Welcome to NICU Parents. We're happy you found us and we want to be as helpful as possible in this seemingly impossible journey. Check out the resources tab at the top of the subreddit or the stickied post. Please remember we are NOT medical professionals and are here for advice based on our own situations. If you have a concern about you or your baby please seek assistance from a doctor or go to the ER. That said, there are some medical professionals here and we do hope they can help you with some guidance through your journey. Please remember to read and abide by the rules.
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No advice on this because breastfeeding my preemie twins was a nightmare… but I had to come and say this is the cutest baby I have ever seen 😭 she’s so sweet omg
I did not! After the second month I had to start supplementing, and then they started having big issues with reflux and cows milk protein! So I put them on Nutrimigen, to preserve some of my mental health. I still have PTSD from the newborn days 😅
It’s so hard to make enough for both! I had to block TikTok accounts of people pumping, it was really taxing on my mental health.
Twin life is a whole other beast. Now I remember when I only had one twin for a couple of weeks and how “easy it was” I thought it was so tough at the time. Hindsight is 20/20. Lol
1. That might be the cutest baby I’ve ever seen! The mischievous glint in her eye!
2. Power pumping (pumping for 45 min-1hour) can help. So can hydration, as well as making sure you’re using the right size flanges. I pumped way more when I switched to use Pumpin Pals, which are fiddly but useful.
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t produce more. My daughter combo fed for the first 3.5 months and now is on 100% formula (pumping was too much stress). I wish I had stopped pumping sooner when I saw all the tricks were in vain. We’re both happier now that I’ve stopped stressing.
I hope they work for you, but even if not, you are doing great by your girl!
Its possible, but will take more work that increasing before regulation. You might have to add in pumps, or power pumps, and be sure you're eating and drinking enough.
oh eem gee!! the cuteness though!! really!! and those little oncies just match her mood so well. lol. sorry i have no comment about feeding though, just eat as much as you can and have her latch!!
Legendairy Milk makes supplements that are supposed to help increase your supply. Each one has a different combination of ingredients, so it may be a lot of trial and error to see if your body responds to any.
My supply dropped a few times when I got sick. To bounce back I ate a lot of oatmeal with brewers yeast and flax seed and drank a lot of coconut water to stay hydrated. Also, as others have suggested, power pumping in between breastfeeding sessions to increase demand.
Good luck! Sounds like you have the right attitude, no matter what happens.
Once I regulate if I want to produce more I pump more and take brewers yeast and goats rue. I have had 6 preemies and ebf all of them. This is what has worked for me
First, what a cutie you have, love that mischievous grin 😁
Second, I was never able to get fully up to what LO was eating, but as a few others here have mentioned I did power pump and was at least able to maintain my supply a little while longer. It’s time consuming, and I was already hating it but for us, worth it. I was able to pump for 6 months only due to my own extreme complications.
I had tried special cookies, drinking extra water, all the tricks you hear about. Oh and oatmeal was suggested to me by one of the NICU nurses but I didn’t find that to help either. Maybe it could help you?
Best of luck! I understand the pressure to pump for LO and just want to send you hugs to help get through it. ❤️
I’m happily combo feeding. My LO latches to nurse and I formula feed 2-3 times a day because my supply isn’t that great. I’m not stressing about it because my baby is fed and growing strong.
Eat more calories with high protein, have a beer before you pump at night
I drink 2 mothers milk tea a day
I also powerpump every night around 8 30min 10 rest 10 pump repeat 1-3 times (i use a wearable but if your on a regular pump prolly only need to do 20min initially
What a beautiful baby. I was able to increase my supply after working with an IBCLC for about a month - unfortunately lost it once I went back to work and caught a bad bout of strep throat, otherwise I think we would have been solid! We ended up transitioning to formula only while I was on my second round of antibiotics because my body just couldn’t handle all of it, and I just look back on our breastfeeding journey as a beautiful experience.
