Help with increasing supply (sorry...long)

Faith722

Hi ladies,

I've been lurking here throughout my pregnancy and we now have an 8 day old LO at home.  DS showed a lot of interest in nursing within an hour of being born.  Within the next day, he started to lose interest.  He was still nursing, but it took more effort to get him to latch.  I had several LCs work with me while we were in the hospital.  We had some latching issues and the LCs said he wasn't as aggressive at the breast as they wanted, but they said he was doing well. They insisted that as long as he was having the appropriate number of diapers, all was well.

Over the next few days, we had a horrible time waking him to eat during the day.  He was just so sleepy!  And at night, he wanted to bf constantly.  On day 5, we did a weighed feeding with a new LC and found he got less than an ounce from both breasts.  Obviously, he was still loosing weight and the LC recommended we start supplementing with formula.  After a couple of bottles, he wanted nothing to do with bf.  I switched to different bottle/nipple and started using a breast shield over the next couple of days and that seems to have helped.  He's starting to nurse more often and for longer stretches, but it's not like it was.

The LC also recommended I start pumping.  I contacted my insurance company and they are supplying a double electric pump.  I thought we'd have it on day 6, but we still don't have it.  It's finally been shipped, but according to UPS we won't have it until Tuesday!  Ugh!  That's four more days!  So I bought a manual pump today and started using that.  I got less than a 1/2 ounce from both breasts!

So, my question is....what can I do at this point to help increase my supply?   I've given up on the idea of being able to ebf, but I'd still like to give him as much as I can.  I'm planning on using my manual pump at least every 2 hours and I put baby to the breast about every 3 hours.   Is it too late to correct this?  Or is there still hope that I can make this work? 

Sorry this got so long.  Thanks a bunch if you made it all the way through!!