Frustrated and need some advice/support

Hi, and welcome!

Blood loss frequently causes anemia, and anemia causes low milk supply. If you're anemic, an iron supplement will help your milk supply a lot. Also, illness, sleep deprivation, pain, and stress will reduce your milk supply. You're probably experiencing all of the above ("illness" because your body is working so hard to recover from a traumatic surgery) right now. As your body heals, your supply should start to increase.

You've already EPed before, and it sounds like you're pumping enough times per day, so I assume you know all the basics about how to build and establish your supply for the first 12 weeks. You could try taking fenugreek and blessed thistle in pill form, because many people say that the herbal concentrations in the tea aren't high enough to make much of a difference in milk supply. The initial dosage for each herb is 3 pills 3x per day (though some ladies go up to 4 pills 3x per day). You could also try alfalfa, nettle, and/or brewer's yeast. There are a lot of herbs and foods (like oatmeal) you can use to boost supply. Here's a link about foods that can boost supply: http://www.mobimotherhood.org/MM/article-diet.aspx

Here's a link to the Beginner's Guide and Tips for Newbies (because there might be info in there even though you're experienced at EPing):

Beginners Guide

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-ppexcluspump&msg=31119.68&ctx=0

Tips for Newbies

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-ppexcluspump&msg=32794.14&ctx=256