pumping breast milk

hi everybody! melissa back here today backin my pink studio answering questions from viewers having so much fun. i have a questionfrom ana fernandez writing in, here’s what she says, "hi melissa, i really like yourvideos, especially the breastfeeding ones," thank you very much, i appreciate it, "i havea question, i have a three-month-old baby girl, i’m really worried about my supplywhich seems to have dropped a lot. she doesn’t take the bottle since she’s exclusivelybreastfeeding," great job, "what can i do? i feel bad, she tries and tries but very littlecomes out. it is stressing me out, my poor baby, i need your advice please. thank you.”ok, so this is like such a common issue. i don’t think i know any mother who fed ababy, whether via breast milk or via formula,

that didn’t worry that their baby wasn’tgetting enough. it is like, it happens to all of us. so my first question for you is,how do you know that your baby is not getting enough milk? is it that you feed your babyand your baby is crying and clearly hungry at the end of the feed and you feel thereis nothing left coming out? or is it that some period after in which you’re finishedwith the feed, the baby starts crying again and you feel that she’s not been full fora long enough period of time? i’m not sure. is your baby growing properly? have you visitedyour doctor; i assume your baby’s been weighed because that’s really the indicator. yourdoctor will tell you whether your baby is growing and developing on track, if your babyis doing that, case in point, she’s getting

enough nutrition, she’s getting the rightquantity of breast milk. you do not need to be concerned. i breastfed for nearly sevenyears, there were many, many, many times i did not think i had adequate milk. i had morein the morning; i had less in the afternoon. sometimes i felt like i was like dried upand i just wanted to cry and throw in the towel and give a big bottle of formula, notthat that's a bad thing, but i held in there and my milk supply would come up and go downand i found that the more i drank, milk not alcohol, the more milk and water i drank,a lot of water, the more i slept, the better i ate, and the more i had physical proximityto my baby, literally holding the baby close to me, the more milk i got. and the secondthing that really worked for me was pumping

and i have a lot of videos about this. afteri nursed, when the baby was full, meaning the baby was awake, burped and was rejectingmore milk, i would put on the breast pump for just five minutes to stimulate both breaststo produce more milk. and it would give me a little bit of breast milk that i would storeup and freeze, which made me feel confident cause i had a lot of breast milk in the freezer,and it would sort of even out issues of, had i nursed too much from the right breast whichwas my tendency? had i nursed too much from the left breast? it would sort of even thingsout and i knew that my breasts were being properly stimulated because that’s a bigpart of nursing, you need to make sure that the baby is properly stimulating you to producemilk. so with all that being said, i’m curious

as to why you feel your baby’s not gettingenough breast milk. dig down deep on that one, make sure it is the case. if it is thecase, try giving your, try all the things i mentioned, making sure you’re hydrated,trying to make sure you get rest, making sure you’re eating well, making sure you’retaking time to feed in a quiet place where you have the energy and the ability to focusin and make sure your baby’s getting enough. is your baby burped? is your baby awake? arethey rejecting more food? if they are doing those things, i want to guess, and you haveto double check with your doctor, that your baby’s actually getting enough. they mightbe the type of baby who eats every two hours. however, if you feel your baby is still cryingduring a feed, that enough breast milk is

not getting through to your baby, i woulddefinitely go consult with a lactation consultant. see whether he or she thinks that supplementingwith formula might be a good idea, which is a great thing to do, and you know what? ifyou so choose, you can combine. you can still continue to nurse, you can do top off witha little bit of formula at the end of your feedings. i would still advise doing the pumping,because that’s going to keep the breast milk flowing. do not give up, it’s so easy,it’s such a hard thing to do, and it’s so easy for us to think we’re not doingit properly, but you know what, i bet you are. thank you so much for writing in, i reallyappreciate it. i’m wishing you the best of luck with your little baby. please go onover to my site and check out some of my other

videos because i think they’re going tobe helpful to you, and i will see you next time.