well, everything up to this point has seemed to be going really well. But since I never got this far with bfing Lea Lea, now I have some questions about what's happening with me and my milk and baby. Two days ago, Xavier decided to sleep a lot. This was right after my milk came in a few days before, and my boobs felt super full. But since the milk was already in and he was still waking up often enough that we got more than 8 feedings in that day, I didn't worry about my feeding him when my boobs felt full and were leaking. But then yesterday, it felt like there was literally no milk in them, and they never leaked once. He nursed from 11 am to 3 am last night/this morning...that's 16 hours straight. He had small naps in between, but not for more than about 20 minutes. I just let him keep nursing, but I expected to wake up this morning and have my boobs feel full of milk again, but they don't. Is that even supposed to happen, where you feel your boobs right full of milk, or does that go away after the engorgment faze? *sigh* I'm just waiting for something to go wrong...
Kirsten, listen to me. STOP WORRYING! Go lay down with your baby on the couch, shirt off, skin to skin. Relax with LeaLea and a few videos (you're allowed that right now). Have plenty of snacks, activities, water bottles, diapers, blankets, etc near you. And just sit. Lay down. Rest. Worrying just causes more problems. Just relax and watch his output. If nothing changes you're fine. Just relax.
Remember....You know one of that less than one percent worldwide that cannot produce breastmilk. You know me. What is the likelihood, really, of you not being able to breastfeed?
Yeah, I'm probably just finding things to freak out about. I'm terrified I'm going to wake up one morning with no milk, or do something wrong and it all dries up...weird, but I can't shake the fear.
Kirsten, think of it this way... Your body naturally overproduces anyway in those first few days, and from your experiences with LeaLea, you have natural copious amounts of milk. Your body is now overcompensating, trying to establish a normal level. It turned the tap down a bit too far. And the last thing to do in this case is assume X is hungry and bottlefeed. All of his sucking is telling your body "HEY! Turn the faucet back on! I'm not done here!" Pretty soon (like in a few weeks) your body will level out and everything will be just right. But for now, negative begets negative. Positive begets positive. If you put out the energy "I have no milk" you'll get no milk. Think lands of milk and honey, girl! Think breastmilk niagara falls! Tell yourself outloud "I'm making enough milk!" and you will! And never stop talking to us. I'm waiting here for all the details and more pictures. I'm vicariously living my breastfeeding relationship through you.
awww, lol, thanks holly There is no way in HELL I am letting a bottle near this baby! Trust me on that one! I just didn't know what was up with this whole my boobs feeling empty thing. I wasn't sure if it was normal....I was kind of expecting that engorged feeling to carry on the whole time. The good news, is now they're starting to feel a bit fuller, with the one I didn't feed him on last feeling fullest. Nothing like they were the other day, but this rests my mind at ease now. My midwife said something to me the other day about having low supply days, maybe that's all it was. granted, too, he's headed for a growth spurt, and since he was so far over due, maybe he's hitting it already.....just a thought...
Possibly! I know M seemed to hit a hungry patch every week and a half for the first 2-3 months. Even though she didn't grow out her clothes, she did get considerably heavier. So maybe X won't have "regular" growth spurts but have them like M did.
Obviously, you can't measure how much milk he's getting, soooooo...you watch for how much he's putting out. If he's got at least six wet diapers a day and at least one poopie, he's getting plenty of milk. Some ladies have the sort of breasts that leak and drip, some don't. Some ladies get huge and stay huge, some don't. Even the same lady with different babies can have leaky breasts with one, and no leaks with another. Babies cluster nurse, and will one day nurse non-stop for 24 hours, and then another only nurse every 3-4 hours. It's all normal! That said, if you want to build up your milk supply, eat a bowl of slow-cooking oatmeal every day. Not instant, not quick, the oatmeal you have to cook. It really builds up milk supply!
I noticed that I was not engorged with my second baby, or my body knew what to do quicker and I didn't overproduce like I did with my first (except when my milk first came in). If he is sleeping fine and seems happy, I'm sure he's getting enough milk. My boobs never felt full but my babies gained weight quickly (never lost weight like some babies do). Just keep feeding on demand, you'll be fine...you're body knows what it's doing!
things seem to have regulated themselves out a bit more now. He's gaining weight at a really fast rate and he poops at least 10 times a day, lol, peeing even more. My boobs start to get hard and throb when he wakes up or cries, so I know they're doing the right thing now. Just had a scary day there I guess. Like I said, I never got past this point with Lea Lea, so now I don't really know what I'm doing. Just relying on my instincts....which, this far, has seemed to work really well. I wish I would have done that with Lea Lea instead of over obsessing and reading everything about everything that I could at that point, which just made things worse. I threw out all the books this time, lol
