This following is not medical advice, nor does it serve as a guarantee in increasing milk supply. This is simply what worked for me and I hope some or all of it can help you as well.
To skip my sob story & get right to the good stuff, click here
On January 26, my sweet girl was born.
On February 25, I all but lost my milk supply.
Let me start again….
Zoey arrived promptly, one day after her due date, and I remember not having any plan going into delivery outside of “I want her here and healthy” and “I want to breastfeed”.
I couldn’t tell you why it was so important to breastfeed my child. Part of me thinks it’s because I’d rather use the money for formula on Starbucks, the stronger part of me remembers my milk coming in with Raya and not being able to do anything with it (read Raya’s story here).
I wanted to give Zoey the best start at life and for me, that meant doing all I could to learn to breastfeed to allow for us to have that closeness.
Breastfeeding is hard.
Like, just really quite difficult (and we didn’t have an issue with latch or an allergy or anything to maneuver).
I couldn’t even replay the lactation consultant coming into the hospital room after delivery; everything was such a blur. Also, we seemed to connect right away so I just assumed all was well. And it was.
Exhausting, but well.
On February 24, my husband went back to work (overnights, yikes).
On February 25, I was with my mom & tried nursing Zoey and felt like she was just getting…nothing. Like she was gnawing at taffy on a hot summer’s day (I recognize that comparison is from New Girl but just…it works here too, ok?)
She would get frustrated so I would get frustrated. I remember googling “how to increase milk fast” and guess what? You really can’t….which was fun to learn.
I remember my mom asking what I wanted to do and me standing in front of her just repeating “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do”.
My mom did; she always knows, it’s just who she is.
I booked a lactation appointment for the next day and my mom stayed the night to help me be able to pump and get *some* sleep. I pumped as often as I could, trying to signal my body to make more milk NOW but we just were not connecting.
The next day, my mom went with me to the appointment. Luckily, I had already built a relationship with the consultant from going to the weekly Mommy & Me meet-ups (highly recommend). She sat and listened, watched me feed Zoey, let me cry (like I gave anyone a choice), talked with my mom, and prescribed me with what no new mom wants to hear: triple feeding.
In short: nurse Zoey, pump, then feed back whatever I pumped to “encourage” my body to make more milk.
There was not a roadmap in my brain that led me to successfully triple feeding my child but, as I watched Zoey turn her head at the bottle the lactation consultant was trying to give her of formula, I decided it didn’t matter. I had to make it work.
We were so incredibly blessed by a friend of ours that selflessly donated some of her breastmilk to us to use during this time. That way I was able to feed Zoey, give her the bottle & then pump, rather than listening to a starving baby while I tried to pump more milk for her.
When I tell you this was a Godsend, it was a Godsend.
I soon learned how to feed Zoey the bottle WHILE pumping to cut down on time that she couldn’t be held (because, you know…she had needs).
For some reason, I always had an adequate milk supply at night and was able to successfully feed her all night long which was great and also just…so strange.
Fast forward to today, I am able to successfully pump between 40-50 ounces a day, nurse her at night when needed (or when out & about, but she just gets so distracted now) and have a freezer stash of a number of ounces I never kept track of and now regret….but enough to fill our deep freezer and some of my mom’s.
The following is what I did/changed to go from an under-supplier to, by definition, an “over-supplier”.
Pump every time she eats
At the time my supply went away, homegirl was still eating every 2 hours. So I pumped. Every. Two. Hours. I would nurse her, give her a bottle with 2 ounces in it (sometimes she took it all, sometimes she only took a little. And my oh my, the excitement I had when she didn’t take any because she got a full feed from me).
Create a schedule (and stick to it)
One thing that my husband & I agreed upon was that I was not going to pump every two hours throughout the night. At this point, Zoey would only sleep while being held so the moment I would go to set her down, she’d wake up and then there would be zero sleep from either of us. I did create a pretty strict schedule once I started to get a little bit of my supply back. Obviously, the schedule is going to look different for everyone but what worked for me was pumping 6 times a day, including one overnight (6am – 9am – 12pm – 3pm – 6pm – 8pm – 1230/1am)
The day I decided to drop my one overnight pump was also magical (albeit somewhat painful to work through).
Today, my schedule looks like this:
6am – 9am – 12pm – 3pm – 730pm (after Zoey goes to bed).
If we’re out and about on the weekends, I will either bring a bottle & pump in the car (because #distractedbaby) or, if we’re going to a friend’s house, I’ll just swap that time with a nursing session (my fave). Again, your schedule might look different. You might need to pump more or even less often – as long as you stick to a schedule, you’re golden.
Eat in a surplus
Standard practice (on the good ol internet) suggests needing 500 extra calories a day when breastfeeding.
I can tell you right now that I was not eating anywhere near enough, 500 calories or not, to what my body needed to produce enough. I started eating every time I would pump or feed baby (and still to this day, I feel like I am snacking all day). I’m probably taking in closer to 1,000-1,200 extra calories a day (I don’t measure but I tracked for years so…there’s my best estimate) in order for my body to utilize that energy to make milk.
Drink water
By “drink water” I don’t mean “order water instead of coffee once a day”. I mean, get yourself a Stanley & drink down 4-5 of them each day (the 40 ouncers). Your body needs water for a billion reasons outside of just keeping you hydrated, and your breast milk is roughly 87% water. So buy yourself a pretty tumbler & drink up, buttercup.
Change out pump parts (& ensure proper sizing)
Most pumps come with 24 + 28 size flanges and most women…aren’t those sizes (go figure). The strangest thing I’ve ever done (besides the actual experience of childbirth) was measure myself for proper flange size. And let me tell you, it made a world of a difference.
As does changing out pump parts. If you mainly nurse, this probably isn’t as important however, if you pump a lot or exclusively, it’s so important for the life of your pump and adequate suction, to change out your pump parts.
While I am diligent about switching out my valves every 4 weeks, it was last night when my bottle dropped from the flange for the 2nd time that I realized I should be swapping those out too, especially if you use a sterilizer ever (experts say it can cause the parts to warp) (expert being a friend of mine, naturally)
Know how to use your pump
This was something I knew nothing about prior to meeting with lactation. I remember googling/hunting on Pinterest & the Google for how to use the pump and how each setting worked & what order to do them in. Fun fact: it’s different for everyone. When I met with lactation, she gave what turned out to be the perfect advice: start at the lowest setting, and go from there.
One of the greatest investments I made was a Pumpables portable pump (yes, you can click that link to order; no, I wouldn’t make any money off of it).
When I had to triple feed, I knew something had to be done to make it easier than lugging around my giant heavy Spectra; low and behold – Pumpables. They (the knowers of all things online) say that you shouldn’t use it as your primary pump since it’s not going to work as well as a hospital-grade.
I’ll tell you right now, I don’t even know where my Spectra is at the moment. At home, at work, driving, Duluth, anywhere I’ve been since February, I’ve used the Pumpables portable pump.
In the end, you need to do what works for you. These things may work, they may not. But it’s worth a shot if your desire is to lengthen your breastfeeding journey.
And know that there are a million of us out there going through whatever it is you’re going through, that it’s normal…and that you are not alone (especially during those midnight pumps). We’re here for you, and Amazon shopping is here for you.