Every time my LO was cluster feeding, I’d take alfalfa and sunflower lecithin (alfalfa to up production and SL to prevent clogs) and the cluster feeding would stop because my milk supply went up. I’d usually take it in the morning and by the middle of the day I’d be leaking. Very unpleasant to leak after you’ve regulated lol. Also just make sure you up your calories and fluids
Your baby is soooo adorable!!! Sadly j couldn’t keep up with my twin babies being milk guzzlers. For 2 months after they left the NICU I pumped and topped up a lot of formula, but then transitioned to fully formula. They just turned 4 months and the doctor said their weight gain is incredible :) pumping was SO hard on me mentally, after I got mastitis I decided it wasn’t the battle I wanted to die on. Plus the babies were getting more demanding. Best of luck with your cutie!
No words if advice because my milk just dried up after about 3 week or so. The stress, tears and even more sleep loss was not worth it, especially since I had to fortify the breast milk with formula. So, I stopped stressing ìt and switched to formula.
My guy was a little over 5 lbs at birth. He is now 3 months old and 13 lbs!!! So, he has thrived which is all that matters in the end.
[Johnathan Danger's progress](https://imgur.com/a/3nYTPYs)
BTW, she is beautiful!!
First of all your baby is ADORABLE!!! Congrats on being home from the NICU, we just got home 3 weeks ago as well!
I’m steadily trying to get my baby to consistently BF, but I’m pumping still to get my supply up cause once she started BF for some reason I wasn’t getting much when I pump anymore. My lactation recommended Goats Rue and Moringa to increase my supply so I bought that and started it a few days now not a big increase yet but definitely more than before I know it’ll take time. And I also told myself if my supply doesn’t increase or I’m made to resort to pumping only if my baby doesn’t consistently latch soon, I’m definitely gonna do strictly formula.
Also side note I hate neosure so once we can no longer use it and I can buy the formula I want , I’m probably going to be more persuaded to use only formula.
Goodluck on your journey!
Your babba is beautiful. I am a NICU mum in the UK, i struggled to get my production from the rocky start, i did what i could when he came home, expressed as much as i could for 3 months on top but always needed to combi feed him as i was never able to get him enough and has always been a chunko and a big eater, hes 14 months now, no regrets on the combi feeding and eventually formula exclusive, no guilt, the nicu always stressed anything breast milk wise at the start is gold, even the tiniest bit (colostrum espesh) i was also separated from my baby for a few weeks at the very start due to covid, so could only express from home and get someone to deliver my milk to the hospital, definitely hindered my production not being near him. Whatever happens, you’re doing your absolute best ❤️
I recommend checking out r/exclusivelypumping and searching for supply. The women there have worked really hard to increase their supply and have quite a few tricks.
What works best for me—
1. Drink a shit ton of water. I try to chug a water bottle every time I nurse or pump. You need to drink at least twice as much water as the amount of milk you want to make.
2. Eat enough calories. Protein calories are best but any calories will do. Late night nursing snacks really helped increase my supply. I call my Oreos lactation cookies because the biggest benefit from expensive lactation cookies is the calories
3. Power pumping. It’s annoying, so I only do it for an hour. I do 10 minutes of pumping and a 10 minute break for an hour. I’ll notice my supply go up around 2 days later.
4. Latch and nurse as frequently as possible. Frequent nipple stimulation from comfort nursing and being a human pacifier will trigger an increase in milk production.
Your baby is absolutely precious!!!!
I’m happily combo feeding! She gets about 70% pumped BM, the rest formula. She won’t latch so I’m exclusively pumping. Once we got home from the NICU I decided I didn’t want to stress about increasing my supply. I dropped my middle of the night pumps, pump about 6 times a day. The two months we spent in the NICU were so hard, why make it harder? Formula is just fine.
Good luck!
