Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Medical Interventions to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply When do I stop?

Not stop nursing. Stop pumping.

To review my situation:
I did the long protocol for 10 mo. I started pumping and baby came early--after 4 wks of pumping. I take domperidone, take fenugreek & blessed thistle in the amounts recommended on this site, eat a ton of oatmeal, drink plenty of water. I recently upped my dosage of dom to 160 per day--Lenore slapped my hand for that one. I can't drink beer because I am a long-time recovered alcoholic.

Baby latched on immediately and has been fed exclusively at the breast (with SNS) ever since. I have had her latch checked and it is good. She is now 6 wks old.

I either do 3rd breast pumping or pump 10 min. after every feed and sometimes in between feedings also.

And........

I still am only producing a few oz. per 24 hrs. It is hard to know how many, but baby nurses every 2-3 hours and takes about 3 oz. per feed from the supplementer so I doubt she is getting much from me. When I pump I only get about 1/8 to 1/4 oz. each time.

So my question is this. At what point do I give up on exclusively BF my daughter? It doesn't really seem even remotely possible that I will ever have a full supply. Since it looks like we are always going to have to use the SNS, at what point do I just quit pumping and enjoy my BF relationship with my daughter? The pumping is exhausting.

DH feels that I should give myself a timeline. He says that 6 wks. isn't a long time. He is suggesting maybe 3 or 4 months. Ugghhh. But I am fully committed to this so...

I love breastfeeding my daughter and there is no way I am going to quit that. I know that there is more to breastfeeding than milk. But I have really been hoping to get my supply up with no success.

We have also had a nasty case of thrush which further complicates things, but that is another story.

That is a really hard decision to make. If you were seeing some increase with the pumping, I would say keep going, but if you aren't maybe it is time to just enjoy what you are doing. I did pump after 3-4 feeds a day for 3-4 months. I built up quite a freezer stash. But, I was able to ebf and I wanted to keep my supply increasing with her needs. I hated the extra pumping too and was so glad to stop it. So I don't know if I helped but just wanted to give my 2 cents. Maybe try 6 more weeks and then evaluate at that time?
Good luck
Jennifer

I would give it a few more weeks.. if you don't see an increase I would just nurse. Continue your domperidone but not worry about the amount of milk your making. Just enjoy your baby.

So I spent a long time thinking about this last night. I decided that I need to stick with it. My milk is the only source of fresh breastmilk that my daughter is getting. And though it is not a lot, I am building a biological connection with my daughter. I think that this is so important in the adoptive relationship. I can tell her in the future that my living cells are in her bones, and her blood, and her organs. That they helped her grow and helped keep her healthy.

I am glad your going to continue to nurse

That is fantastic and I am going to borrow that to tell my daughter. I never thought about my living cells being a part of her.

Your story encouraged me!
I am not producing much milk either but the whole idea of my cells causing growth in my daughter, well that's GREAT.
Sticking with it as well
Linda

What a beautiful notion (living cells...etc)!!!!!!!! Thank you for sharing that...you've touched a lot of us with that thought.
Warmly,
Mindy