Pregnant And Breastfeeding Support Thread

[Khalam's Mama]

Hi there, am currently Bfing a 10.5MO and TTC so am joining in here for some early advice. Am pleased to see the last post is one where Bf thru preg is possible! Am feeling a little down after reading some earlier posts where milk has dried up.
My DS has 4 feeds at the moment and STTN. I am going back to work at 13MO so will be down to 2 or 3 feeds max by then. Was planning to pump at work but have read that this is not advisable for risk of m/c and now a little worried. Also am going away in october for 3 nights and was planning to pump for then so not sure what to do now! Am already eating oats for breakfast daily (half a cup of dry oats) and was planning to take fenugreek (is this ok in pg?) Really wanted to Bf until 2 yrs and even weaning ever makes me really sad. DS loves his boob I feel awful thinking about having to wean him. Although also want to have another baby so they ar close in age and I can stay home on Mat leave with him again while he is young. Would love to tandem feed!

[Khalam's Mama]

Any other tips for increasing milk supply when pregnant?

[bug_blues70]

Hi! I'm almost 8 weeks pregnant and have a 5 month old. My supply is way, way down and she is definitely showing preference for the bottle now. I am so heartbroken that I probably won't get to bf her as long as I wanted and I feel so bad to have taken that experience away from her, especially since I'm having to give her some formula to supplement. I can't even supplement with solids yet

Has anyone out there ever had success in increasing milk supply during pregnancy? I think mine has dropped even further in the past day or two and if it goes much further, it's just going to be gone. I just bought an SNS and have tried it a few times, but she seems just as frustrated with that as with my breast...

Or has anyone had an LO that was so little when they were weaned and then showed interest in bf again after the new baby came?

[Khalam's Mama]

No experience but are you eating lots of oats? Porridge, flapjacks, using like breadcrumbs etc... They have been good for increasing supply before my pg. I know it is hard when she is hungry but the more you suppliment the less milk you will have, so get her to suckle as much as possible. Some say have a whole day naked in bed so lots of skin to skin and just suckle all day for 24-48hrs. Also drink lots and lots.

[bug_blues70]

Thanks Khalam's Mama! I've tried everything I've ever heard of (except herbs or drugs which are not good for the fetus)... oatmeal, lots of water, lots of food, skin to skin, pumping every hour, pumping after every feed, increased suckling, the SNS system, nothing works. I guess I've finally come to accept the fact that the rules are just different when you are pregnant because of the pregnancy hormones. The book Adventures in Tandem Nursing states that there's probably not much that you can do to increase supply during pregnancy, including increased suckling. Sad, sad, sad. I'm almost positive my supply is less than half of what it should be, and therefore, I have no choice but to supplement, even if suckling would increase supply. That's why I bought the SNS, thinking if I could supplement while she was suckling, it might help, but it didn't. Well, actually, she also got very frustrated with that too... I think she might be a little old to be fooled or satisfied by it (my guess is that it's made more for newborns and the tubing - even the large - is pretty small).

I've taken to just nursing her every four hours and supplementing in between. Otherwise it just becomes a battle and the whole point of nursing is the sweetness of the experience, so if it's frustrating for her and stressful for me, I might as well just pump and give it to her in a bottle. Sometimes she'll latch on, sometimes she won't. She nurses only for food and won't suckle for comfort. I'm very sad that I won't get to nurse her for a full year like I wanted to. I just hope that my supply will hold out at least somewhat so that I can continue to give her at least some breast milk.  I *hate* formula and wish there was some way that I could still give her breast milk. The milk banks here though are far more expensive than I can afford. At $3/ounce it would be $2700/month!!

At least I have found a couple formulas with no corn syrup and no whey protein concentrate, but they both taste and smell awful!! I feel so bad every time I give it to her. Do you all have anything better in the UK?

Thanks for the tips though! I hope you have a great weekend!

[Khalam's Mama]

Oh really? that is a shame. I am terrified my milk will drop my LO loves his boob but sure they will love a sibling more. At least they have had the first good few months worth.

I have never really investigated formula to be honest so not the right person to ask. It may be worth putting something on the bottle feeding board? Apparently aptimil is closest to BM but I don't know really.

