Did I happen to mention how tired I was month 1? If not, this picture to left may give you a pretty good idea. It was actually 2 o’clock in the afternoon. At this point, we were still nursing every hour, for just a couple of minutes at a time. Although she was gaining well, there was nothing I could do to get her to nurse longer. I tried Kellymom, I tried calling a lactation consultant, my local LLLI, as well as my ped, none of the advice was really helpful other than “she must be really good at getting all of the milk out!”.
Well no she wasn’t actually. So at that point, I was told to pump beforehand and afterward. You know what that caused? Engorgement…and lots of it. Honestly, this is and was the worst possible advice anyone, could ever give. I was completely miserable. At this point, I contemplated exclusive pumping. It was nearing the holidays soon. And with Thanksgiving approaching first, I figured, well I am pumping and feeding nonstop, I may as well cut out the middleman (or baby in this case).
About two weeks before Thanksgiving, I made my mind up that I would just bottle feed. This
It didn’t seem to matter how tired I was. Breastfeeding brought me happiness. Weird huh?
would give the Mister the opportunity to help with the late night feedings, leaving me the chance to finally get some rest, that way when I homeschool I would be a little more attentive and alert, and the lot less agitated. So for a few days, I started to EP. I pumped my regular feeding sessions and gave bottles while freezing the milk. I still breastfed the extra feedings since we were doing on demand feeding. At this point, I had about 130 ounces of milk stored up from nearly a month of pumping that I had been doing (I started pumping in the hospital initially, and then an as needed pump schedule, up until I was given the crummy advice and decided to EP).
Unfortunately for me doing this was a terrible idea. My supply began to drop…tremendously. I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night to pump (wake up with much-needed sleep? yeah right!). Because of this, it was very noticeable and almost instantaneous that my supply dipped. So I had to not once again continue pumping, but I was told to go back to breastfeeding as well. I also ate oatmeal and drank lactation tea, to boost my supply. Everything I did to boost and maintain my supply you can find here.
Of course, my supply returned.
Full force.
Here are some more moments from month 2!
Love of impromptu dance parties, 80’s cartoons, and horizontal life pauses (aka naps); Natasha Brown is a stay at home mom of 4 kids, and wife to one lucky guy! In her spare time, she is co-editor of Grits & Grace, as well as editor for The Mother Hustler Blog and Creative Director for the Mother Hustler podcast.
