always hungry!!!!

[vejables]

sage has taken to chomping on her fist CONSTANTLY!!! she's always screaming for food!!! i'm breastfeeding but working, so she takes expressed bottles while i'm at work and for the past 5-6 days i have fed her twice before i go to work, and she takes 3 4 oz. bottles while im at work (which is only 6 hours...) is this normal???? does my milk suck or something???

what the heck is going on!!??

 

[kookie]

Growth spurt maybe? Tyler does this every now and then and then it settles again don't worry that its your milk its not.

 

[vejables]

im just worried that maybe my milk is going away since i have been pumping or something.

 

[kookie]

if your substituting feeds with pumping it should make no difference to your supply.

 

[vejables]

oh thats good to know i was getting worried b/c i am getting less when i pump lately.... maybe she is eating more so i get less when i pump? but then what shall i feed her when im away? lol.

 

[kookie]

you could always try pumping more often in between her actual feeds to increase your supply if your really concerned but i'm sure she'll sort herself out.

 

[vejables]

i hope so! i really dont want to go to formula. but if i run out of expressed milk, i dont know what im gonna do when i go to work.... i will try to get my boss to let me pump twice instead of once a day...

 

[vejables]

well have just found out that my milk supply is almost gone... i had a mirena placed last week and it has affected my supply A LOT. i have been feeding her as much as i can, but i dont have enough to satisfy her.

 

[vejables]

has anyone ever successfully breastfed what they had and supplemented the rest???

 

[kookie]

oh no sorry to hear that i hope you can work something out that keeps her satisfied without having to give up all together xx.

 

[TashaAndBump]

Hun, have you tried pumping more? Try doing it as often as you can in your free time - as boobies are 'designed' to be used on a demand basis your milk flow can conform to how often milk is demanded - and as your only pumping once at work they may be 'confused' as to how much is actually needed... If you pump more frequently, the flow may increase.

If not, then it is possible to successfully feed your baby with formula supplements unless/until your flow stops altogether. If you have to go onto formula altogether, I know it's not what you wanted, and it's not ideal, but your baby has already got loads more goodness from your milk than you can ever know and it will not harm your baby to move across to formula milk.

Don't feel that you've let your baby down, either... you're doing all that you can for her and are a fantastic mother.

 

[vejables]

thanks guys. yeah, i have been feeding her almost soley on the breast this weekend. only once at night (around 7 pm) do i run out.... so i supplement a day? but when i got to work tomarrow she will need formula when im gone b/c i have used up all my reserves in the freezer! hopefully since i fed her on demand all weekend i will get my supply back up, but if not i guess i will try to do both. which i guess isn't too bad, at leawst shes getting 3-4 breastmilk feeds a day so thats better than none right?

 

[kookie]

i just posted to see how all was going with feeding for you in my thread then read this thats great you managed to feed all weekend on demand even if you do have to do both breast and formula your still doing amazing to give her 3-4 feeds a day.

 

[TashaAndBump]

Absolutely it's better than none! Don't think that if your flow stops you should stop offering your breast to her, though - if she suckles on it when it's empty it will send the message that they aren't producing enough milk and will encourage the flow to increase.

Best of luck!