At what stages have people found the mlik drops?

[meltown]

If you want to keep BFing you should probably not supplement with Formula, you should nurse twice or 3 times as often.  Also as hard as it is in the early days of Pregnancy you should be drinking TONS of water and eating a couple extra meals a day. 

My Supply dipped at the beginning of the pregnancy, but I just kept nursing and doing what I could to get DS to latch and after a few weeks of the drop things started to get back to normal.  It does take work and it is SO hard to eat extra and drink water and such, but you just have to do it.  there are also herbal things you can do to help.  Not sure where you are, but I would try to call a lactation center and ask them about what else you could do.  I am sure they would have more help for you. 

Congrats on the pregnancy and good luck with everything!

[bug_blues70]

Meltown: Congratulations on your pg!!  Well, the thing is, I've tried everything I've ever heard of (except herbs or medication - not good for the fetus) over the last month and nothing has worked: oatmeal, lots of food, lots of water, pumping every hour, pumping after every feed, increased suckling, increased skin to skin, SNS system, and I've talked to my midwife, an LLLI rep and a lactation consultant (they all told me not to use any herbs or anything, but if you or anyone knows of anything that is safe, I'd love to know the name so I could research it?) I'm hoping that it will go back up, but it's been a month and it's not improving at all. I pumped every hour for 4 days during her nursing strike and had not a drop of increased supply, whereas before I was pg if I just pumped a few extra times a day my supply would increase within 2-3 days. I'm glad to hear that yours went back up, that gives me hope that maybe mine will too!! The only thing is, she's only 5mo so she's getting *all* her nutrition from me. And since my supply is down to about half, I really have no choice but to supplement. However, I even tried the SNS system to supplement while she is suckling, and that didn't work to build my supply either. This was frustrating to her also, and I finally gave up trying that when I read in "Adventures of Tandem Nursing" that even increased suckling probably won't do much during pg because the pg hormones change all the rules. And this rings true in my case, since all my attempts over the past month have failed.

It's been a pretty rough month since this all started. Sleep problems, nursing strike, eating problems, and my own devastation at not being able to exclusively bf anymore. I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I am just going to have to supplement, regardless of how much I *hate* formula. (Although I must admit that when all is said and done, I'm glad it's available or I wouldn't be able to feed my child). I still offer to nurse her, just less often so that it is worth it for her. If she doesn't get much, she just gets frustrated and then flat out refuses to even try the next few times... she really nurses mainly for food and not for comfort. If there's nothing there, she just won't suckle. And I still nurse her several times at night. I must admit: I sometimes do dream feeds even if she doesn't wake up on her own because I love the sweet, relaxed nursing she does at night, and also b/c I don't want to go longer than 4 hours w/o pumping or feeding and I'm always afraid I'll pump and then she'll wake up right after and I won't be able to nurse her.

If anyone ever asks if you can get pg while exclusively breast feeding, the answer is absolutely yes. I was EBF and was even up anywhere from 1-3 times a night to feed her, and I got pg just 3 months pp.

Khalam's Mama: My milk supply dropped almost immediately. I marked on the calendar when she started having sleeping problems before I knew I was pg, and I now think that's the day my milk supply dropped and she stopped sleeping well because she was hungry and I just didn't realize that was the problem. I'm about 8 weeks now, and that would have been at about 3 weeks, so right around when implantation would have been complete, but even before I could get a positive. But I still do get milk, so your LO probably would too. And since he's over a year, it's not crucial that your supply be at it's maximum... especially if he will suckle for comfort when there's not much there. But the one thing I wish I'd have done is store up a whole bunch of bm before I got pg so that I could use that to supplement with. (that's assuming I'd have known any of this would have happened) So maybe that's something you could do if you want to make sure he still has bm if your supply does happen to drop so much?

