3 weeks old!
Breastfeeding is hands down the HARDEST thing I have ever done in my life. The one thing I wish someone would have prepped or warned me about before having a baby would be breastfeeding. Everyone tells you how natural it is and how it just happens...I call BS on that! From latch problems to sore nipples, you just can't win!
Here's my story:
8 weeks of pure pain and h-e-l-l.
I was determined from the get go to nurse Liam exclusively. My mom warned me it would hurt, but I had no idea - I thought labor was painful. I literally cried every time I had to feed my baby boy for a period of time. Jason would sit next to me and just hold my hand. Toe curling pain. AND...all the nurses and lactation consultants said Liam had a great latch and it shouldn't hurt. Well guess what...it did! I bled, I cracked, I was sore beyond belief, but, I kept going all for my baby boy. After about 8 weeks I started to feel relief and actually enjoyed breastfeeding. That special time with my little guy, just the two of us.
Fast forward to 4 months old and distraction sets in! All of a sudden Liam started to push me away, literally, and turn his head away from nursing. We had battles daily just to get him to latch and feed for a few minutes. (Now my son is chunk so I was not too worried about his weight, but I knew he needed to eat). After a few weeks of battles and on and off good feeds I went to see my lactation consultant. After watching him feed for 5 min she told me 1.) He has a shallow latch, and 2.) I have an extremely fast and forceful letdown, plus an excessive amount of milk. I know, cry me a river about the excessive milk, most moms struggle with making enough, but having a lot is a problem too. Liam was getting frustrated with the letdown and the massive amount so he just gave up. I also learned I was trying to nurse him for too long. He was able to get 3 oz. out of me in 5 min when I saw the LC. She told me to nurse for a maximum of 10-15min. She also recommended that I nurse laying down or on my side...so no more nursing in public obviously. I learned a lot from my LC and since that day have had better luck nursing Liam. 6 months of exclusively breastfeeding and I have a 19+ pound baby boy...pretty dang proud of that! I joke that I make milkshakes and not just milk!
So if you are reading this and struggling to breastfeed know this:
1.) We ALL struggle with it!
2.) It is not natural or easy.
3.) It hurts no matter what kind of latch your baby has...hello, nothing has ever sucked so consistently on your nipples before!
4.) You can do it, just hang in there!
5.) ASK FOR HELP!!
6.) LANOLIN LANOLIN LANOLIN
7.) It really does get better, but it may take awhile (8 weeks for me).
8.) It really is a special time for you and baby.
9.) Get some comfy nursing bras - Target has great ones!
10.) It's OK to cry....a lot:)
A Pumping I Will Go
1/3/14
I am going to go on record and say that I HATE pumping at work! As a teacher we only get 2 breaks - recess and lunch, and pumping takes up both of those! That being said, I do it for my baby boy and for him, I would do anything.
Pumping can seem very daunting and scary initially. No one really tells you the proper technique or timing for it either. My pumping early on has led to my milk production going crazy - that's another post though! Pumping can be easily handled with a few little tips and tricks.
First and foremost you need a good pump. I highly recommend the pump I got - Medela Pump In Style Double Electric Pump. For some reason my breasts only letdown when they are both working together. I have tried pumping one side at a time when my son nurses from one side, and I can't get anything to letdown. But with both going, no problems.
Time is something I do not have while pumping at work. I have 20 min at recess to pump, store and clean so I have to be efficient. I started playing around with positioning myself while pumping and have found that leaning forward as far as I can helps the milk letdown much faster. Gravity is your friend! Another trick to help with letdown is to record a short video of your baby fussing when he/she is hungry. No joke this works. As soon as I start playing the video, the milk starts flowing! My lactation consultant told me that it's a hormonal connection you have with your baby that causes this to happen. Remember in those early weeks when you boobs would ache when your little one started crying? That's the hormonal connection at work!
Something I have found to help speed up the cleaning process are the Medela Breastpump wipes! They are great! You can buy them at Target or on Amazon and they come in little individual packets that fit right in your pump bag. I use those to clean all of my pump parts when I am at work. This cuts my cleaning time in half! When I get home I steam everything so it's ready for the next day.
