Because breastfeeding is such a journey for all mothers, I so enjoy reading/hearing experiences from other women. It’s some of the best advice and tips I got while taking it on with Lydia, and I continue to learn as I enter the fifth month of nursing Eva. In an earlier post, I shared the first six weeks of breastfeeding my second daughter, and how my experiences have been different. Here I want to share what helped me get through those first four, very tough weeks and I wish I would have tried it with Lydia.

Both of my girls struggled to gain weight the first three weeks to a month of their life. Lydia, in particular, was extremely scary as she did not get back up to birth weight until she was four weeks old. Eva was gaining, just not as fast as the doctor was hoping. The doctor told me that if she did not start gaining more, that she would recommend supplementing with formula. I left that appointment feeling a little defeated as it reminded me of my previous experience with Lydia.

From there I racked my brain. I went down the list of many things you are told could be contributing to the problem. Is her latch ok? Tongue tied? Milk Production? Fore milk versus hind milk? I called the lactation specialist and we went over a few things. She said that her latch was most likely fine and to keep at it. But sticking with what I was doing potentially meant that Eva was not eating enough. So I went back to the drawing board. One thing I did notice was that she never was completely content after a feeding. Her hands never fell open and she didn’t look quite as milk drunk as I would have liked her to be. We would take our time, I would wake her up, but eventually if she fel completely asleep I figured she was done.

I continued to research. Finally I Googled, “How to maximize the amount of milk intake my baby gets during a feeding.” This yielded a YouTube video of a doctor explaining how to time breast compressions correctly in order to keep your baby more alert during a feeding to maximize intake. I had heard of compressions before, and I had even tried them with Lydia. However, I didn’t fully understand exactly what they did to help aid a successful feeding session.

The doctor continued to explain that compressions created faster milk flow once it slows down after the baby feeds for an amount of time. The emptier your breasts get, the more work it is for the baby to continue drinking. This is why so many newborns fall asleep at the breast. He said,

“You can poke and tickle all you want, but what keeps a baby awake is milk flow.”

In the video there was a mother feeding her baby. After her initial let down, the baby started to drain the first breast. You could see it happen as the baby’s sucking motion began to slow down. This is the point where compressions create magic. When the baby stops sucking, that’s when to introduce a compression, to get the milk flowing again. In the video, you could literally see the feeding baby become alert again, even though he had fallen asleep. The mother kept compressing to create more milk flow until the baby released and fell asleep from a full belly instead of exhaustion.

The timing of all this made so much sense to me. When I tried compressions with Lydia I would be constantly compressing a breast while she ate. After this research I learned that the timing is what improves the feeding experience. I started implementing compressions and after a week got Eva was gaining more each day. She had gone past her goal weight and started growing an ounce and a half a day. The doctor, Eric, and I were extremely excited. Once Eva was on the right track, gained strength and learned the motions I no longer needed to rely on compressions to get us through a feeding.

After trying so many tips and tricks between both girls, this was the one that kept us going and kept me from giving up early on.