Milk

THANK YOU to everyone for your advice and encouragement about my breastfeeding blues last week. I'm feeling better about it, mostly, although pumping like a mad woman at work is still very overwhelming. You can see why so many people just throw in the towel when they return to work. It's a BIG COMMITMENT to find the time and patience to be glued to that stupid boob machine. But! I am committed to nursing my baby and therefore, I'll make it work. Plus, it's only been three weeks so I should probably cut myself some slack and allow time to adjust.

If you've never been to kellymom.com or milkworks.com and you're breastfeeding, I suggest you make it a point to read the wealth of awesome information that's out there. After doing so, I realized my milk supply wasn't so unusual. I guess in my head I envisioned a fountain of milk, always available at the ready, and now I'm realizing that's not exactly the case (at least for me). Also, frequency of pumping sessions vs. the duration of each one makes a big difference in building/maintaining your supply, which is something I didn't realize. That explains my sore nipples and little output! That was the biggest eye opener for me and after making this small change, I was already able to get more milk yesterday.

A few things are helping me move forward: 

1) Many of you recommended fenagreek pills to boost milk supply and I ordered some. I've also been eating oatmeal for breakfast (which is such a simple thing to do - I can't believe it'll be so helpful)!

2) Jen's words are ringing in my ear every time I become overwhelmed about pumping and milk storage. "You don't need 100 bags of milk stored in the freezer, you just need enough to get through the next day." This is so true - thanks Jen! Those few words help me take it one day at a time.

3) While I appreciate the pumping space my co-workers created in our office for me to use, it's a little distracting (if not exposing) to pump within ear-shot of other people. I can hear people talking on the phone and co-workers ask me questions while I'm trying to focus on pumping. Last week, one of our college-age marketing interns even walked in on me mid-session. Luckily, I'm not a very modest person, but I'm sure she was definitely surprised to see her boss in such a position. Late last week, one my co-workers mentioned seeing a sign in the bathroom in another building about lactation. I did a little digging and it turns out there are a few "lactation rooms" scattered around campus. I used the one closest to my office last Thursday and while I can't say it's a glamorous space (it smells like moth balls in there!), it is a lockable room where I can go to quietly pump.

More water, better diet, oatmeal for breakfast, pills and pump, pump, pump.

Bottom line, I'll make it work.

Andi's jonesing to take an overnight trip downtown one of these days and while a night of uninterrupted sleep sounds wonderful, I don't think I'm ready for it. We'd also tentatively planned on taking a long weekend trip somewhere warm for my birthday in Februrary and the thought of doing so about sends me in a tailspin. It's not that I'm afraid to leave Tory (I'd feel totally confident in leaving her with either sets of our parents) but the idea of storing up enough milk to get through one night - let alone a long weekend! - is too much right now. I'll get there eventually. Maybe at the six-month mark when she's starting solids too? We'll see. For now, I'm taking it one day at a time.