Supply issues with a 2 week old. Help!

[dairymomma]

DD is two weeks old and you'd think by now we'd have this whole nursing thing figured out, especially since this is my 3rd BF baby. But nope. Here's the story. DD2 has a major cluster feeding session every.single.day. And by major, I mean HOURS. Normal routine is she'll feed every 3-4 hours during the night and early part of the day with each feeding lasting about an hour to hour and a half. She'll drain one side and get a fair way through the other side before falling asleep and napping til the next feeding. Then afternoon rolls around and BAM, she's on the boob every half hour. This usually starts around 2-3pm and she'll eat from one side for up to an hour, fall asleep, and snooze if I hold her. If I put her down, she wakes up within 30 minutes (usually within 5 minutes) and screams until I pick her up and offer her the breast again. Repeat til 10:30pm but sometimes til midnight. I'm trying to drink plenty of water, I try to pump after the morning feeding sessions but it's impossible to do in the evening as she's constantly eating, I'm rubbing fennel essential oil on my bbs 3 times a day, and I'm getting some Mother's Milk tea the next time I'm in town. She'll settle for a little while if she's held or given a pacifier but that only works for 15 minutes max. It's not gas and I don't think it's colic since she settles down if you feed her. This is all new to me because I didn't have supply issues with my son until I was at the 6 month BF mark and working several hours a day in the hot summer sun, and I didn't have any supply issues with DD1 until I got pg around 4 months BFing. I do feel like I have less milk this time than I did with DS or DD1 though too as I can only pump 2-3 oz total whereas with DD1 especially, I was pumping 4-5 oz total at this point because I was still partially engorged.

So really I'm wondering about a few things. 1. What else can I do to increase my milk supply that I'm not already doing? 2. Is it bad to give her a bottle of expressed milk when she's like this so she gets a full tummy? If I do this, I'd pump to make sure I'm still stimulating my supply. It'd just be so that she's full and not begging for the boob every half hour. (Does that make sense the way I explained it?) 3. Any suggestions on getting her to space out her feedings a little more? I've tried having someone else hold her, giving her a pacifier, putting her in a swing or her carseat, rocking her, and letting her cry it out a bit (10 minutes max) to see if she will self-soothe. Nothing has worked so far.

Whew. I know this is quite the novel of a post but there it is. If nothing else, I guess I'm just looking for encouragement.

 

[cflower04]

Not sure if I can be of any help, my little guy is 2 weeks old as well!! We too are having a couple of issues with latching (the amount of time or takes!) but I'm assuming it's all part of the course!

I drink fennel tea 2-3 times a day to help with my supply, as well as snacking occasionally on oat biscuits.

I'd be careful of introducing a bottle of expressed milk incase she gets nipple confusion. I was told not to pump before 6 weeks to avoid messing with my supply.

 

[cflower04]

Have you tried co sleeping?! That way ye can both get some sleep. I occasionally put baby in bed with me and it makes things so much easier!

 

[staralfur]

Sounds pretty normal to me. My LO was the same way, she would feed for 9 hours at a time overnight.

The best thing you can do to stimulate your supply is continue to feed on demand. You can top up with expressed milk, but pumping isn't quite as stimulating as a baby, so it probably won't do your supply any favours.

Is she having plenty of wet diapers? If she's still peeing lots then she's getting lots and there's no issue with your supply. It's just an awfully exhausting clusterfeeding phase which is normal and which will pass!

 

[dairymomma]

cflower-co-sleeping doesn't work for me. 1.DH doesn't like her in bed with us as he's afraid he'll roll over and bump her or something. (Plus he doesn't want to deal with having to train her to sleep in a crib at some future point.) and 2. she'll suckle for 5 minutes, pass out for an hour, suckle for 5 minutes, pass out for an hour, etc. so I wake up with overflowing boobs that haven't been nursed properly all night. Which doesn't help my supply issues. I'm using fennel essential oil and bought some mother's milk tea so we'll see how that helps.

starla-yes, plenty of wet diapers. At least one a feeding, usually two. So she's def getting plenty. It's just the whole cluster feeding/sore boobs & nipples thing that I'm struggling with.

And as to the pumping part, I was told by two different doctors that to stimulate my supply, I should pump. I know it's not as stimulating as nursing but if done after a feeding, it will help. I was also told that I could start pumping as soon as I wanted and was even offered the use of a pump in the hospital after delivery for that purpose. And she's not having any issues differentiating between the bottle and me. Her latch actually got better after I fed her the bottle the other night.

 

[luna_19]

This is totally normal. As previous posters have said letting her feed as much as she wants is the best thing for your supply