For my fellow mommies with an overproduction of milk like myself, Medela makes larger storage bottles (holds 8oz.) than the standard bottles that come with the pump. I had to order these because I was overflowing the bottles when I pumped. Again, you can find these on Amazon.
***CLEANING TIP***
After you pump, keep the pump running and let all of the condensation pump out of the plastic tubing. Initially I was not doing this and I got some mold growing in the very tip of the tubing. I had to throw out a lot of milk because of this so check your tubing often and pump out that moisture!
Happy Pumping Mommies!
xoxo,
Molly
MILK OVERLOAD
1/4/14
From the day my son was born I was worried about my milk supply. Would I make enough for my baby? Would my supply change as I nursed? How would going back to work and pumping affect it? All of these concerns raced through my mind as I sat in the hospital waiting for my milk to come in. Many moms worry about this - and for many (like me) it remains a constant worry throughout nursing because when you nurse, you really have NO IDEA how much your baby is eating. I recommend every new mommy visit a lactation consultant when you are starting out. They are wonderful and the best thing is, you can weigh your baby when you get there, feed them and weigh them after feeding to see how much they are really eating - puts your mind at ease a bit.
Once my milk came in my production worries changed from, "Will I make enough," to "Oh my gosh I am making so much, how do I control this?"
I literally make enough milk for twins. When I pump I average about 9 ounces on the low side and my record for one session is 14 ounces. Ridiculous!! Now these totals are for both breasts combined - and one side makes about 2 ounces more than the other which is normal ladies so don't stress over that. Despite my milk overproduction, I still worry about making enough for my baby boy, silly as that may sound. I have visited my LC a few times and she gave me some tips on how to reduce my production so that it meets my son's needs, but nothing has worked. My body just seems to like making milk, and lots of it.
Having more milk than needed may sound great, but it has quite a few draw backs:
1.) I have dealt with clogged ducts more times than I would like.
2.) I always feel "full" and ladies you know how uncomfortable that can be.
3.) My son gets squirted in the face almost every nursing session.
4.) My son gets frustrated with my heavy and forceful letdown.
5.) Sometimes my son chokes a little bit because the milk is flowing so fast.
Overproduction is not a common problem I have been able to read about online. I know other mommies have this issue but it's hard to find. So I thought I would share some strategies I have used that have helped me.
* Try different nursing positions. If you have a fast and forceful letdown like me, you need to use gravity to help you. This means nursing in a reclined or laying down position. You can literally nurse on your back with baby on your tummy - but this tends to increase your chances of spit up because of the pressure put on baby's tummy. My bra cups were literally filled with spit up after one session with my son. Pretty gross...and sticky:( I prefer nursing lying on my side with my son sitting up next to me. This gives him the opportunity to pull off when the milk is too much for him. It gives him more control of how much milk he wants to take in.
* Once you feel the milk let down either run to the sink really quick and squeeze until that initial forceful letdown is over OR squeeze into a burp cloth on your lap. (I do the burp cloth option now.) Once that initial letdown has passed, you and baby can nurse comfortably.
* To relieve some pressure after nursing if you still feel full, hand express some extra milk out until you don't feel uncomfortable anymore. I do this almost every session because my son never really drinks enough...because I make double what he needs. By hand expressing you won't increase your production more. Pumping afterwards can cause your supply to continue to increase.
How did I get this crazy milk supply?
Looking back, I can see where I "went wrong" and caused my milk to go crazy. The first six weeks after baby is born is when you are establishing your milk supply. I was told to nurse from both breasts and then pump afterwards to help get my milk supply going. Well, I did this for about the first two months not knowing this was going to make my milk go crazy. My son LOVED to nurse in the first few weeks and would do so for an hour at a time - 30 min each side. Him nursing for so long and then me pumping after that, is why my body is making enough milk to feed two babies.
Want to make more milk? Here are my production tips:
1.) Pump after you nurse until your milk stops flowing and then continue pumping for 10 - 15 min. (This is what my LC told me in the beginning to boost my supply.)
