🍋Things I did to increase my supply🌸

One of the hardest things I struggled with postpartum was breastfeeding 🤱. I had trouble producing enough to keep up with my daughter’s needs. She would wake multiple times during the day and at night hungry😞 I felt like my body was failing me as a mother. No matter how much water I drank or oatmeal I ate or electrolytes I added nothing was helping. At most I was pumping 4 times a day and feeding her while I was home.

I supplemented when I could with formula at first even though you hear from everyone else breast is best. After a few weeks I was able to get an appointment with a lactation specialist. I didn’t realize I was making a mistake by pumping so often before my daughter was 3 weeks. She explained to me that I was self sabotaging my own supply by pumping so frequently after just having her. I always thought the more you pump can help trigger a higher supply-not the case! You need that skin to skin to help your body naturally stimulate the connection a mother needs to produce nourishment for her baby.

Another thing I did wrong was introducing a pacifier early on. By doing that I was soothing her and not picking up on all her hunger cues. Since I removed the pacifier and stopped pumping so often I was able to substantially increase my supply! It was like magic! My daughter was happier and well fed, I didn’t have to rely on formula and overall just felt more connected to life as a mom. I kept up a healthy diet to encourage milk production.

When I went back to work I pumped 2-3 (15 minute sessions) during my 8 hour shift. I produced 6-9 ounces on average each pump. I continued to do this until my daughter started showing more interest in solids around 6 months. At this time I had a pretty good freezer stash that I slowly started to ween off from pumping in general and around 12 months we were done completely with breastfeeding.

#mybirthstory #lemon8challenge #postpartum #breastfeedingjourney #newmom #newborn #momlife #embracevulnerability #unfiltered #Lemon8Diary

What tips would you give to a new mom interested in breastfeeding? What has helped you with production?