16 Weeks - Breastfeeding

This Saturday Baby will be 16 weeks old! Some days I can't believe it has been this long. There are times I look at him and think oh my goodness this baby is mine! He is the best baby. Everything changes so fast I try to soak up as much as possible.

We've had some challenges for sure. Breastfeeding has been a very tough process for us. For about 10 weeks I was exclusively breastfeeding, but Baby wasn't gaining weight. He was in the 50th percentile at birth, then went down to 20th percentile at his 2 month checkup. 2 weeks after that he was down to the 6th percentile. For 2 months his normal feeding sessions would last about 40 minutes, 20 per side. But then around the end of December he started going longer and longer, the longest I let him go was an hour and 15 minutes and he was still unsatiated and crying when I took him off the boob. I made an appointment with an LC and she said his latch was fine and positioning looked good. We did a weigh/feed/weigh and he took about 2 ounces in 30 minutes. She thinks I just have a low supply. The LC recommended feeding him for 30 minutes, because going longer than that won't be very helpful, and then supplementing with formula. She said to start offering an ounce at a time until he is ok. She also suggested pumping after every nursing session, pumping every 2 hours at work, not going more than 3 hours between feedings or pumps, and taking fenugreek supplements (3 pills 3x a day) to boost my supply. 

I tried these suggestions for a month and have seen no increase in my supply whatsoever. I have also tried every other suggestion on the internet to boost supply including: oatmeal, blessed thistle, moringa, blue gatorade, brewers yeast, flax seed, chia seed, fennel seed. Nothing. I still pump one ounce after nursing and 2 during a stand alone pump session.

My last ditch effort is going to be stopping birth control I started on the mini pill after my 6-week check up. The mini pill isn't supposed to affect milk supply which is why it is prescribed for nursing moms. In some rare cases it can, though. And seeing how I've ended up on the 'rare case' side before (i.e. infertility.....), I might as well try. Looking back at my logs my supply started decreasing a few weeks after starting the pill so I might as well try!

....It's not like I actually needed it for the 10+ years I was taking it before....why would now be different......