2.) FENUGREEK:) This is an herbal supplement you can buy over the counter at your local drug store. Take 3 capsules, 3 times a day for a week and you should see an increase. If you start to smell like maple syrup, you're doing it right:)
3.) Oatmeal with flax seed meal. I eat this every morning without fail!
4.) Lactation cookies!!! Hey, who doesn't love a reason to eat cookies? I call them my boob cookies. The key is to find a recipe with brewer's yeast. This is the recipe I use:
http://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-lactation-cookies-by-noel-trujillo-192346
Don't worry, your hubby can eat them too without lactating;)
5.) WATER WATER WATER! This is what I think makes the biggest difference. I drink probably 200+ ounces a day. I notice my milk supply "dipping" on days I don't drink as much. Breastmilk is made of three things: protein, fat and water! SO drink up!
Storage:
Invest in some good storage bags. I like the Lansinoh bags the best. The Medela ones were good but hard to close when full without leaking that precious liquid gold. I lay the bags flat in the freezer and then put about 8 of them in a gallon ziplock freezer bag for organization. Make sure you date each bag!! Depending on your freezer, breastmilk is good frozen for 3-6 months.
We had to buy an additional chest freezer for our garage because I have so much milk stored up. At one point we had close to 1,000 ounces of frozen milk!! Once I stop nursing, my son will still have breastmilk for almost a month:)
***DONATING BREASTMILK***
I looked into this because I had so much extra milk stored...but because I have been taking Fenugreek I cannot donate it. Fenugreek is not FDA approved so milk banks cannot take it. Just a heads up!
If you have any questions, or want to know more about any of my production issues and/or tips, send me an email! I would love to here from you:)
xoxo,
Molly
Thanks for all the milk mom!
2/9/14
Nursing and Solids
Introducing your little one to solids is exciting and challenging at the same time. You have to take it slow in introduce one new food at a time watching for reactions...it gets kind of tedious! In addition, nursing becomes a challenge. Now if you are a stay at home mom and can nurse your little one whenever they feel like it, I would imagine it would be easier. Being a working mom, Liam has to be on some kind of schedule because I am limited to when I can pump at work and want to nurse him when I get home. That being said, it has been very difficult to schedule his feedings so that he enjoys them and is actually hungry.
I read that to "preserve" nursing, you want to offer the breast or bottle first before solids. I have been nursing Liam at 6AM when he gets up and then we have been trying to give him solids between 7 and 7:30AM. He has not been a big eater at this feeding. I think because he fills up on milk from me. He nurses the longest and does the best "job" in the morning. This week when he goes to daycare we are going to send his leftover breakfast with him as a "lunch" for him after his 12PM bottle. We will see how that goes.
Just yesterday I decided to drop a nursing session in the evening in hopes that he would nurse better and eat his solids better. It was pretty successful. I had been nursing him around 3:30PM and 5:30PM. Yesterday I just waited until he told me he was hungry, which ended up being around 4:30PM. This worked out perfectly because then Liam was able to eat dinner with my husband and I around 6PM. It was our first family dinner! He ate his whole meal and dessert! He did not nurse that great at 7:30PM when I was nursing him to sleep, but I am hoping that will get better as my milk adjusts.
When I got up to pump last night at 1AM like always, I got 13 oz! 8 out of my left side and 5 out of my right...that's quite a bit more than usual. This usually happens on the weekends because I am not pumping at noon like I do at work...so that milk just stays! Once I acclimate to this new 4 nursing sessions a day thing I am going to start weaning myself off of that night pumping session. For many reasons - we are literally running out of room for milk and it's getting close to the use it or lose it date, Liam is not feeding at night anymore, and I want to sleep through the night (haven't done that for 7+ months). I am nervous though because even though I have been doing what my LC told me to do, my milk has not slowed down! I make too much still. I am very worried about getting clogged an infected. Fingers crossed it does not happen!
Hope this helps for anyone else juggling solids and nursing!
Keep it up mommies:)
xoxo,
Molly
Passed out after nursing:)
Hanging up my pump
9 Months of nursing exclusively and 2 months pumping exclusively
1 month to go until a year!
A little catching up is in order...
