Erin
December 5th 03, 08:34 PM
My parents in law were in town last week to visit DD, who is now a month
old. They are lovely folks, but raised kids in the era of formula and
feeding schedules, which caused the usual friction. My MIL wanted to hold
the baby constantly, and when DD would start in with her hungry cry, I had
the hardest time wrestling her away. Grandma invariably insisted DD was
"just fussy," and would hold her for another 30 minutes while the baby
gradually worked herself into quite a state -- only then MIL would finally
hand her over for nursing. My breasts felt like they were going to burst
most of the time because of all the delays, so I started pumping, and then a
few times a day I'd let MIL bottle feed the baby. I figured it was better
to use some bottles under the circumstances than have a big fight or have
the baby miss some feedings altogether because of how the delays added up
over the course of the day. Besides, I had a ton of milk, so I figured that
while the situation was annoying, it wasn't actually harmful.
But now that the parents in law have flown home, and my milk supply seems
to have dropped very suddenly. Whereas I could formerly nurse the baby
every couple hours around the clock and still express 8-12 ozs a day, now I
can only pump about 4-6 ozs. each day. And I used to have an overactive
letdown, leak constantly, and have tight, uncomfy feelings whenever DD
didn't nurse exactly every two hours, now I don't need nursing pads anymore
because leaking has mostly stopped, and my breasts don't feel uncomfortable
95 percent of the time. In fact, I can't tell which side was nursed on
last -- something I could always do before.
The good news is that so far, DD doesn't seem to be suffering for lack of
milk. She still feeds every few hours and has a normal number of wet and
poopy diapers. I used to pump before feedings to prevent my overactive
letdown from causing problems, but now do so afterwards to ensure she gets
as much milk as she can. But does the sudden inability to pump much milk
mean that my supply will continue to dwindle? I do need to pump, because in
another couple of months I'm going back to work, and want to be able to
freeze a decent supply of EBM for that in advance. Any advice on how to
increase pumping volume (or supply in general) is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Erin
old. They are lovely folks, but raised kids in the era of formula and
feeding schedules, which caused the usual friction. My MIL wanted to hold
the baby constantly, and when DD would start in with her hungry cry, I had
the hardest time wrestling her away. Grandma invariably insisted DD was
"just fussy," and would hold her for another 30 minutes while the baby
gradually worked herself into quite a state -- only then MIL would finally
hand her over for nursing. My breasts felt like they were going to burst
most of the time because of all the delays, so I started pumping, and then a
few times a day I'd let MIL bottle feed the baby. I figured it was better
to use some bottles under the circumstances than have a big fight or have
the baby miss some feedings altogether because of how the delays added up
over the course of the day. Besides, I had a ton of milk, so I figured that
while the situation was annoying, it wasn't actually harmful.
But now that the parents in law have flown home, and my milk supply seems
to have dropped very suddenly. Whereas I could formerly nurse the baby
every couple hours around the clock and still express 8-12 ozs a day, now I
can only pump about 4-6 ozs. each day. And I used to have an overactive
letdown, leak constantly, and have tight, uncomfy feelings whenever DD
didn't nurse exactly every two hours, now I don't need nursing pads anymore
because leaking has mostly stopped, and my breasts don't feel uncomfortable
95 percent of the time. In fact, I can't tell which side was nursed on
last -- something I could always do before.
The good news is that so far, DD doesn't seem to be suffering for lack of
milk. She still feeds every few hours and has a normal number of wet and
poopy diapers. I used to pump before feedings to prevent my overactive
letdown from causing problems, but now do so afterwards to ensure she gets
as much milk as she can. But does the sudden inability to pump much milk
mean that my supply will continue to dwindle? I do need to pump, because in
another couple of months I'm going back to work, and want to be able to
freeze a decent supply of EBM for that in advance. Any advice on how to
increase pumping volume (or supply in general) is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance, Erin