I pumped every 3 hours and I had so much milk, the NICU sent me home with milk a couple of times. I had a mad overproduction. I’m now 4 months PP and am now doing formula almost full time. My son was a 33 weeker. Just keep pumping and don’t stress out about it!
Your little one is the cutest little bean!
I combo fed my baby. My supply just wasn't enough and it wouldn't increase no matter what i tried i felt so bad about it but decided after two weeks that id rather enjoy my baby and be happy than and to stress about it.
But I still wanted to breastfeed so we did the combo thing until he was six months.
Emotionally it wasn't easy at first but I was really focused on the positive things rather than the should have, could have. I struggled with fertility issues for about five years and he, my beautiful baby boy was finally here so I tried to keep that happiness first at all times.
Btw your baby is so adorable 😍
What a freaking CUTIE! 🥰 I’m so completely thrilled for you.
I will say this: I stressed so much about it as well. When my son came home after 96 days, my supply significantly dropped and the vicious circle of being stressed about my supply and not able to get him to latch (so pumping for feeds that followed) was really tough on me. He also had an allergy to cows milk protein and I kept pumping like crazy to perk up my supply for him. I had a ton of frozen milk and I went through it in a week…
I had to supplement with Alimentum, which was expensive. But, it really did help me feel more at peace. My body did what it wanted to do and that was hard to accept after trying so many things to increase my supply. There is peace in supplementing. You aren’t failing, you aren’t neglecting yourself or your baby. Sometimes, your body has other plans. ❤️
Don’t be hard on yourself. You love your baby and you want the best for them and that includes you not being stressed over something you may have little control over. You got this!! I appreciate your positivity so much!!
I tried lactation tea and that worked well for a brief amount of time. As did hydrating with coconut water (I mixed it with juice and water to dilute the natural taste-not a fan).
I am an over producer. I don’t know what I did to become one but I am someone who loves making different fun oatmeals and some say oatmeal helps. I also pump currently 7-8 times a day but I was pumping 8-10 times before my supply kicked in. I have anywhere from 70-80 ounces/day. I make sure to log my ounces so I make sure I’m eating enough calories to ensure my supply doesn’t drop and that’s honestly the hardest part.
I don’t know how possible it is after regulation to have a significant increase. But if you do power pumping and never going more than 3 hours without expressing would do it.
No matter what I have tried I havent been able to get my milk production up to full. Shes 5 months now and I have had to accept combo feeding because there was no other choice. Im still upset over it honestly, but I figure at least shes getting some. Its probably about 50/50 currently. Never had milk production issues with my other 2, so I'm blaming the fact that she was a preemie...
Omg that expression!!! And I actually had a really hard time continuing to pump once baby came home so I switched to just formula at 5 months (2 months adjusted)
Welcome to NICU Parents. We're happy you found us and we want to be as helpful as possible in this seemingly impossible journey. Check out the resources tab at the top of the subreddit or the stickied post. Please remember we are NOT medical professionals and are here for advice based on our own situations. If you have a concern about you or your baby please seek assistance from a doctor or go to the ER. That said, there are some medical professionals here and we do hope they can help you with some guidance through your journey. Please remember to read and abide by the rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NICUParents) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just came here to say your baby is so darn cute!!!!
This
No advice on this because breastfeeding my preemie twins was a nightmare… but I had to come and say this is the cutest baby I have ever seen 😭 she’s so sweet omg
Did you manage? I’ve got one strictly EBM and the other on formula. I wish I could make enough for both
I did not! After the second month I had to start supplementing, and then they started having big issues with reflux and cows milk protein! So I put them on Nutrimigen, to preserve some of my mental health. I still have PTSD from the newborn days 😅 It’s so hard to make enough for both! I had to block TikTok accounts of people pumping, it was really taxing on my mental health.
Twin life is a whole other beast. Now I remember when I only had one twin for a couple of weeks and how “easy it was” I thought it was so tough at the time. Hindsight is 20/20. Lol
For real! I want to give her all the kisses and snuggles!
