I thought I would post this since I know some other people have some of the same concerns that I have been having. First let me say that this is my first BF baby--- Luke and Jack both got formula. It has been really hard for me not knowing how much he is getting..... it has been driving me NUTS, in fact. We always knew the exact amt. with the other boys.

I have had major concerns about supply. I can pump between 1/2 - 1oz (1 1/2 oz on the very rare occasion) from each side. Reglan and Fenugreek have done nothing to improve that. I know that babies are able to get much more milk than pumps, so I have been trying to convince myself that that's what's happening. Well-- I was right. Toby has gained 2 lbs since his last appt. 24 days ago. Yaaaaaaaaaay! I guess we just have to have faith in ourselves and in our boobs.

I went to the LC today to make sure my pump was working correctly and to get some tips. I will be going back to work in Oct. and need to pump if I want to continue giving him breastmilk exclusively, and I need some help getting more out. She hooked up my pump (Pump In Style Advanced) to a little gage and the suction is great.

An interesting little tidbit I learned--- breastfed babies don't need as much (volume wise) as formula fed babies. Just because a FF baby takes 6 oz every 3 hours it doesn't mean that a BF baby needs the same amt. of breastmilk. I asked if at a year he'll be needing 8oz bottles every few hours and she said nooooooo. She said usually BF babies will take between 2-5 oz. That is a bit of a relief, because there is no way I can pump that much. We have done EBM in a bottle now and then and she asked how much we give him. I told her we were doing 3oz but recently went up to 4oz. She asked if I thought he'd still be happy with 3oz and I said yes, so she said to just do 3oz then. I was just assuming that he'll need more and more but I guess he might be ok on 3oz for a while. She said many times FF babies tend to overeat whereas BF babies don't. I can see that.

Some tips to increasing the amt. of milk you pump:

Hot packs--- she said pouring some hot water into disposable diapers and putting them on your breasts works well. Do this for 5-10 min. before pumping.

Stopping pumping when milk isn't flowing anymore and trying a couple of things.... 1) putting the pump back to the let-down phase 2) using hands to deeply massage the breasts for several minutes. Support breast tissue with one hand and massage the opposite area with the other hand. 3) Try and hand-express to let-down before putting the pump back on. The skin-to-skin thing is really supposed to work wonders..... fools your boobs into thinking it's a baby. She also said that it sounds dumb, but visualization can work well too. Smelling something of your baby's can help.

One more interesting thing I learned (and I thought of Daffney) is that BF babies can start to poop less as they get older. She said it's not uncommon to go a week or more before a poop, and that that's ok.

So that's what I learned today.

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