In good news..

So I think I've done it all. I've tried expressing more, feeding more, drinking more, eating more, medication (motilium with domperidone included), lactation cookies, a naturopath type remedy. I just don't know what else to try, and like I've said before I don't like to give up but maybe there's nothing else I can do. Like a friend who's just given birth maybe 2 weeks ago now still hasn't had her milk come in and is waiting so patiently.. and another friend who's milk just never did! So should I just count my chickens and cash them in or what?

So in good news it hasn't decreased any further.. maybe just ever so slightly increased.. but alas it is making things hard. It's like having to cook dinner once you've just eaten a small bit of fast food? Why not just buy your whole meal from the fast food outlet (by the way this place is amazing.. free and babies seem to love it!) BUT if you can't then I guess why bother going out only to come home and have to cook something extra to put with it.. you'd just stay in and cook the whole meal in the first place. A lot less effort I think..

IF I suddenly could grab a whole meal from the fast food outlet I SO WOULD. But I've just run out of ideas and just haven't been given anymore :S

Have you ever had a milk supply problem or know of any who has? What did they do to try and increase it? If you've finished breast-feeding how did you come off it without putting yourself through too much pain and engorgement? Tips? Tricks?

M.I.A - A post on nothing much.

I can't believe it's almost been a week since my last post! I've been crazy busy and am just finding no time for anything! So my mood went down and since then it's been back up (and maybe down then up again haha), haven't been feeling all that well, super sore breasts (have  the same lumping like you do when your milk first comes in??) so they're being difficult.. having toilet problems, exhausted (but when did that change?!) and just plain craziness.

Yesterday two of my favourite friends came over for lunch! It was so nice to properly catch up with both of them. One whom still hadn't met my little button yet - busy life of a teacher, oh I can imagine!! So they both brought yummy treats to eat and i made some little filo pastry parcels. A nice thing to do on a crappy rainy day.

My amazing partner has been looking after me for the last few days. Helping out a lot with feeding and settling and helping me feel better. He's made me a "How much water have I drunken today?" chart. The aim is six. Normally I'd say oh.. I might have umm.. thr.. none. So the first day I finished with 4.  Not quite there yet but that's pretty damn amazing for me!

So between random milk leakages, daytime naps, sore breasts, not feeling the best and the endless pile of washing that we all know too well I've been doing okay really. I do have something exciting to share that I'd love at least someone to follow along with me, but I'll save that for a separate post or two! :D

Boobs and Bottles!

The debate over breast-feeding and formula is crazy!

I still can't believe how it wasn't even mentioned during my pregnancy. I think there is a great amount of information (and pressure) out there to breast feed how to's and such but just what happens if you can't or like me, have a low milk supply. Then what. .  Starve them? No. You have to use an alternative - formula.

I don't see the harm in it. Yeah, comparing it to breastmilk there is a bit of an outweigh but still formula does have it's pros. I wish I could fully breast fed as opposed to mix feeding him but I did have to stuff it up. People say to eat but don't give you reasons why you should. I'm the kind of person that if told "If you do this then you wont have to deal with that. And if you have to do that there are all these problems . . ." How time consuming is buying (or lately, finding) the formula you have chosen, preparing the feed and sterilising the bottles beforehand, having pre-boiled cold water!! So exhausting. Sure makes for a well thought out dreamfeed. I took for granted just popping a boob in that's for sure.

If only I had been told. Hey, Melissa just so you know there's a thing you can have called a low milk supply. Now some people just get it and it's their body. But you, you're going to struggle with feeding and eating. .  looking after yourself. You're not going to find time and boy, it sure is hard to, but you need to. If you don't you wont have enough milk to feed him. If you're lucky you'll spot it before he looses weight. He wont sleep properly because he's hungry. He'll cry lot's. Oh and you know that little time you had. .  where you could maybe eat but will decide to sit there in thought or just blob watching tv until his next feed (you'll probably fall asleep) well, instead you'll be using that very little time to now prepare bottles and the bottle feed for him. So now you really have less time to yourself and very VERY little time to eat.

. . . . . Now that you have very VERY little time to eat your milk supply will decrease even more.. it'll slow riiiight down as you'll have less and less calories and energy to burn . . . . .

Great. A never ending circle.

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On positive news I have discovered an AMAZING wrap. It's called the miracle blanket. Here's one place you can get it from - the sleep store! (click!!) They also have great sleeping information for newborn to pre schoolers. My lil button no longer can get out of it! It's great because there's still so much room for him to move in it (pediatrician approved!) and it's not tight at all. So easy to use, no velcro, no nothing! So easy peasy. This will make a few things easier.

Oddly he hasn't been feeding or sleeping a lot in the last 48 hours. I've put him down to bed today a whole hour early (great as he was starting to take an hour longer at the night feed) and he drunk almost as much as he normally does (boobs and bottle) before he fell asleep. So cute.

I love breast feeding him and just wish I had of known EVERYTHING about it all beforehand. But that would have been too easy hey?

I'll be going to sleep happy tonight :D

Today was great even though it was my day to not look after bubby and have done so for all but one feed which is only stink as he suggested us having two nights on and two nights off for night feeds and do every second day for feeds. Maybe he can do some parts of it tomorrow (fingers crossed). .

HIGHLIGHT!! I met up with a new friend and her lil cutie! So that was great comparing everything and finding that we had a lot in common and were experiencing similar things! So that's always nice for a new mum aye? :)

Also we're trying a super strict routine for the lil button at the moment.

Goes roughly like this:
Back to one dream feed 5 hours after going to bed. Gets up at 6 for an hour, awake again at 10, 3, and lastly 7 for his playtime, bath and feed. So far he's been going down quite nicely during the day but just the time he goes back down (around 8pm) he'll wake 30-60 minutes later. Once it was to finish his feed as he decided to go straight to sleep after less than half of a normal feed! Wouldn't wake. Glad it humored me though!! :D

I'm also asked well what if he wakes up earlier? My partner and I agreed that if he woke say 30 minutes before we'd hoped for then we might try the dummy but if it seems that he's had enough sleep we just get him out and he has a huge play. With feeding we still do it at the same time give or take 10 minutes so he'll start to get a hunger around the same time.

In saying this it's dumb. .  they say it's sometimes a good idea to have a loose routine in place but soon he might be teething. .  and solids and gahhh always changing? Although this is definitely helping our (greatly my) sanity at this stage so hey. What works for you, and lil babe, works right? If not I guess it's onto 'plan N' (I'd say that's what I'm up to.. plan B was just SO long ago haha. .  funnily enough I had no idea I'd have to try another 15 things!)

Yay!

So trying that for two weeks and then we'll review it to see if we can just chill it a bit/let it work for itself. Also! For these whole next two weeks I'll be still taking my motillium (hadn't for the last week as I'd run out), my lactation drops and attempting to eat like I'm pregnant all over again. I've only just learnt what "kilojoules" and "calories" actually are.  When I grocery shopped this morning it took me almost twice as long because now I have a crazy interest in everything with what energy/calories I get from a recommended serving. (Although I had 5 'recommended' servings of sour cream tonight! :O)

I find it very cool and so I'll roughly monitor what I take in during the day because I believe if I focus on it really hard and make it a big deal then it'll help with my milk production. .  I think my lack of eating (next to nothing most days, maybe just dinner but sometimes not even that) is what kick started the decrease! Thankfully I'm heavier than what I was pre-pregnancy so yay and happiness all around and all over!!

:D