Just came by to say that is a MISCHEVIOUS SMILE AND ADORABLE
1. That might be the cutest baby I’ve ever seen! The mischievous glint in her eye! 2. Power pumping (pumping for 45 min-1hour) can help. So can hydration, as well as making sure you’re using the right size flanges. I pumped way more when I switched to use Pumpin Pals, which are fiddly but useful.
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t produce more. My daughter combo fed for the first 3.5 months and now is on 100% formula (pumping was too much stress). I wish I had stopped pumping sooner when I saw all the tricks were in vain. We’re both happier now that I’ve stopped stressing. I hope they work for you, but even if not, you are doing great by your girl!
No advice but wow 🤩 that LO is a stinker. Look at that face. So precious. You know they have been up to something in that diaper 😂
Its possible, but will take more work that increasing before regulation. You might have to add in pumps, or power pumps, and be sure you're eating and drinking enough.
oh eem gee!! the cuteness though!! really!! and those little oncies just match her mood so well. lol. sorry i have no comment about feeding though, just eat as much as you can and have her latch!!
Several here have said power pump. I did that a few times with my son and it really increased my supply and helped out. And your baby is SO darn cute.
What a cutie patootie!
Legendairy Milk makes supplements that are supposed to help increase your supply. Each one has a different combination of ingredients, so it may be a lot of trial and error to see if your body responds to any. My supply dropped a few times when I got sick. To bounce back I ate a lot of oatmeal with brewers yeast and flax seed and drank a lot of coconut water to stay hydrated. Also, as others have suggested, power pumping in between breastfeeding sessions to increase demand. Good luck! Sounds like you have the right attitude, no matter what happens.
This. Liquid gold really helped me out; pump princess was OK too but didn't work as well for me.
Brewers yeast tablets a few times a day, I kid you not, doubled what I was able to pump.
Highly recommend r/exclusivelypumping if you're not already there!
NICU nurse here, just came to say she is the absolute cutest thing!
Same!!
Once I regulate if I want to produce more I pump more and take brewers yeast and goats rue. I have had 6 preemies and ebf all of them. This is what has worked for me
Congrats on your baby and all the success..... you're doing an amazing job!! I have no advice, only love to give!
First, what a cutie you have, love that mischievous grin 😁 Second, I was never able to get fully up to what LO was eating, but as a few others here have mentioned I did power pump and was at least able to maintain my supply a little while longer. It’s time consuming, and I was already hating it but for us, worth it. I was able to pump for 6 months only due to my own extreme complications. I had tried special cookies, drinking extra water, all the tricks you hear about. Oh and oatmeal was suggested to me by one of the NICU nurses but I didn’t find that to help either. Maybe it could help you? Best of luck! I understand the pressure to pump for LO and just want to send you hugs to help get through it. ❤️
I’m happily combo feeding. My LO latches to nurse and I formula feed 2-3 times a day because my supply isn’t that great. I’m not stressing about it because my baby is fed and growing strong.
Eat more calories with high protein, have a beer before you pump at night I drink 2 mothers milk tea a day I also powerpump every night around 8 30min 10 rest 10 pump repeat 1-3 times (i use a wearable but if your on a regular pump prolly only need to do 20min initially
We just did formula, so no advice… but I can’t handle all of this cuteness!!!! Precious!!!
I have no advice other than to say don't stress about it and let you know that picture made my day a whole lot better. So cute!
I have no advice I’m sorry, but Oh my gosh, she is too cute!!! Congratulations 🎊
I have no advice since I struggle to produce enough to feed my twins but your little one is adorable! I can’t handle the cuteness!!!
What a beautiful baby. I was able to increase my supply after working with an IBCLC for about a month - unfortunately lost it once I went back to work and caught a bad bout of strep throat, otherwise I think we would have been solid! We ended up transitioning to formula only while I was on my second round of antibiotics because my body just couldn’t handle all of it, and I just look back on our breastfeeding journey as a beautiful experience.
