My low supply story...
Sitting here pumping, I guess it's time to write the whole thing down and sort it all out in my mind, if such a thing is possible.
I was and am determined to breastfeed my baby. I planned like crazy for this baby, I wanted to have a baby my whole life but made myself wait, and wait, and wait... and then I wanted to do everything just right (like all moms do), with a natural birth, breastfeeding, etc. I did have a natural home birth and baby latched on within 20 minutes of birth.
My latch was pronounced "good" by both my midwives and my pediatrician, and we were off and running.
Five days out, I called for my first consultation with a lactation consultant due to scabbed over and very, very painful nipples. Of course my latch wasn't good! The LC was friendly and informative, and helped enormously with my latch.
My baby kept losing weight, even though we were nursing on demand practically 24/7. She'd been 9lbs 4oz at birth, dropped to 8lbs 15oz at her 72 hour checkup, then down to 8lbs 4oz a few days later at her first pediatricians visit. Finally at 2 weeks out she was all the way down to 7lbs 15.5oz. Yet no one ever mentioned being concerned with my low supply. I was concerned. I was very concerned about her weight and that she wasn't pooping; after her initial meconium poops, my baby stopped pooping altogether for 7 full days. This is normal in older breastfed babies, but not in brand newborns. My pediatrician was not concerned though.
Everyone kept telling me to make sure she was getting the hindmilk. In hindsight, I wish someone had thought to help me ensure baby was getting ANY milk. The low supply situation was so obvious... but I know that hindsight is 20/20.
During this time, I had the same LC out to visit us for several other things. First, just to help more with our latch. Next I think I was just feeling a low level anxiety and looking for a reason to call her. I was feeling nervous about Bella's weight. She was at 8lbs at the midwife's office when I went in there at around 4 wks out (she was not examined, I just put her on the scale because I was worried about her weight). So she had gained a tiny bit. The LC never seemed concerned, and I will be honest... also in hindsight, I don't know how this lady didn't notice how much weight my baby had lost. The pictures of this time make me so upset to see now, because my baby really did get quite skinny.
At about 5 weeks, the LC had me start pumping after feedings and then supplementing the pumped milk with a syringe. That got us up to having gained one ounce. At that point I decided it was time to supplement with formula. I didn't want to, and sort of felt like formula was the worst thing in the world. Now, I know that a starving baby is actually the worst thing in the world!
It was around this time that I met my second LC, who really waded in to help me address my supply issues. I rented a hospital pump and a baby scale from her so that I could accurately gauge how much milk I was getting. I was able to toss the hateful SNS and trade up for a lact-aid which the new LC gave me. I started taking more supplements; I'd been taking fenugreek, and started taking more fenugreek, ordered goat's rue, and also Motherlove herbals More Milk Special Blend tincture. I got a prescription for domperidone from my midwife and ordered a backup supply online.
One of the hardest things about this whole experience is to try something new and be full of hope that it will work, and then to have nothing happen, or only a very small increase in milk production. I would become very slightly engorged occasionally, I would feel like oh boy I am making progress... and then it would fade right back.
Eventually I figured out that I'm making about 10-12 oz per day of milk, it seems, no matter what I do. I supplement with a lact-aid, I pump as much as I'm able (pumping as I type!). I am currently taking 50mg of domperidone 3 times a day, for a total of 150mg. I'm also taking Motherlove Herbals More Milk Special Blend, which does seem to make a difference. And my baby is now gaining and happy.
Hindsight is 20/20, always! Signs that things were good; she had a good latch, once the first LC corrected it. We cleared her jaundice about a week out with no trouble, I put her in the sun a few times a day for a few minutes (filtered sunlight, through a window) and nursed like crazy. She loved (loves) to nurse. She spent lots of happy, quiet alert time, smiled, and got taller. I get thirsty when we nurse, I haven't started my period, and when I first started nursing her I'd get sleepy and relaxed after she latched on. I've had my prolactin levels tested and they are normal. So from the outside, everything is fine.
But...
She didn't gain weight. She screamed whenever I put her down. She didn't poop or pee as much as she should have. (The first two weeks I felt like I was just having new mama jitters that I couldn't tell when she peed... I was putting tissue in her diapers and counting like crazy and it just wasn't as much as it should have been.) She didn't gain weight. She didn't gain weight. She didn't gain weight!
Since I started this journey I've realized there are many, many more moms out there with low milk supply than I ever would have guessed. Everything I ever read seemed to express that it is a very, very rare problem, but yet I've met at least four or five other moms on local moms groups who have had serious supply problems. I wish someone somewhere were able to invest some money and do some research into why so many mamas are having such a hard time feeding their babies!