Just before Liam hit 9 months my breasts decided to throw us all a curve ball. My letdown decided to not happen at all! It all started one night when I got up to pump at my usual 1AM session. After about 25 min NOTHING came out. Of course this made me panic, and after an hour of pumping I gave up. Keep in mind at this session I would pump about 11 oz...so I was not comfortable. I figured in the morning when Liam nursed it would solve the problem. NOPE. My poor baby tried for 40 min and no letdown happened! I was finally able to pump afterwards and got relief but was understandably frustrated and sad. Why were my boobs not working? This problem continued for a week. All the lactation people told me was that my letdown was a reflex and I needed to relax...umm ok thanks for the help!
It was during this time that I decided to switch to pumping only and bottle feed Liam what I pumped. It was kind of a relief to make this decision since Liam was not nursing well anyway...he had become increasingly distracted and wanted to play more than nurse. So we kind of stopped nursing cold turkey. My wonderful husband had to sit with me during my night pumping sessions to distract me so that my milk would letdown. He was very supportive during this trying time. After a week or so of that, I did not have an issue letting down anymore and so I was officially pumping only. My supply took a small dip but I was still able to keep up with Liam.
As Spring Break approached I decided to start weaning myself off of pumping. We have a ton of milk stored and needed to start using it before it got too old. I have slowly been dropping a session one at a time because of my overproduction issue. I am currently down to one session in the morning. My supply has really started to slow down since I got to only one session. I am only getting 4 oz in the morning now. Just enough for Liam's oatmeal. I know the day is coming where I will not get any more milk for my baby. I am both excited and sad that this is all coming to an end. I feel like I should have kept going until a year...even though Liam will get breastmilk beyond the one year mark because we did such a good job storing it. I have this driving force inside me that says...feed your baby. But on the flip side...I am excited to get my boobs back! I am excited to wear a normal bra! I am excited that my sex drive it supposedly supposed to kick back up! I am excited to have my freedom back! I have to remind myself that I have done a great job and gone through alot of things that would have caused others to give up. Liam and I have developed an amazing bond because of my perseverance and determination to nurse him as long as I could. I will not miss my pump, and the pinching pain it inflicts! I will miss providing liquid gold for my son, and knowing he is getting the best nutrition possible!
With mixed emotions I bid adieu to my pump! See you next time we go on this breastfeeding adventure!
xoxo,
Molly
Here's my story:
8 weeks of pure pain and h-e-l-l.
I was determined from the get go to nurse Liam exclusively. My mom warned me it would hurt, but I had no idea - I thought labor was painful. I literally cried every time I had to feed my baby boy for a period of time. Jason would sit next to me and just hold my hand. Toe curling pain. AND...all the nurses and lactation consultants said Liam had a great latch and it shouldn't hurt. Well guess what...it did! I bled, I cracked, I was sore beyond belief, but, I kept going all for my baby boy. After about 8 weeks I started to feel relief and actually enjoyed breastfeeding. That special time with my little guy, just the two of us.
Fast forward to 4 months old and distraction sets in! All of a sudden Liam started to push me away, literally, and turn his head away from nursing. We had battles daily just to get him to latch and feed for a few minutes. (Now my son is chunk so I was not too worried about his weight, but I knew he needed to eat). After a few weeks of battles and on and off good feeds I went to see my lactation consultant. After watching him feed for 5 min she told me 1.) He has a shallow latch, and 2.) I have an extremely fast and forceful letdown, plus an excessive amount of milk. I know, cry me a river about the excessive milk, most moms struggle with making enough, but having a lot is a problem too. Liam was getting frustrated with the letdown and the massive amount so he just gave up. I also learned I was trying to nurse him for too long. He was able to get 3 oz. out of me in 5 min when I saw the LC. She told me to nurse for a maximum of 10-15min. She also recommended that I nurse laying down or on my side...so no more nursing in public obviously. I learned a lot from my LC and since that day have had better luck nursing Liam. 6 months of exclusively breastfeeding and I have a 19+ pound baby boy...pretty dang proud of that! I joke that I make milkshakes and not just milk!
So if you are reading this and struggling to breastfeed know this:
1.) We ALL struggle with it!
2.) It is not natural or easy.
3.) It hurts no matter what kind of latch your baby has...hello, nothing has ever sucked so consistently on your nipples before!