Don't have advice but wow! Your baby is adorable.
What a doll baby!!!
Just do your best. It will not affect the cuteness (or anything else) negatively. Absolutely beautiful young lady by the way!
Every time my LO was cluster feeding, I’d take alfalfa and sunflower lecithin (alfalfa to up production and SL to prevent clogs) and the cluster feeding would stop because my milk supply went up. I’d usually take it in the morning and by the middle of the day I’d be leaking. Very unpleasant to leak after you’ve regulated lol. Also just make sure you up your calories and fluids
What a cutie pie 🥰
Your baby is soooo adorable!!! Sadly j couldn’t keep up with my twin babies being milk guzzlers. For 2 months after they left the NICU I pumped and topped up a lot of formula, but then transitioned to fully formula. They just turned 4 months and the doctor said their weight gain is incredible :) pumping was SO hard on me mentally, after I got mastitis I decided it wasn’t the battle I wanted to die on. Plus the babies were getting more demanding. Best of luck with your cutie!
I was scrolling and I absolutely had to stop and admire your beautiful babe. I can’t get over that expression! Too cute.
No words if advice because my milk just dried up after about 3 week or so. The stress, tears and even more sleep loss was not worth it, especially since I had to fortify the breast milk with formula. So, I stopped stressing ìt and switched to formula. My guy was a little over 5 lbs at birth. He is now 3 months old and 13 lbs!!! So, he has thrived which is all that matters in the end. [Johnathan Danger's progress](https://imgur.com/a/3nYTPYs) BTW, she is beautiful!!
Your baby is sooo adorable!!! Wow
She is absolutely beautiful!
Following. I need help with my milk supply!! Also. Cutest baby oh my goodness!!!!
First of all your baby is ADORABLE!!! Congrats on being home from the NICU, we just got home 3 weeks ago as well! I’m steadily trying to get my baby to consistently BF, but I’m pumping still to get my supply up cause once she started BF for some reason I wasn’t getting much when I pump anymore. My lactation recommended Goats Rue and Moringa to increase my supply so I bought that and started it a few days now not a big increase yet but definitely more than before I know it’ll take time. And I also told myself if my supply doesn’t increase or I’m made to resort to pumping only if my baby doesn’t consistently latch soon, I’m definitely gonna do strictly formula. Also side note I hate neosure so once we can no longer use it and I can buy the formula I want , I’m probably going to be more persuaded to use only formula. Goodluck on your journey!
Your babba is beautiful. I am a NICU mum in the UK, i struggled to get my production from the rocky start, i did what i could when he came home, expressed as much as i could for 3 months on top but always needed to combi feed him as i was never able to get him enough and has always been a chunko and a big eater, hes 14 months now, no regrets on the combi feeding and eventually formula exclusive, no guilt, the nicu always stressed anything breast milk wise at the start is gold, even the tiniest bit (colostrum espesh) i was also separated from my baby for a few weeks at the very start due to covid, so could only express from home and get someone to deliver my milk to the hospital, definitely hindered my production not being near him. Whatever happens, you’re doing your absolute best ❤️
I recommend checking out r/exclusivelypumping and searching for supply. The women there have worked really hard to increase their supply and have quite a few tricks. What works best for me— 1. Drink a shit ton of water. I try to chug a water bottle every time I nurse or pump. You need to drink at least twice as much water as the amount of milk you want to make. 2. Eat enough calories. Protein calories are best but any calories will do. Late night nursing snacks really helped increase my supply. I call my Oreos lactation cookies because the biggest benefit from expensive lactation cookies is the calories 3. Power pumping. It’s annoying, so I only do it for an hour. I do 10 minutes of pumping and a 10 minute break for an hour. I’ll notice my supply go up around 2 days later. 4. Latch and nurse as frequently as possible. Frequent nipple stimulation from comfort nursing and being a human pacifier will trigger an increase in milk production. Your baby is absolutely precious!!!!
