success! (and some about colic)

my girl has been 100% on the breast for 3 days now! (okay, save for one feeding from my sister by bottle while i was out of the house.)

however my girl has, for the last few weeks, been really upset and havign fits of crying.

could it be just normal crying? maybe, but my son didnt have it and it doesnt seem like this could possibly be normal.

for the last week no dairy.

starting tomorrow, NO caffeine, not even the recommended amount.

after that, if it doesnt work...i dunno what ill do.

im weird about colic.

ive always believed that colic isnt crying for NO reason, its crying for an UNKNOWN reason.

and im on a mission.

maybe its something i eat. maybe she wants to be held a certain way. or hear a certain noise. or ride in the car. or be swaddled a different way. or be sang to. or take a bath. or she is too hot. or maybe too cold.

i dont know.

im no doctor.

im no expert.

im just her mum.

and im so sad to see her so sad. matter o fact, it makes me so upset, i just cant believe there is NOTHING i can do. i HAVE to try.

:(

what worked for you and your little one?

tonight the only thing that got her to sleep was the car ride. and even then, once i hit a red light she'd jump awake and be sad panda. but after an hour of driving anda 1/4 of a tank of gas, i came home and fed her and she has been sleeping long enough for me to blog! so we'll see!

Galactagogues Day Something...

its been almost a week or so.

ive not been able to be super consistent with pumping (mainly because at night i keep turning off my alarms without my own knowledge....yet i wake up to her slightly smacking on her hands...weird).

sometimes my 2.5 hourly output is about 4-5 oumces, sometimes its 3-3.5. Shes not eating as much, which is weird. shes kind of colicky (ill explain my thoughts on colic later) and i think she misses the breast! the left one still has the scab and it hurts like heck, but i do put her on the right when she wants to comfort suck and she does pretty good. sometimes she gets choppy and gnaws and i have to tell her no. i feel like if she were at the breast, there would be cluster feeding. im hoping once the nips heal and i get her back on, it helps!

i have noticed that my appetite has been pretty nonexistent lately.

ive cut out dairy so my breakfasts are oatmeal and slash or fruit.

lunch is whatever i happen to find, and then i usually have a large dinner.

but its more thirst. i have drinks all the time. juice and water and whatever is around. i love quenching thirst. i had forgotten how breastfeeding makes you parched!

thats all for now.

we also just got our new medela calma so ill update with the calma review and the breastflow review in a little bit.

Undersupply Diaries; WHAT?!

yeah. how quickly things can change.

i had gotten M back on the breast for a few days and it seemed to be going very well! i wasnt feeling full so i knew she was getting enough.

Husband and i decided to take a family trip to a cabin in the mountains!

i brought my pump just in case, but no expressed frozen milk. why would i need it? i was feeding at the breast! we were an hour from home, with no cell signal. that whole day i was feeling very tender at the nips, and i had some scabbing on the left side due to friction so i decided to pump the left and nurse on the right in block nursing fashion.

first pumping on the left i got 4 ounces easily. 2 hours later i nursed on the right, she fell asleep but i thought she had gotten enough. another 2 ish hours later i began to pump on the left. i got 1 oz. i decided to pump the right side at the next feeding to see how much i was getting. i pumped 2 oz. 3 oz in 4 hours? HOW?! i had JUST gotten through a massive oversupply! i didnt skimp, or diet, or go beyond the 2-3 hour block nursing recommendation. and we were back on the breast!

my breasts were very empty feeling, and even my husband mentioned they looked like they did before i was pregnant.

this continued throughout the night.

this was Friday night.

Saturday i drove into town to get M some milk from our freezer and called an LC working at the hospital. (when im an LC i think i may have weekend hours. it took forever to get ahold of an LC on weekend!)

i made an appt for Monday (today) and the LC thought maybe the nip pain was thrush or something like that. ill get that checked. as for the supply. she isnt sure WHY my supply dropped. there wasnt any stress or anything. I mean after all we were relaxing in a cabin in the woods away from everything and everyone :)

she "prescribed" lots of skin to skin time (difficult with sore breasts!)

its now monday, and i still am not getting more trhan 1 oz in the left and 1.5-2 on the right in a 2 hour period. i started fenugreek today, 3capsules 3x a day and ill keep that up for about 10 days to start i think. M is drinking about 3-4 oz a feeding now so i just need to get back there and ill be fine!

who knows, at the rate my breasts are going, ill be oversupply again in a split second. sigh.

i wish truly that i could have my baby, painfree at the fully efficient breast.

Tongue Tie Diaries: More success amongst failures.

today M nursed almost exclusively for one feeding. what im pretty sure is an overactive or forceful letdown hindered a fully exclusive feeding.

im making about 6 ounces a sessiona nd she only eats about 2.5 so it comes out hard and fast and it was too much. she coughed, spit and sputtered and cried befre giving up. :( but she DID IT! now to fix the overactive boobies ive got. what a great complaint to have! its not her anymore its me. and im so able to fix me!

also...i finally ventured out of the house with my new Medela Pump in Style. first time being out for more than 3 hours and pumping elsewhere and i accidentaly left my supplies for the pump in a bag at my parents, 30 mins away. it was getting late so i figured id run to the store to get extra parts. i paid 25$ for a medela kit. come to find out the flanges were ONE SIZED and ONEPIECE so i couldnt use my own 30mm breastshields with the connectors :( i tried to use the stupid standard 24mm and my poor nips cried out. my hub had to go travel to the family house and bring back my supplies! good man!!

the medela has worked well to draw out more milk. im glad for it. i have to give back the other one soon and was worried about supply and such. now im left trying to figure out how to make less for the girl! ill be calling the LC FIRST thing on monday to get it figured out.

im SO thankful!