4.) You can do it, just hang in there!
5.) ASK FOR HELP!!
6.) LANOLIN LANOLIN LANOLIN
7.) It really does get better, but it may take awhile (8 weeks for me).
8.) It really is a special time for you and baby.
9.) Get some comfy nursing bras - Target has great ones!
10.) It's OK to cry....a lot:)
A Pumping I Will Go
1/3/14
I am going to go on record and say that I HATE pumping at work! As a teacher we only get 2 breaks - recess and lunch, and pumping takes up both of those! That being said, I do it for my baby boy and for him, I would do anything.
Pumping can seem very daunting and scary initially. No one really tells you the proper technique or timing for it either. My pumping early on has led to my milk production going crazy - that's another post though! Pumping can be easily handled with a few little tips and tricks.
First and foremost you need a good pump. I highly recommend the pump I got - Medela Pump In Style Double Electric Pump. For some reason my breasts only letdown when they are both working together. I have tried pumping one side at a time when my son nurses from one side, and I can't get anything to letdown. But with both going, no problems.
Time is something I do not have while pumping at work. I have 20 min at recess to pump, store and clean so I have to be efficient. I started playing around with positioning myself while pumping and have found that leaning forward as far as I can helps the milk letdown much faster. Gravity is your friend! Another trick to help with letdown is to record a short video of your baby fussing when he/she is hungry. No joke this works. As soon as I start playing the video, the milk starts flowing! My lactation consultant told me that it's a hormonal connection you have with your baby that causes this to happen. Remember in those early weeks when you boobs would ache when your little one started crying? That's the hormonal connection at work!
Something I have found to help speed up the cleaning process are the Medela Breastpump wipes! They are great! You can buy them at Target or on Amazon and they come in little individual packets that fit right in your pump bag. I use those to clean all of my pump parts when I am at work. This cuts my cleaning time in half! When I get home I steam everything so it's ready for the next day.
For my fellow mommies with an overproduction of milk like myself, Medela makes larger storage bottles (holds 8oz.) than the standard bottles that come with the pump. I had to order these because I was overflowing the bottles when I pumped. Again, you can find these on Amazon.
***CLEANING TIP***
After you pump, keep the pump running and let all of the condensation pump out of the plastic tubing. Initially I was not doing this and I got some mold growing in the very tip of the tubing. I had to throw out a lot of milk because of this so check your tubing often and pump out that moisture!
Happy Pumping Mommies!
xoxo,
Molly
MILK OVERLOAD
1/4/14
From the day my son was born I was worried about my milk supply. Would I make enough for my baby? Would my supply change as I nursed? How would going back to work and pumping affect it? All of these concerns raced through my mind as I sat in the hospital waiting for my milk to come in. Many moms worry about this - and for many (like me) it remains a constant worry throughout nursing because when you nurse, you really have NO IDEA how much your baby is eating. I recommend every new mommy visit a lactation consultant when you are starting out. They are wonderful and the best thing is, you can weigh your baby when you get there, feed them and weigh them after feeding to see how much they are really eating - puts your mind at ease a bit.
Once my milk came in my production worries changed from, "Will I make enough," to "Oh my gosh I am making so much, how do I control this?"
I literally make enough milk for twins. When I pump I average about 9 ounces on the low side and my record for one session is 14 ounces. Ridiculous!! Now these totals are for both breasts combined - and one side makes about 2 ounces more than the other which is normal ladies so don't stress over that. Despite my milk overproduction, I still worry about making enough for my baby boy, silly as that may sound. I have visited my LC a few times and she gave me some tips on how to reduce my production so that it meets my son's needs, but nothing has worked. My body just seems to like making milk, and lots of it.
Having more milk than needed may sound great, but it has quite a few draw backs:
1.) I have dealt with clogged ducts more times than I would like.
2.) I always feel "full" and ladies you know how uncomfortable that can be.
3.) My son gets squirted in the face almost every nursing session.
4.) My son gets frustrated with my heavy and forceful letdown.
5.) Sometimes my son chokes a little bit because the milk is flowing so fast.