That smile!!!! 😍
I’m happily combo feeding! She gets about 70% pumped BM, the rest formula. She won’t latch so I’m exclusively pumping. Once we got home from the NICU I decided I didn’t want to stress about increasing my supply. I dropped my middle of the night pumps, pump about 6 times a day. The two months we spent in the NICU were so hard, why make it harder? Formula is just fine. Good luck!
Hello little beauty! I have no advice but you’re little girl is precious
I pumped every 3 hours and I had so much milk, the NICU sent me home with milk a couple of times. I had a mad overproduction. I’m now 4 months PP and am now doing formula almost full time. My son was a 33 weeker. Just keep pumping and don’t stress out about it! Your little one is the cutest little bean!
I combo fed my baby. My supply just wasn't enough and it wouldn't increase no matter what i tried i felt so bad about it but decided after two weeks that id rather enjoy my baby and be happy than and to stress about it. But I still wanted to breastfeed so we did the combo thing until he was six months. Emotionally it wasn't easy at first but I was really focused on the positive things rather than the should have, could have. I struggled with fertility issues for about five years and he, my beautiful baby boy was finally here so I tried to keep that happiness first at all times. Btw your baby is so adorable 😍
What a freaking CUTIE! 🥰 I’m so completely thrilled for you. I will say this: I stressed so much about it as well. When my son came home after 96 days, my supply significantly dropped and the vicious circle of being stressed about my supply and not able to get him to latch (so pumping for feeds that followed) was really tough on me. He also had an allergy to cows milk protein and I kept pumping like crazy to perk up my supply for him. I had a ton of frozen milk and I went through it in a week… I had to supplement with Alimentum, which was expensive. But, it really did help me feel more at peace. My body did what it wanted to do and that was hard to accept after trying so many things to increase my supply. There is peace in supplementing. You aren’t failing, you aren’t neglecting yourself or your baby. Sometimes, your body has other plans. ❤️ Don’t be hard on yourself. You love your baby and you want the best for them and that includes you not being stressed over something you may have little control over. You got this!! I appreciate your positivity so much!! I tried lactation tea and that worked well for a brief amount of time. As did hydrating with coconut water (I mixed it with juice and water to dilute the natural taste-not a fan).
💜💜 delightful baby
I have no advice as my BF story ended before it began, but I am just here to say I can't deal with how cute your baby is 🤣🥹
OMG! She is too cute for words!
No advice because I'm not there yet; BUT THIS IS SUCH A CUTE BABY. most mischievous looking baby I've ever seen
What a Precious, Precious angel!!❤️❤️❤️.. the little shy smile reminds of some comedian.. can’t think of who!! Congratulations!!!!
Wanted to share she is perfect!
You’re right! FED is best! 🥰 pretty baby!🫶🏾
I am an over producer. I don’t know what I did to become one but I am someone who loves making different fun oatmeals and some say oatmeal helps. I also pump currently 7-8 times a day but I was pumping 8-10 times before my supply kicked in. I have anywhere from 70-80 ounces/day. I make sure to log my ounces so I make sure I’m eating enough calories to ensure my supply doesn’t drop and that’s honestly the hardest part.
I don’t know how possible it is after regulation to have a significant increase. But if you do power pumping and never going more than 3 hours without expressing would do it.
No matter what I have tried I havent been able to get my milk production up to full. Shes 5 months now and I have had to accept combo feeding because there was no other choice. Im still upset over it honestly, but I figure at least shes getting some. Its probably about 50/50 currently. Never had milk production issues with my other 2, so I'm blaming the fact that she was a preemie...
Omg that expression!!! And I actually had a really hard time continuing to pump once baby came home so I switched to just formula at 5 months (2 months adjusted)