Nursing.

For something so natural, nursing has been a bit challenging for us. It's something I always planned on doing but I certainly never considered all of the potential obstacles I'd come across just to nourish my baby. Who knew that you could have latching issues, you can produce too much milk or not enough, it can be painful, you can get infections and clogged ducts. I've got to admit, I can see now why people don't stick with it... breastfeeding can be a full time job!

Our story in a nutshell is that, in her first couple of weeks, Auria was not gaining her weight back like she was supposed to - in fact, she was losing weight. [Note: This was coinciding with the jaundice ordeal so this was extra emotionally overwhelming for mommy to take in and deal with!] Anyway, of course we had to make sure she was healthy, so to ensure her weight gain we were instucted by her pediatrician to begin supplementing her feedings with formula. I was devastated that I wasn't producing what my baby needed and I really didn't want to give her a bottle yet (especially not one full of anything but momma's milk!) but I had to do what I had to do.
*I will admit that there were moments when I did appreciate having a break from having her on the breast in the 2nd and 3rd weeks because I was very sore at times.... during some feedings I would cringe when she latched.

With the advice of the hospital lactation consultant I began using a breastpump to help stimulate more production. I also drank mother's milk tea, ate oatmeal for breakfast, and I started taking a supplement (more milk plus) made with fenugreek... all in an effort to increase my supply.

Fast forward to now (about 3 weeks later) and I'm producing more, but still not enough to satisfy my baby girl. Luckily she's gaining weight just fine (at her one month check up she was 9lbs 11oz, which puts her in the 75th percentile for growth) so we know we're safe to try to wean her from the formula. Now the problem is just that after I nurse her, she's still hungry.

I had a consultation at Babyology yesterday and they helped me find out how much milk I'm actually transfering to Auria during a feeding. The results were better than I anticipated but still not good enough to say bye-bye to formula just yet. We came up with a plan of action so I'm back to pumping after every feeding, taking the more milk plus, eating oats... and now I'm also going to take another supplement called Donperidon. I had to get it from a compound pharmacy and it was very expensive ($180 for one month's supply). I called my breastmilk "liquid gold" before but now I think it's more like platinum, lol. This stuff is supposed to increase my production by 30% or something like that and they said I should notice a difference in about 3 days so I'm praying that this does the trick!

So, switching subjects, today at mommy group one of the women asked about drinking wine while breastfeeding. I've heard so many different things on that subject so I was interested to hear what the consultant would say. I won't go into all of the details but ultimately she said that within certain guidelines, a glass of wine every once in a while is okay. She also told us about these breastmilk alcohol test strips (milkscreen) that you can buy to test for the presence of alcohol in your milk. In case you're wondering, they sell them at Target - in the section with the breastpumps and things of that nature. Yes, I bought some and it couldn't have been at a better time because with all of this milk drama I'm feeling so stressed (and like a complete failure) so I'm looking forward to having a few sips of wine to help myself relax a little bit.

Alright, off to find my houdini and that bottle of wine that's been hanging around the house all sad and lonely for the past year or so ;) I'll follow up in a few days or so, hopefully with good news about this new milk program!