Overproduction is not a common problem I have been able to read about online. I know other mommies have this issue but it's hard to find. So I thought I would share some strategies I have used that have helped me.
* Try different nursing positions. If you have a fast and forceful letdown like me, you need to use gravity to help you. This means nursing in a reclined or laying down position. You can literally nurse on your back with baby on your tummy - but this tends to increase your chances of spit up because of the pressure put on baby's tummy. My bra cups were literally filled with spit up after one session with my son. Pretty gross...and sticky:( I prefer nursing lying on my side with my son sitting up next to me. This gives him the opportunity to pull off when the milk is too much for him. It gives him more control of how much milk he wants to take in.
* Once you feel the milk let down either run to the sink really quick and squeeze until that initial forceful letdown is over OR squeeze into a burp cloth on your lap. (I do the burp cloth option now.) Once that initial letdown has passed, you and baby can nurse comfortably.
* To relieve some pressure after nursing if you still feel full, hand express some extra milk out until you don't feel uncomfortable anymore. I do this almost every session because my son never really drinks enough...because I make double what he needs. By hand expressing you won't increase your production more. Pumping afterwards can cause your supply to continue to increase.
How did I get this crazy milk supply?
Looking back, I can see where I "went wrong" and caused my milk to go crazy. The first six weeks after baby is born is when you are establishing your milk supply. I was told to nurse from both breasts and then pump afterwards to help get my milk supply going. Well, I did this for about the first two months not knowing this was going to make my milk go crazy. My son LOVED to nurse in the first few weeks and would do so for an hour at a time - 30 min each side. Him nursing for so long and then me pumping after that, is why my body is making enough milk to feed two babies.
Want to make more milk? Here are my production tips:
1.) Pump after you nurse until your milk stops flowing and then continue pumping for 10 - 15 min. (This is what my LC told me in the beginning to boost my supply.)
2.) FENUGREEK:) This is an herbal supplement you can buy over the counter at your local drug store. Take 3 capsules, 3 times a day for a week and you should see an increase. If you start to smell like maple syrup, you're doing it right:)
3.) Oatmeal with flax seed meal. I eat this every morning without fail!
4.) Lactation cookies!!! Hey, who doesn't love a reason to eat cookies? I call them my boob cookies. The key is to find a recipe with brewer's yeast. This is the recipe I use:
http://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-lactation-cookies-by-noel-trujillo-192346
Don't worry, your hubby can eat them too without lactating;)
5.) WATER WATER WATER! This is what I think makes the biggest difference. I drink probably 200+ ounces a day. I notice my milk supply "dipping" on days I don't drink as much. Breastmilk is made of three things: protein, fat and water! SO drink up!
Storage:
Invest in some good storage bags. I like the Lansinoh bags the best. The Medela ones were good but hard to close when full without leaking that precious liquid gold. I lay the bags flat in the freezer and then put about 8 of them in a gallon ziplock freezer bag for organization. Make sure you date each bag!! Depending on your freezer, breastmilk is good frozen for 3-6 months.
We had to buy an additional chest freezer for our garage because I have so much milk stored up. At one point we had close to 1,000 ounces of frozen milk!! Once I stop nursing, my son will still have breastmilk for almost a month:)
***DONATING BREASTMILK***
I looked into this because I had so much extra milk stored...but because I have been taking Fenugreek I cannot donate it. Fenugreek is not FDA approved so milk banks cannot take it. Just a heads up!
If you have any questions, or want to know more about any of my production issues and/or tips, send me an email! I would love to here from you:)
xoxo,
Molly
2/9/14
Nursing and Solids
Introducing your little one to solids is exciting and challenging at the same time. You have to take it slow in introduce one new food at a time watching for reactions...it gets kind of tedious! In addition, nursing becomes a challenge. Now if you are a stay at home mom and can nurse your little one whenever they feel like it, I would imagine it would be easier. Being a working mom, Liam has to be on some kind of schedule because I am limited to when I can pump at work and want to nurse him when I get home. That being said, it has been very difficult to schedule his feedings so that he enjoys them and is actually hungry.
