help please! second day postpartum and dry supply?

[hello_kitty]

Hi ladies i just gave birth to my son yesterday and right away i started producing a good amount of colostrum. Baby was able to latch on and pretty sure he got something since i could hear him swallow. Today is day 2 and mymilk supply not only has not come in but it appears tobealmost dry. Only 1 or 2 drops when i pump and whe baby nurse he doesnt get anything. I get donor milk for now since im still in hospital but we areleavingtomorrow morning and im on my own from there. Do i have to useformula then? I dont want to starve my baby especially during this hot weather.

 

[krissie328]

I had the same problem and I continued to nurse and supplement with a syringe until he was 5 days when my milk came in and now he is bf like a champ and sleeping better. I gave him half an oz of formula at bed tonight which is a small fraction of what he was eating before bed.

My advise would be to keep him bf, my lactation consultant said that he is probably getting some as they are designed to. Breast pumps have a hard time getting colostrum because it is so thick. I couls only pump a couple drops too.

Also, they weighes him, I bf him, then they reweighed him to see how much he was able to get. That could go a long ways to ease your mind that he is getting something.

 

[Mrs Bee]

I recall my milk came in on day 3 and that's perfectly normal.... If it hasn't come in by a few days go see a lactation consultant... They are very helpful

 

[krissie328]

Yep, I was told up to a week for milk to come in but to bf to help stimulate it.

 

[irish_cob]

You don't need to pump or top up with donor milk. It's totally normal for your milk not to come in til day 3 or 4, there will be colostrum there which your baby will get far better than a pump. It's all fine, keep putting baby to the breast and stop topping up, they only need tiny amounts as a newborn, a ml or 2 is plenty. Your milk will come in when it is meant to. This is how nature works, if it didn't work the human race would have died out long before now xx

 

[annio84]

On day 2 it's nothing to worry about. Your milk will come in soon. It's normal not to get much colostrum if pumping. Feed baby as often as they want to help it along and i'm sure you will be fine.

 

[hello_kitty]

Thanks ladies. Yea i thought it would be weird if my milk never comes in. The only reason they gave donor milk is because after 10 minutes at the breast he was obviously still very hungry and was very cranky. They gave him the donor milk and he gulped it all down. Im still putting him to breast and pumping afterwards just to build supply and have my milk vome in sooner. Hopefully it will because my baby is not happy when i put him to breast he gets cranky like hes sucking at nothing.

 

[irish_cob]

It's tiring work sucking, especially if he's prem (judging by your ticker), he needs to learn how to latch on and milk the breast effectively. Is the donor milk in a bottle? It's easier for them to get milk out of a bottle so he will be satisfied easier but he doesn't need ounces and ounces at 2 days old honestly. Is his latch good? Make sure he's got a big mouth, as much breast tissue as you can in his mouth (I know this isn't easy when their mouths are so tiny), maybe try some breast massage to encourage the milk down the ducts. Loads of skin to skin, lots of cuddles, that will all encourage your milk to come in xx

 

[Rachel_C]

If you're topping him up, he won't want to stay at the breast which will mean your body isn't getting the signals it needs to bring your milk in fully. Pumping won't simulate it very well either. If your LO seems hungry, just put him on the boob. He will only get tiny amounts but that's all he needs at this stage. By pumping instead of keeping him (properly latched) on the boob, you may in fact be making things worse for yourself. 10 minutes at the breast is a very short feed by the way - there is no way a baby should be topped up if still hungry after that little time!

 

[hello_kitty]

At the moment hes only taking 15 - 20 ml every 2 hours...but my milk supply has not been established yet so i cant even give him that much. I just pumped 20 minutes ago after putting him to breast. I had a lot of colostrum day 1, almost completely dry day 2 and now at day 3 im getting 5 ml of fresh milk when i pump. Getting somewhere i guess. The nurses just keep asking me what im gonna do when i get home.

 

[sheldonsmommy]

I read that babies at that age get about 1-2 teaspoons of colostrum per feed, but sometimes that feed can last an hour. I had a very efficient feeder, and it took him 30 minutes to feed in the early days. Pumping will not give you a good indication of how much baby is getting.

There is really no need to supplement. Colostrum is exactly what baby needs right now, and the suckling to get it is going to start the cycle of milk production.

I'm starting to get surprised at the amount of health care staff that encourage supplementation in the early days like no newborn has ever acted like this. If a mom intends to bf, supplementation typically isn't necessary, and definitely not necessary on day one or 2.

 

[BigAl]

I was going to say I find the nurses advice weird. My milk came in day 3. The 12hrs preceding he was acting a bit like your lo, but I was advised to keep putting him to the breast. Which I did for the longest 12 hours of my life!!!! I managed a couple of hours sleep, and woke up with milk leaking everywhere!

 

[hollybb]

I suggest that you continue with breastfeeding. Some think that if they don't produce milk on the 1st day meaning they won't produce milk anymore. Actually it will actually take 3-4 days before your breast produce a greater amount of milk, if you don't produce don't the 1st day. Just let your baby continue sucking so you'll produce milk. I had the same experience as yours and after 4 days I had a great amount of breast milk supply.

 

[Misha79]

I am at day 5th with my baby and having issues. At hospital they tried to put her on to breast but not getting anything, she wont suck. To stimulate her, they used sugar solution syringe which i was surprised is okay. One nurse I am surprised brought water syringe. She was so cruel and other nurse did formula.

My milk had not come till 3/4 day. With so much pressure from hospital nurse and family and sore body, i am so stressed. Now I put her on breast and topping her with FF/expressed milk.

 

[Night Flower]

I remember the first 12 hours after C section, baby suckled like a champ. By noon the next day, baby began to be fussy. For two whole hours she would suck and cry and the same time. So we began to supplement feed her ONLY 5-10ML after 30 minutes of sucking (15 mins on each boob).

They, the nurses and lactation consultant, fully expressed That if I wanted to breastfeed, baby MUST suck for a certain length, signaling my body to produce milk, before giving into supplemental formula. So thats what we did. But she only got the formula 2-3xs a day and 10-15ML per feeding after that first feeding of SF. We only fed her formula because she had lost a lot of wait.

By day 3, my milk was in.

Day 4, my milk was coming in a lot. 15-25ML each time I pumped, both breast. By day 10, I was able to breast feed the 30-45mins and then pump out 45ML(altogether)

Now at 3weeks PP, I am able to breastfeed and pump 80ML. However, several times a day, she still gets a small amount of formula. Usually at night or early morning hours after she had her giant feed and my milk was gone and she was hungry again an hour later. Lol. She gets a small amount of formula in the evening around 10-11pm, so she settles down. She is so hungry and cranky at night.

 

[AC1987]

I suggest anytime you see him slightly awake to try to get him to feed, and don't let him sleep longer than 2 hours before waking him. I only accepted donor milk for Rose because her sugar was so low.

 

[hello_kitty]

Update: Over 2 weeks pp and my milk supply has increased. I'm actually making too much milk now but I guess that is a good thing because my little guy eats a lot. Can probably use the saved milk for later down the road if my supply decreases. Thanks ladies!

 

[Moolia]

My dd fed continuously for hours on end the first 3/4 days and I knew it was good for my supply so just kept going with it. With my ds I didn't know this and thought 'there's no way he can be hungry I only fed him an hour ago!' And his crying etc really stressd me out. Anyway, my advice would be to keep putting baby to your breast very regularly and don't give donor milk! Keep at it and your supply should increase. Good luck!