As the title says, I'm still struggling in regards to my milk supply. The last time I posted I called it a success, and it was - for about a week. The beginning of this week proved to be the beginning of another downfall in production (ugh, I sound like a factory...) and I began to worry about it again.
I'm not sure what changed, but after doing even more research & speaking with someone from the Loving Support Breastfeeding hotline and also my GP - I think it could a multiple of things:
A) I'm under a lot of stress. At work (we're short staffed - but hopefully not for long) and at home (money is getting tight - plus I can't help but worry about my milk supply). I keep reading everywhere that stress levels are a very important player in regards to milk supply.
B) My diet. Since money is getting tight, we've been striving to eat-in more. When we grocery shop I don't buy any junk food - that means my calorie content dropped dramatically as I was eating a lot of expensive junk food. I'm supposed to be eating 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day and I completely overlooked that when we were shopping.
C) Consistency. I haven't consistency been taking the herb, Fenugreek, and so I think I'm throwing my body for a bit of a loop in regards to that. One day I'm taking upwards of 9K mgs and other days I get maybe 5K mgs.
All in all, its been a hard week. The woman from Loving Support Breastfeeding flat out told me I NEED to be waking Evy up every four hours at night - that's why my supply is low. She made it seem like it was bad for Evy to go that long without eating. Despite being skeptical of this (she's been contently sleeping through the night since she was 2 weeks old, why is it only now effecting me or her?), I've decided to just do it and so the last two nights have been long. I'm lucky in the sense that Evy doesn't really wake up, and she'll nurse on at least one breast before giving into sleep entirely, and so I don't have to spend time soothing her to sleep again. However, I'm not so easily soothed. It takes me an average of a 45 minutes just to begin falling asleep again. I hope I get used to this quickly.
My GP said that if the herbs & change in diet don't begin to work, she'll prescribe Reglin to me. Its a medication that is 99% successful, though I also read that once you stop taking the medication then your milk supply will drop again - though at higher levels than before the medication. I'm going to use that as a last resort. A part of me wishes I could just use it now and get my confidence back because I know that once I'm not WORRYING about it so much it'll all start to work again.