I never thought I'd be having to investigate formula either... I took bf for granted, and now I so wish that I had savored every moment of it. I am savoring every moment of it now, and hoping so fervently that she will continue through my pg so I can nurse her after the new baby comes too. But I'm off topic. I did put it on the bottle feeding board and I heard about Aptamil there too. I am guessing this is a UK brand? I've never heard of it here in the states. Do you or anyone know if it smells/tastes ok? All of them here are awful!! I also refuse to give her anything with corn syrup or whey protein concentrate in it either (this severely limits my choices). I'm going to look up Aptamil ingredients and whether or not I can order it by mail from the UK. I'd love to know if it tastes decent though. I think I'll ask that specific question on the bottle feeding board.

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Just popping on and wanted to send some hugs your way, bug blues!  I'm so sorry you're struggling with all this so much.  But know that LOs get basically all of the immunologic benefit from just a few oz of BM a day so even what she's getting is helping her.  I know you want to be able to be all she needs, but sometimes this is just how things work out. 

I'm in the States, too, and we started giving Austin a bottle once in a while when pumping got hard for me a couple of months ago.  I did a bunch of research and chose 'Baby's Only.'  It's organic with no added other stuff like you mentioned.  I'm crazy about that too.  I haven't tasted it (I should try, though!) but it smells fine.  I get it at our natural foods store but I think Amazon has it if you can't find it locally. It is called 'Toddler formula' but they say that's just b/c they believe a baby should have BM until 1 year of age, not b/c younger babies can't have it.

I hope that helps and more hugs to you!

[bug_blues70]

Thanks so much! That's really comforting to know that she gets all the immunologic benefits from just a few ounces. Yesterday was the most formula I ever gave her and it was 12 oz, + 2oz expressed bm and the rest was nursing... So I'm providing about half of what she needs, though it takes me a full 24 hours to do it. Like I said, I usually feed her several times a night now whether she wakes up or not. I'll take a waking habit if it means I can give her more bm for longer

I heard about the Baby Only stuff, but was reluctant to try it because of the toddler label it has, like you said. I read that about it being just because they want you to bf, but was still unsure whether that meant it was safe to give to babies under a year or not. Maybe I'll try it. Do you know the difference between toddler formulas and infant formulas in general? Is it maybe that the proteins are broken down more for infants? I'd hate to give her something that she can't digest... Wow, I just looked it up again, and looked at the comparison charts and although it seems to be significantly off compared to bm in several nutrients (all of them are), it's just about the exact same nutrient label as the Similac Organic I've been giving her. I guess now my question is just whether or not it's just as easy to digest... I know you can't give regular cow's milk until after 12 months so I would just want to know that these proteins are broken down enough for a 5 month old. I think I'm going to talk to my pediatrician on Monday and see what he says... this might be the best solution out there! And I'm excited to think that it doesn't smell as bad as other formulas!! Thanks for suggesting it and prompting me to re-research it!!

[Love, laughter, & PJs]

Hmm.   I don't know for sure about the proteins and younger babies but I don't think there's a difference.  Here's the manufacturer's website: http://www.naturesone.com/dairy/.  They say that you should use it in babies under 12 mo with a doctor's guidance and they have a couple of comparison charts (that show they're the same as other, similar brands) to bring to the doctor, which says to me that it should be fine.   It also says they meet the FDA requirements for the Infant Formula Act.

Glad to help!

[bug_blues70]

Yep, I just came back to say that on reading more, I found where they did say specifically that it was safe to give to babies under 12 months. I'll still call my ped (although I don't expect him to really know anything specific about that particular formula) but I'm pretty much sold!! Thanks so much!!

[bug_blues70]

kmk512: Thanks so much for the recommendation!! I bought some Baby's Only and it smells and tastes divine compared to the other formulas I've tried!! And it doesn't have any ingredients that I'm specifically trying to avoid, so I don't think I could possibly do better!!

[Peek-a-boo]

bug_blues--I found night feedings really helped my supply during pregnancy.  Probably not enough to avoid supplementing for a young baby, but helped a lot.

[bug_blues70]

Thanks, yeah, I've been trying to feed her several times a night. I try not to go longer than 4 hours b/t feeds or pumping, so I pump usually once early on so she gets a good stretch of sleep, and then get her up for a couple dream feeds even if she doesn't wake up... maybe not the best for her sleeping habits, but hey.

Thanks. Ever heard of using chlorophyll during pregnancy?