Drying up?????

[Kegs]

I have been solely bf-ing my DS since he was born 4 months ago and it all seemed to be going so well (I am a first time mum), I went back to work 3 weeks after he was born (only doing a few hours of an evening) so I would express one bottle for his evening feed with Daddy. I haven't been feeling my best the last couple of weeks so instead of expressing fresh everyday I started going through my "back-up" milk in the freezer, that has all run out and I am finding it impossible to express a measly 7 ozs for his bottle. Today I had to get up at 4am (only got 2 ozs), got up again at 8am (1 oz) had a bath to get some (1 oz) and this continued all day my boobs are sore. I see to be producing enough to satisfy him feeding but I just can't seem to express. Am I losing my milk? What do I do?

I know it sounds silly, but i'm not emotionally ready to stop bf-ing him yet!

Help???

[Hattie05]

I wouldn't think you are drying up as you feed him for majority of the day.
It may be a case of you slipped out of your usual routine of expressing and so body has stopped producing that amount. If you persevere with feeding and expressing i'm sure you'll get it back.

Have you tried expressing from one side whilst feeding him? That and the bath were the two times i found the easiest.

[spinach]

Don't worry.... you're probably not losing your milk, but your body will recognise that you have dropped that feed(the expresssed one) and thinks that milk is no longer needed. You may just need to build up your supply again by pumping regulary again... your body will then recognise the increase in demand and produce more... Breastfeeding works on supply and demand... the more the demand, the more you can supply. As your baby gets older and demands more, you produce more so its the same with expressing. Keep your calories and fluid intake up to help too.

[bramblina]

Put him to the breast as much as possible tomorrow and you may have much more the next day. This is what I did after I panicked I'd increased ds's solids too much and we got right back on track. If you used to manage 7oz you should have no probs getting back to that.
Expressing is not as effective as actual feeding so from time to time your supply will dwindle but you'll notice it.
Good luck.

[spinach]

agree... increasing supply is more effective if baby feeds directly.

[Kegs]

Will try everything I can to get back on track, thanks for the advice xx

[kiskidee]

within a couple days you will make that feed again.

[bramblina]

Kegs how did today go?

[Kegs]

Hi ya

Sorry never got back to you quicker, all is well now, have been managing perfectly fine to express since I stopped panicking thinking my milk was drying up - my sister is such a drama queen and frightened the life out of me!

I have been expressing when I get in from work (about 5 ozs) and then first thing when I get up (about 5 ozs) so I am managing to have enough for the day and a bit more for my back up plan.

Thanks for all your help Bram, and caring enough to check on me x

[bramblina]

I'm delighted to help any breastfeeder, there's too few of them now. Glad it's all back on track x.