Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Milk Cow

If you have been following my story, you know that after the post partum hemorrhage that almost killed me I lost my milk supply.  Initially I had NOTHING (at about three weeks post partum).  Then, I managed to pump 1 oz from both breasts combined for the longest time.  We are now at 2.5 months of age, and I am starting to notice that Emma does not require as much SNS supplementation as she used to.  For the past week, I have only given her about 300 ml (10 oz) from the SNS, as opposed to the usual 20 oz that he would require.  Last night she did not need any supplementation.  This morning again.  I started thinking that she might have indigestion and maybe her appetite is down.  This afternoon, I went for a long walk with my friend and left Emma at home with MrH.  He had to give her 90 ml (3 oz) of supplement, then I came home and had full breasts, so I started pumping.  I pumped 3 oz and at the same time fed her I guess about 1 oz.  I made 4 oz of milk!!!!!!!!!!!! This is such a huge achievement for me, I cannot even begin to describe it.  It makes me happier than the weight loss even, and that should mean a lot for whoever knows how obsessed I am with my weight at the moment :)

Jumping around to another idea, I had to ask this question that popped into my head last night.  For those of you who have or have had babies, you might identify with this dilemma:  when your baby wakes you up at 5 am to feed, and your bladder is full and bursting, which do you do first:  pee, or feed the baby?  If I feed Emma, I am rather uncomfortable to put it mildly for the whole 20-40 minutes that it takes her to eat.  If I pee first, then Emma fully wakes up and starts screaming, waking up MrH who has to work in the morning.  So far, I have been able to either hold it until I feed her, or carry her to the washroom and feed while on the toilet, but she is getting rather long and heavy and I don't know how long she will be manageable to carry around, especially that the toilet is in a narrow spot in our bathroom.

That is it for deep thoughts.  Please let me know what you do/what you would do in this situation.

6 comments:

  1. CONGRATS!!!! Way to make milk mama!! I hope your supply comes back really fast and full!

    As for the pee delimna. I would pee first. Breastfeeding causes contractions and you might end up peeing yourself on accident lol I've been there done that with my #2 child lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. I pee first! I usually wake up when he first starts to stir so I can usually make it to the bathroom and back and luckily he's not a cranky waker up'er usually. He is a lazy "I'm gonna play around and pull off and relatch 10 times" eater so there's no way I'd have patience for that if I needed to pee!

    Congrats on the milk, and the weight loss! You probably already know this, but if you didn't, your milk changes as your baby gets older, Lucas is 6 months and still eating 4 oz bottles when he takes a bottle of breastmilk. (And at 2 months he was eating 4-6 oz a bottle.) So 4 oz is really good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good job on the boob juice! Sounds like you're managing to make a come back!

    My comment on the peeing situation probably won't help since Kaia bottle feeds pumped breast milk so I don't have the luxury of staying in bed at night to feed her. But I'll tell you anyway. I generally hear her start to stir and then I get up and take her downstairs to her swing or her change mat that we have set up in our dining room. She is usually still pretty sleepy at this point so I can lay her on her mat and she's pretty content while I get her bottle ready and then go and pee. Then I change her, bottle feed her, burp her and wrap her back up in her swaddle sac. Then we go back upstairs, I pop her back into bed and if it's been 6 hours since I last pumped...I do that and then go back to sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So happy to hear about the milk! Three ounces is a lot to pump at once when you had been doing only one or so at a time. What a great achievement! The extra milk you are producing will help with the weight loss too, so it's a two-in-one deal!

    I dragged the baby in to go pee with me while nursing during the first few months. When he got a bit older I made him wait if I really had to go. Sometimes he was a bit more patient and would suck on his thumb while waiting for me.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for stopping by my blog and following.

    ~Stopping by for ICLW #14

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on the milky milestone! It must be such a relief.

    Thank you for stopping by my blog. Happy ICLW!

    ReplyDelete