Hot water will help milk flow better. Avoid the cold and ice cold water and ice cream. After the beginning of every breast milk and then dip to pump milk out to stimulate the body to produce milk again. (Breast Pump @http://astore.amazon.com/vacuum-breast-p鈥?/a>New mom, Need advice of breast feeding please!?
It is normal to have no milk yet. The milk usually comes in, in a first time mother, at around 5 days.
It's also normal for babies to lose weight at first.
There should never be a reason to give a bottle to a 5 day old baby. (If you must supplment, as is VERY rarely necessary, there are better ways.)
It sounds like you got some really poor advice, and are, therefore, are causing the very problem you are asking about.
Giving frequent bottles causes nipple confusion, and keeps your baby from being able to latch on.
And 4 pumping sessions a day is nowhere NEAR enough to establish a milk supply.
Ideally you need to just throw the bottles away and nurse your baby. Put her to the breast about every 2 hours (or more if she'll take it) and focus on getting a good latch. If she wont' latch, pump after every attempt (yes, that's every 2 hours -- 12 pumping sessions a day), and you can give the pumped milk (and small amounts of formula IF necessary) by tube or cup or finger feeding.
If she doesn't latch on after a few attempts, you'll want to call a lactation consultant for help. She can work with you and baby to help her latch, and she can show you how to tube cup or finger feed, or use a nursing supplementer.
EDIT: The poster above me suggested a 3 hour 'routine.' That's not enough for a newborn. That's only 8 feeds a day. She probably needs 10-12. (Every two hours, with maybe a longer stretch (3-4 hours) at night.)
Also, messing with oatmeal and fenugreek at this point isn't necessary. There's no reason to think there is ANYTHING wrong with your supply beyond insufficient stimulation and poor latch.
I agree with most everything everyone else has already said.
All I have to add: Stop pumping, it isn't recommended to pump for a few weeks yet. Keep your baby skin to skin, ideally you guys just cuddle up for a few days and let her suckle everytime she wants to. Minimum, offer her the breast every two hours.
My milk came in around five days, don't stress just yet. My baby is now five months old and thriving, we never supplemented.
stop the formula!!!!! the more formula you give her, the less you'll produce because that's food she's not demanding from you. the formula also bogs her system down making her think she's not as hungry as she really is.
flush the formula and once she realizes boobie is the only option, she'll latch on much more readily. babies aren't dumb - if it's a choice between ';free food'; (the bottle, which requires little to no effort) and working for food (breastfeeding often has them breaking a sweat because it's a total-body workout), they'll go for the bottle.
get yourself a lactation consultant and also visit http://www.drjacknewman.com for help - he's THE go-to guy for breastfeeding. he responds to emails pretty quickly when it's a situation like yours.
until that all pans out, put your baby to the boob every half-hour and you might also want to manually stimulate your nipples. instead of pumping, go with manual expression - it's more effective and, unlike pumping, stimulates production. also, every couple hours, use your hands to simulate a baby nursing - use a good degree of pressure, don't just tickle them. get it right, and you'll feel a let-down reflex, almost like someone whacked you with a ping-pong paddle, and that's when you know your milk production is ramping up.
you're not trying to schedule your baby, are you? breastfeeding and schedules are mutually incompatible. you have to bf your baby when she demands it - even if the last feeding was only a half-hour before - and for as long as she wants it (my two longest ';cluster feeds'; lasted 8hrs and 13hrs during saari's earliest growth spurts).
do NOT give up - your baby won't starve to death without the formula.
we have 5 kids and each of them breast fed.
keep trying, on a regular basis, skin on skin is good, fenugreek is also good.
a little formula is ok, but the baby will get spoiled when he realizes that he has to work to get the milk to come in - afterall it's easier to have a bottle feed you as opposed to the child having to work to get the hind milk.
Then again, not every mom is capable to breast feeding.
I would consult the advise from a doctor and / or a nurse, or a child specialist - not yahoo.
Pippin gave excellent advice.
It's normal for your milk to not be in yet, and it's normal for your baby to lose weight for the first week. They usually don't get back up to their birth weight until they're about 2 weeks old.
www.kellymom.com is also a great resource.
Here are my suggestions:
-Feed baby on a fairly regular 3 hour routine so you know she's hungry.
-Work at keeping her awake to take a full feeding.
-Drink TONS
-Eat oatmeal (there's something in the gruel that forms when you cook it that helps with milk supply)
-Try fenugreek supplements to boost supply too.
-Get as much rest as you can.
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