r/breastfeedingsupport

I am a second time mom and my son is just 15 days old. He was born at 37+3, generally health. He developed bad jaundice shortly after birth and we had to supplement heavily with formula in the first week. It didn't help at all that my milk took 5 days to come in and I am still not producing enough. This same thing happened 5 years ago with my daughter who was born even more prematurely at 35+6. We fought hard for breastfeeding and after about 1.5 months of absolute hell were finally able to do exclusive breastfeeding. We were tripple feeding, doing weighted feeds at home, worked through a tongue tie, sleepiness, etc. so both me and my husband were severely sleep deprived and I barely was able to take care of myself but it was covid time and we had no one else to take care of and, again, it all worked out eventually. I fed ny daughter for 2 years!

Now, fast forward to today, I have all the same issues. Not enough milk, baby is sleepy at breasts, doesn't get full feeds from breasts and we have to supplement. I barely make ends meet with my pumped milk and with what he wants. He gains beautifully, but otherwise I am completely exhausted from tripple feeding and not seeing an end to this. We met with an LC and they were pretty useless telling us to just continue the every 2.5 hours feeds with pumping. I can not imagine doing this for weeks longer.

So, what do I do? AI keeps encouraging me saying I already produce like 600ml of milk daily but who cares if I can not sleep and baby is hungry if we don't give him a bottle after nursing. I am considering doing a nesting day tomorrow pretty much allowing my baby to feed frequently and however he wants without supplementing. Would this hurt my supply? Idk. Am I willing to go longer with tripple feeds? Again, idk. I am starting to lose sight of why am I doing this. Of we just use formula everyone's life is going to be easier. I will probably feel worthless as a mom though but I will get over it, right?

Any advice is welcome and thank you

I’m 8 weeks PP with my first. I made enough milk for the first 2 weeks, now my supply has dropped to almost nothing (it takes me 3-4 sessions to produce an ounce).

My husband has been back to work for 2 weeks and I’m having an extremely hard time staying hydrated and getting protein while taking care of the baby. I cannot even pump until he gets home.

The stress and guilt of not producing enough is taking a serious toll on my mental health. With how inconsistent I’ve been with pumping, am I able to even get my supply back up at this point?

(I do put baby to the breast a few times a day in between formula feeding. I pump as much as possible when my husband is home from work. I’ve been eating oatmeal made with oat milk and I’ve tried the “liquid gold” supplement and “she’s flowing” drink mix with zero results)