have to keep increasing!

 

I suppplemented about that same amount each day for a bottle that DH could feed them at night. Once they started sleeping longer stretches, I stopped and they haven't had formula in four months. It made me sad too, but I realize that it shouldn't have. You are doing a great job!

 

Oh, honey, i know exactly how you feel! I had to supplement for a couple of days about ten days ago and i was a MANIAC about it. I felt like a total failure - as if i couldn't even do the one most basic thing about mothering right...I had blown through a huge stash of frozen emb.


well, i spoke to a great l/c adn she told me a couple of very important things:

1) pump after feedings - even if you don't get much, it will stimulate your breasts and tell your body to produce more. The focus should be on the pumping,NOT on the production. I was pumping BETWEEN feedngs, which just meant that i didnt' have enough when it was time for the next feeding, which started a crazy-making cycle for me.

2) formula was invented for babies who either couldn't take bm or whose mothers couldnt' produce it. You have been doing just fine, you just need a little bump. A little formula won't kill them (although I was sure i was poisoning my babies), and it's NOT forever.

3) I took (and am still taking) fenugreek: 3-4 capsules of 580 - 610 mg. three times per day. Any less and it appears not to help. Expect your armpits and urine to smell like maple syrup - it's an ingredient in fake maple syrup.

4) drink a lot, but don't over-fluids; the l/c told me to make sure i was drinking things like smoothies w/fat to ensure that i just wasn't diluting my milk

5) this is the hardest - RELAX. I made myself INSANE over the formula, crying when i was by myself and feeling awful. The truth is i would rather feed them a little formula than have them hungry -b ut - after pumping and fenugreek and being really conscious of eating/drinking, my supply is fine.

You are doing a GREAT job - i think most of us don't realize it because it's simply our reality, but bfing twins is a BIG DEAL! My sister is a doc n a hospital, and she says that her neonatologist friends aer all ASTONISHED that i'm managing to feed both girls bm.

One more time -you are doing a GREAT JOB!!!

 

You may have already mentioned this but, what kind of pump are you using? How long do you pump for and how often?

 

MEdela PIS.
15 minutes at work--2 x a day.
At home after every feeding for 10 minutes, wait 10 minutes, then another 10 minutes.

I am getting about 8 oz a session at work, and about 3 after feedings. But they are eating 5 oz a piece every 3 hours and I can't keep up. I have posted previously about this issue. I'm on fenugreek and drinking lots of water, eating lots of calories!

 

Would you be able to bump up your work pumping sessions by 5 minutes or so? That may help.

I didn't exclusively BF - the girls BF for ten minutes and then got bottles of EBM and I pumped for ten minutes after they ate. If I wasn't feeding them then I pumped for 20 minutes instead of ten.

 

I would definitely lengthen the pumping sessions to 20 minutes and be sure to massage your breasts while pumping. All of the tips from the PPs are great! Don't be too hard on yourself, you are doing a great job

 

I agree with what everyone else said and also add to nurse as much as possible to help keep up and bring up your milk supply. When you come home don't run for supper/dishes whatever stop and nurse. It is very easy to put it at the bottom of the list but that will lower your supply.

 

Here are my suggestions (I may have mentioned them in other posts to you, so sorry if I am repeating myself!!):

1.) try out a hospital grade pump, it may cost more but it will save you money on formula and stress!! You may only need it for a month or so to get an increase then you can switch back

2.) Definitly try pumping for 20 mins, I always get an additional letdown right around 20mins, if you don't you can cut back to 15 mins again

3.) avoid bottles when you are home (you may be doing this already), nurse, nurse, nurse

4.) Add mothers milk tea to your fenugreek

How did you come up with the 5oz's every 3hrs? Most babies need 25-30oz's per day. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html Use this and see what it says. Just be careful not to supplement too much, it becomes a slippery slope where you have to start giving more and more while at work. And while this may happen even with you trying everything, it is the reason to try everything to get your supply back up.

HTH

 

QUOTE(excitedk @ Jun 25 2007, 09:15 PM) [snapback]307021[/snapback]
How did you come up with the 5oz's every 3hrs? Most babies need 25-30oz's per day. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html Use this and see what it says. Just be careful not to supplement too much, it becomes a slippery slope where you have to start giving more and more while at work. And while this may happen even with you trying everything, it is the reason to try everything to get your supply back up.

HTH


I do 5 oz, every 3 hours, but only during the day when I'm not nursing. (i.e. at work). I just go by what they like to eat! I don't push it on them.

 

oh, I didn't mean that you are overfeeding them, I just thought you may benefit from the milk calculator to see how much it says they NEED.

 

Don't feel bad about the formula. An ounce and a half is hardly anything. And yes, formula is not nearly as beneficial as EMB, but as PP posted, it is not poison. Do we not act as if it's poison and feel that a "good mom" would never let her baby have a drop of it? Then if it comes down to it and we have to give even a miniscule amount of it on one occasion or two, we label ourselves as "bad mom".

My mother always had some advice that she gave and it has proven so helpful to me in all areas of life, but especially in mothering (and breastfeeding): "all you can do is the best you can do". So, yes, try fenugreek, rent a hospital grade breastpump, find new tricks to pumping, but for goodness sakes, you are doing the best you can and you can't do any better than that, can you??? Give yourself a big hug and try to take a nice bubblebath or something.

Can you believe there are women diagnosed with breast cancer who don't want to wean their babies and use formula even though they jeopardize their survival? It's true! That's how deep "mommy guilt" can go!