So for a while now we've realized that the Bub has some gas issues. She is constantly trying to pass gas but has a hard time doing it. The hardest it seems is when she is on the boob. It will be time for her to eat and she'll suck away for a few minutes and then start arching her back and whimpering/screaming. You can hear her belly make noises and all she wants to do is relieve herself. Sometimes a few toots come out and she's back to eating, sometimes you pick her up burp her and switch positions hoping that will help, sometimes it does sometimes, it doesn't. By now its taken half hour to get her to actually feed for maybe 10 minutes on both breasts. She doesn't fuss after she stops so we assume she is full and move on.
In the evenings we started giving her pumped milk in a bottle to supplement in case she wasn't full. Still a little fussy but she'd relax enough to drink and even toot a little. We thought we had a routine down that worked. In the mean time we made sure to give her lots of belly time, rub her belly, play bicycle, and warm bathes to help her out.
This past monday it was almost bedtime and as usual Neelesh was ready with the bottle and I put Siena on the breast. Except as soon as she went on her side she started crying, barely in her mouth and she wasn't having any of it. Switching sides, she stayed on for maybe a minute then started hollering. So i waved my white flag and decided i'd just pump this time and let her take the whole bottle. She downed 5 ounces and I pumped barely 1.5 oz - from both breasts.
Houston we have a problem.
So its not just passing gas that's an issue, its that the past few weeks of fussiness and not drinking till I was empty has depleted my milk supply. Seems it also takes too long to come out aka slow milk flow. No wonder she wakes up at 4am to eat. I freaked out. I am freaking out. I am crying because I don't want to give up nursing. Its selfish and silly but I really love the fact that it is the one thing only she and I can do. I know I should be grateful, others aren't so lucky to get the chance. But right now it doesn't feel like that.
I have to increase my supply, gotta up the calories, reduce the foods that make us gassy, try fenugreek capsules, get mom to make more fenugreek squares (indian remedy that i ran out of a while back), eat more oatmeal - anything to get more lactogenic foods in me.
I also have to pump. Not just in the morning after she's eaten and I look like Dolly Parton. The road to more breast milk is an empty one. Say what? Yup, if the breast doesn't completely empty out then its not going to fill back up all the way. Here's actually a great site that explains how breast milk is created
So what does all this mean I am now pumping every 3 hours. Luckily for us we had some breastmilk stock-piled in the freezer from my morning pump sessions. Unfortunately I now need 5 - 6 of those 5 oz bags to get through 1 day of her feedings. Along with the pumping there is defrosting her milk, getting the bottle ready and feeding her every 3-4 hours. Factor into this her naps every 2 hours, cleaning all pump equipment and bottles after every use and making sure the thawed milk is properly used and eliminated I swear my head will BLOW.
Not sure how long our freezer supply will last but I know my milk supply won't increase enough to restock as fast as its going.
This leads to the next question of having to supplement a feeding a day with formula. My first thought was no, I can make this work. But since I'll be heading up north tomorrow and there is no freezer full of milk waiting for us, something will have to give. Each pumping session produces no more than 2-4 oz. Do the math. More gets used up then gets produced. My only option will be to add a bottle 1 a day so I can meet demand.
Oh and this might be TMI but I got my period today. People nurse long after they get their period but it is often a sign of decrease in milk production. And it sucks. It's been over 1 year since I've had it and I can tell you I sure didn't miss it.
Blah.
Why am I putting all this out there? A bunch of reasons, hope that someone reading might have some words of advice or suggestions I haven't come across yet, to help those who might go through something similar now or in the future and because to be honest getting it all out just helps relieve the crazy.