I read that to "preserve" nursing, you want to offer the breast or bottle first before solids. I have been nursing Liam at 6AM when he gets up and then we have been trying to give him solids between 7 and 7:30AM. He has not been a big eater at this feeding. I think because he fills up on milk from me. He nurses the longest and does the best "job" in the morning. This week when he goes to daycare we are going to send his leftover breakfast with him as a "lunch" for him after his 12PM bottle. We will see how that goes.
Just yesterday I decided to drop a nursing session in the evening in hopes that he would nurse better and eat his solids better. It was pretty successful. I had been nursing him around 3:30PM and 5:30PM. Yesterday I just waited until he told me he was hungry, which ended up being around 4:30PM. This worked out perfectly because then Liam was able to eat dinner with my husband and I around 6PM. It was our first family dinner! He ate his whole meal and dessert! He did not nurse that great at 7:30PM when I was nursing him to sleep, but I am hoping that will get better as my milk adjusts.
When I got up to pump last night at 1AM like always, I got 13 oz! 8 out of my left side and 5 out of my right...that's quite a bit more than usual. This usually happens on the weekends because I am not pumping at noon like I do at work...so that milk just stays! Once I acclimate to this new 4 nursing sessions a day thing I am going to start weaning myself off of that night pumping session. For many reasons - we are literally running out of room for milk and it's getting close to the use it or lose it date, Liam is not feeding at night anymore, and I want to sleep through the night (haven't done that for 7+ months). I am nervous though because even though I have been doing what my LC told me to do, my milk has not slowed down! I make too much still. I am very worried about getting clogged an infected. Fingers crossed it does not happen!
Hope this helps for anyone else juggling solids and nursing!
Keep it up mommies:)
xoxo,
Molly
Hanging up my pump
9 Months of nursing exclusively and 2 months pumping exclusively
1 month to go until a year!
A little catching up is in order...
Just before Liam hit 9 months my breasts decided to throw us all a curve ball. My letdown decided to not happen at all! It all started one night when I got up to pump at my usual 1AM session. After about 25 min NOTHING came out. Of course this made me panic, and after an hour of pumping I gave up. Keep in mind at this session I would pump about 11 oz...so I was not comfortable. I figured in the morning when Liam nursed it would solve the problem. NOPE. My poor baby tried for 40 min and no letdown happened! I was finally able to pump afterwards and got relief but was understandably frustrated and sad. Why were my boobs not working? This problem continued for a week. All the lactation people told me was that my letdown was a reflex and I needed to relax...umm ok thanks for the help!
It was during this time that I decided to switch to pumping only and bottle feed Liam what I pumped. It was kind of a relief to make this decision since Liam was not nursing well anyway...he had become increasingly distracted and wanted to play more than nurse. So we kind of stopped nursing cold turkey. My wonderful husband had to sit with me during my night pumping sessions to distract me so that my milk would letdown. He was very supportive during this trying time. After a week or so of that, I did not have an issue letting down anymore and so I was officially pumping only. My supply took a small dip but I was still able to keep up with Liam.
As Spring Break approached I decided to start weaning myself off of pumping. We have a ton of milk stored and needed to start using it before it got too old. I have slowly been dropping a session one at a time because of my overproduction issue. I am currently down to one session in the morning. My supply has really started to slow down since I got to only one session. I am only getting 4 oz in the morning now. Just enough for Liam's oatmeal. I know the day is coming where I will not get any more milk for my baby. I am both excited and sad that this is all coming to an end. I feel like I should have kept going until a year...even though Liam will get breastmilk beyond the one year mark because we did such a good job storing it. I have this driving force inside me that says...feed your baby. But on the flip side...I am excited to get my boobs back! I am excited to wear a normal bra! I am excited that my sex drive it supposedly supposed to kick back up! I am excited to have my freedom back! I have to remind myself that I have done a great job and gone through alot of things that would have caused others to give up. Liam and I have developed an amazing bond because of my perseverance and determination to nurse him as long as I could. I will not miss my pump, and the pinching pain it inflicts! I will miss providing liquid gold for my son, and knowing he is getting the best nutrition possible!
With mixed emotions I bid adieu to my pump! See you next time we go on this breastfeeding adventure!
xoxo,
Molly
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