breast feeding at night

[alejorge]

Hi i was wondering about breast feeding at night. I breast feed all day until about 10 or so at night. then i put the baby to bed. But if he wakes up and i breast feed him i dont have a good enough supply for the next day to keep him full. I wind up having to give him extra supplements the next day so that he gets full. How can i get it to where i can breast feed all the time and not have my supply get low? Thank you for any help Jocie

[annieversteeg]

Hi Jocie,
You didn't mention how old your baby is? Give me a little more info and we will work on solving this. I would be surprised if we can't get you to OWN the milk store!!

[alejorge]

He is 3 months old. He is gaining weight really good now. He is 12lbs12.8oz at his last visit. He was 6lbs 11oz at birth. He nurses from 8:00am in the morning till about 10:00pm He eats about every 2 hours during the day and sometimes he will eat every hour. I put him to bed around 10:00pm and he will wake up around 3:00am and want to eat if I breast feed him he will eat and then want a 2oz bottle also. He will go back to sleep and then be up about 2 or 3 hours later again wanting to eat. Same thing happens. But by the time morning comes my supply is low and for the rest of the day I have to give a 2oz bottle after each feeding to keep him from screaming at me that he is starving. So when he wakes up at night I just gve him a bottle so my supply isn't low during the day and I don't have to give gim the supplements. What can i do to get that to stop happening?

[annieversteeg]

Pump after feeding him at night for 4 days solid. This may encourage your breasts to keep a health supply at night too. You can take fenugreek supplements to increase milk supply.
Has he always gotten some supplement?
The more he feeds, the more milk you will have.
Do you ever pump? How much do you get?

[alejorge]

I do take the fenugreek. @ pills 3 times a day. We have always supplemented with him because at 3 weeks I had dried up and we are trying to get my supply back up since then. I do pump but not that much. When I do pump I only get about 1/2oz combined. If I pump first thing in the morning I get about 5 1/2oz total.

[annieversteeg]

Maybe if you just tried to pump every 3 hours at night for 4 days. You can bump up your fenugreek intake to 8 pills/day or until your urine smells like maple syrup.
Have you taken any other meds for milk supply?
He has almost doubled his weight at 3 months.. That is pretty fast!
Supply is ALL about demand. If you put a demand on your breasts by way of pumping, you will tell your brain to 'MAKE MORE MILK' sometimes we have to work extra hard to get our brains to hear us!!!
In all honesty, how much supplement does he get in a day? (There is no wrong answer to this!!!)

[alejorge]

Well it depends on how he sleeps at night at how much supplement he gets. If he sleep sgood he will get about 11oz a day in supplement and if not he will get about 15oz to 18oz in supplement. He gets about 1 to 2 2oz bottles during the day and about 1 to 2 4oz bottles at night after bed.

[annieversteeg]

So... That tells me that your supply isn't fully back.... YET! Pumping would no doubt really help as would some other meds for milk, lots of fiber in your diet and lots of frequent nursings.
I must say you are doing a great job keeping up with his demands with both BM and supplement. If you are OK with how things are, then that is good:-)

[alejorge]

Thank you for the help. I really appreciate it. Should i pump after each feeding at night and during the day or just at night? Also what are some other meds that would be good to try. Is the Mothers milk tea a good one to try? I would like to get to where we don't have to use any supplements. I have gotten quite far with getting him off the supplements. We used to do 32 1/2oz of supplements a day now we are down to just about 11oz or so a day so I am getting there just need to go a bit further. Thank you lots Jocie

[annieversteeg]

Yes Jocie, you are doing a great job! Mothers milk tea is great. There are 2 RX meds. Motillium (Domperidone) and Reglan. Both are used for nausea and vomiting and both have the side effect of making milk (Go figure). You can read about those on Jack's website.
Pump as much as you can humanly stand it.. The more frequently the better and see, if after 4 days of strenuous pumping if you have more milk? If you do, you will know the pumping is working and you will figure out how to work it into your already busy schedule.
Yeah Mommy... and Happy Mother's Day!!!!