I'm having milk supply issues and its totally bumming me out #breastfeeding
Immediately after tweeting this morning, I finally admitted to myself that what I had written was true. It's been close to a month since the baby boy started getting fussy and hungry; wanting to feed more often than my body seems to be able to keep up with. I've been fooling myself, despite the fact that I've been through this before, hoping that it was just a growth spurt, or that my body would suddenly miraculously be able keep up with the baby's demands.
Just after the baby boy turned three months old, the fussiness started. He started feeding more often, crying more urgently for food and my lovely 6 hour stretch of evening sleep started to disappear. Determined to learn from my mistakes, I decided to try supplementing the little man with just a little bit of formula; this was scary in its own right as dairy seems to encourage vomitting. Fortunately, the 'lactose-free' formula hasn't been a problem at all.
At first an additional 2 oz of formula once a day, when he wanted to eat after only 2 hours, was completely sufficient. My breasts felt fuller again, the baby seemed more satisfied and we were sleeping again. Sadly this was short-lived, the baby is now having at least one formula bottle before bed (or we are up every 3 hours throughout the night) and my breasts consistently feel empty. I feel like the baby is putting in a lot of effort for little milk and so, supplementation is currently my reality.
With the boy, solids was the answer, he was ready and once we began feeding him breastfeeding resumed a normal schedule. Despite his young age (almost 4 months) I have tried giving the baby boy some rice cereal and although he takes it and is able to swallow, he just isn't as eager as the boy was, so I feel like I need to consider other potential solutions.
I'm hoping to take a trip to my doctor on Monday to discuss my concerns; but in the meantime, I have a question for all of you.
Although there are tons of posts on breast feeding and formula feeding, why do we so rarely talk about the need for supplementation? I'm surely not the only one in this situation.