Tongue Tie Diaries: more success!

she ate from BOTH sides today!

not more than 1.5 oz id say. but she did it! it helps that my let down is a bit more forceful and like that of a bottle!

speaking of, i ordered 3 of the Breastflow bottles to try out...still waiting on them to be delivered.

we need something slower. M is clearing out a 2.5 oz bottle in the haberman in less than 10 minutes! shes gotten good at suck suck swallow breathe, but i want her to do it on the boobie!

its such a pain to pump.

on the other hand, ive got quite the supply now and have even reached out to an adoptive mom to donate some milk to her when her son comes home!

hoping for more success.

success at the breast?!

we spent a few more good minutes today at the breast.

she fell asleep after a few.

but she took some!

no more than an ounce maybe. but still!

also...very little discomfort on my nips! thank god for lanolin and nipple butter!

5 good minutes.

i hadnt tried @breast since Friday at my last LC appt because of two things: the fear of pain and the fear of failure.

today i put her on after she had worked some at the Haberman (which she seems to do VERY well with! her suck suck swallow pause is very consistent!), and she and i had 5 good minutes of nursing with only minimal pain (before she fell asleep and started to gnaw with her jaw) :) she got some milk out, and im now in the room to pump the rest out. she didnt even make a dent really, but at least we got 5 minutes in. she wants breast, and i want to give it to her!

heres hoping for future success!

tips for pumping mamas!

on one of my mom boards someone posted a thread about tips for BFing moms. i reposted with some for pumping mamas, because we have some dilemmas too! heres what i posted. feel free to add any!

for the pumping mamas:

get a drink EVERY time...you will be thirsty.

make sure you have a stash of collection bottles and bags. you dont wanna run out.

consider a pumping station, the same spot every time in which to pump if possible, makes it routine for you, and for the older kids.

invest ina GOOD pump. i had 3 50$ automatic double breasted pumps with my son and they werent reliable. this time around, spending extra for the medela didnt seem so bad. youre saving an estimated 1500.00$ a year by not using formula not to mention the other costs, so spring for a good pump. my LC recommends Medela Pump in Style and the Ameda Purely Yours.

get yourself some good breast pads and some good creams. Lansinoh and Medela make great lanolin creams, and the first years has a cream lanolin free called Nipple Butter (is made with almonds and but oils...so read the ingredients for sensitivies).

if youre planning to try and go back to breast get a good LC to give you advice and support. it can be rough. my hospital gives unlimited visits for the first 30 days. ask yours!

along the same lines, look at some good breastlike bottles to avoid confusion or preference if you are using bottles. i like adiri, but im also using a medela specialneeds feeder (formerly known as haberman feeder) while we get through the tongue tie. Other options are Supplemental Nursing Systems with tubes and syringes to help baby until feeding@breast can be reestablished.

its hard to use a laptop for typing while pumping, at least for me, so i set my laptop up with netflix. my pumping usually takes me about 20 minutes and then a few extra to cream up and let some bmilk dry on the nips: just enough time to watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother :).

having pumped milk is fine and dandy to let daddy feed some too, but consider having his feedings be at night. and you can give day feedings to bub, so the awake baby knows milk comes from mom. may help when going back to breast if you can. besides, it's nice to be able to hold her close in a breastfeeding position, and look into her eyes :)

set alarms in the nighttime to pump. yes its hard on the brain and body, but your supply will thank you.

pumping doesnt have the same effect on the body as baby, so ask your doctor or LC about fenugreek or Blessed Thistle or Mothers Milk Tea if youre concerned about your supply. but dont try to fix what isnt broken :)

bringing baby in the room with you may help your release of oxytocin, by seeing baby's face :)

have support! I go to a group on Facebook (Breastfeeding-give it a go!) and i talk to those ladies all the time about my concerns and frustrations being attached to the pump. its nice to have support worldwide!

and remember, youre still giving breastmilk. youre making a really good choice in the midst of undesirable circumstances, be it going back to work or school, or a medical reason for not being able to have him or her at the breast. remember your reasons, you are succeeding!

Positivity.

today im choosing to look at the positives.

yes im bummed things arent how i want them, and my baby isnt at my breast.

but im looking at the positives. positivity is huge, and i know positive thinking gets people places :)

today im feeling great because:

first of all, i have supply. this fact is not lost upon me, and i am very pleased to have milk that my daughter can drink. with my son, my supply ran low due to a couple of factors, and i know there are lots of women who have babies at the breast that want so much for supply...and i do not take that for granted.

i pump every 2 - 3 hours depending on day or night. - this guarantees me alone time to reflect, watch something on the laptop, blog, or do homework or research. guaranteed quiet time. how many moms get that?

i can hold my daughter any way i want during a feeding, and i can look into her eyes without craning my neck to see her :)

expressing breastmilk means that i can easily slip my son some breastmilk in his cup when im preparing baby girls bottle, and he gets some of the goods too without a problem!

if i were only feeding at breast, i might not have the overflowing "we need to get a deep freezer" supply in the freezer that i do have right now for a rainy day :)

i get to have frequent trips to the lactation consultant...seeing as how i want to be one...its nice to be immersed in the culture i want to work in.

Tongue ties are a pain, and having multiple babies with it is rough! but ill have experience with it to help other struggling mothers when my education is over and i am working in the field of breastfeeding.

i have really nice breasts right now :) and after a pumping i get to spend a few extra minutes letting them airdry with my cream and chillin topless.

skin to skin doesnt have ulterior motives. my baby is loving my skin time...not just searchin for a boob. :)

and im feeling great because even though it looks bleak right now...there is still hope. and as long as i do NOT give up...there will be hope.

and more than anything...im thankful she is HEALTHY and well. even if i had no breastmilk - that fact alone would get me through.

just my thoughts for the day.