Breastfeeding has been a rocky road. Not in the chocolate ice cream with nuts and marshmallows sense, but in the sense that it has been way more difficult than I would have thought. My body can't seem to get it right. I'm sure that I am somewhat to blame for it - I haven't been taking the best care of myself recently since I am exhausted trying to take care of Gwen.
My main difficulty is milk supply. I can't quite get to that happy medium. Some days I produce too much milk. On those days, my overactive letdown becomes a problem. Sometimes Gwen will break her latch because she is choking only for me to see a stream of milk spraying her in the face (no wonder she was choking). Other days I don't produce enough. Once again, this is likely because of operator error. I give Gwen at least 2 bottles a day because I mix her medicine with milk. Sometimes I will give her fresh milk, but sometimes I just thaw out some milk from the freezer so I can rotate the stock and replace it with new milk (milk will only keep in the freezer for about 3 months). When I thaw milk, I should pump immediately so my body thinks that it is feeding her the very same amount of milk I am thawing. Usually, however, I get busy and try to make up for the 4 ounces of thawed milk at the end of the day. When I do this, I am often only able to pump about 2 ounces. I wouldn't mind using up some of my stored breastmilk (I have about 150 ounces in the freezer), except that I have gone through about 50 ounces in the past 1-2 months. Prior to that I had 200 ounces. If I keep on doing this, I will be completely out of stored milk (and will thereby be unable to go out of town with Keith for a couple of days until G is weaned) in about 4 months.
The problem was exacerbated by me getting sick a few weeks ago. The stress on my body diminished my supply even more and I was having trouble recovering. I finally decided to go with a piece of advice that I wasn't sure if it was going to help but I figured it wasn't going to hurt: drink a beer a day. It kind of sounds like weird advice, and there is no scientific backing, but I figured, "Why not?" I started with it a couple of weeks ago. I got some Leinenkugel's and some Stella Artois, and gallantly suffered through drinking all 12 bottles over the course of a couple of weeks (okay...I may have enjoyed it). Suddenly, I had extra milk and was able to keep up with what I thawed as well as storing a few extra bags! Admittedly, I also recovered fully from my illness and hydrated well during this same period. But then I ran out of beer this weekend and figured that I could end my experiment. Once again, it could be coincidence, but yesterday, after going a few days without having a beer, I fed Gwen more milk than I was able to feed her and pump. So I ran out to the store last night and bought another thing of beer. I drank one last night, and today I was able to feed her and pump 1.5 extra ounces.
I don't know if it's a coincidence or not. It might be. However, I know of several people who swear by this. If it does work, I have no idea why. I've heard people say it's the hops or the fact that you are able to relax a bit with a beer a day. Maybe I'm just drinking more fluids. Whatever the reason, I think I'm going to continue exploring the tasty world of beers. Tonight's flavor: Summer Shandy.
My main difficulty is milk supply. I can't quite get to that happy medium. Some days I produce too much milk. On those days, my overactive letdown becomes a problem. Sometimes Gwen will break her latch because she is choking only for me to see a stream of milk spraying her in the face (no wonder she was choking). Other days I don't produce enough. Once again, this is likely because of operator error. I give Gwen at least 2 bottles a day because I mix her medicine with milk. Sometimes I will give her fresh milk, but sometimes I just thaw out some milk from the freezer so I can rotate the stock and replace it with new milk (milk will only keep in the freezer for about 3 months). When I thaw milk, I should pump immediately so my body thinks that it is feeding her the very same amount of milk I am thawing. Usually, however, I get busy and try to make up for the 4 ounces of thawed milk at the end of the day. When I do this, I am often only able to pump about 2 ounces. I wouldn't mind using up some of my stored breastmilk (I have about 150 ounces in the freezer), except that I have gone through about 50 ounces in the past 1-2 months. Prior to that I had 200 ounces. If I keep on doing this, I will be completely out of stored milk (and will thereby be unable to go out of town with Keith for a couple of days until G is weaned) in about 4 months.
The problem was exacerbated by me getting sick a few weeks ago. The stress on my body diminished my supply even more and I was having trouble recovering. I finally decided to go with a piece of advice that I wasn't sure if it was going to help but I figured it wasn't going to hurt: drink a beer a day. It kind of sounds like weird advice, and there is no scientific backing, but I figured, "Why not?" I started with it a couple of weeks ago. I got some Leinenkugel's and some Stella Artois, and gallantly suffered through drinking all 12 bottles over the course of a couple of weeks (okay...I may have enjoyed it). Suddenly, I had extra milk and was able to keep up with what I thawed as well as storing a few extra bags! Admittedly, I also recovered fully from my illness and hydrated well during this same period. But then I ran out of beer this weekend and figured that I could end my experiment. Once again, it could be coincidence, but yesterday, after going a few days without having a beer, I fed Gwen more milk than I was able to feed her and pump. So I ran out to the store last night and bought another thing of beer. I drank one last night, and today I was able to feed her and pump 1.5 extra ounces.
I don't know if it's a coincidence or not. It might be. However, I know of several people who swear by this. If it does work, I have no idea why. I've heard people say it's the hops or the fact that you are able to relax a bit with a beer a day. Maybe I'm just drinking more fluids. Whatever the reason, I think I'm going to continue exploring the tasty world of beers. Tonight's flavor: Summer Shandy.
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