After much thought, I have decided to end my attempt at relactation. Other than soreness, I never developed any more signs of progress and the time it consumed was taking away from my family and my home. Luckily, I feel that I did grow and heal with this journey and have learned a lot. I have no more guilt and I am comfortable with our current circumstances. In the end, I have a healthy and happy baby whose mommy is just as happy and healthy.
Thank you, everyone, for the support. I would not have been able to stick it out this long without all of the encouraging words. Hopefully I can avoid all this the next time around and get it right the first time :)
Thank you,
Kelly
Monday, March 21, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Checking in
So, I just realized that its been a week since I've updated this... oops :)
This past week has been interesting. I've kept up with pumping pretty regularly except for the last two days. I was a little distracted with Mr. D actually being home from work, LC was a fussy butt, and I felt the need to cook and clean. Today it becomes a priority again though.
Along with pumping, we're still keeping up with the skin-to-skin, fenugreek, oatmeal, and Mother's Milk Tea. Skin-to-skin (s2s) with LC is proving to be not that enjoyable. Between her spitting up and sweating, its actually pretty gross! We might have to start spending most of our s2s time in the bath. The fenugreek has me feeling like Aunt Jemima, I reek of maple syrup! Last night I experienced another side effect of the herb, a drop in blood sugar. That was no fun. Today I am going to try taking two pills per dose instead of three. As long as I still make everyone crave pancakes, the dose should be effective.
Last week I began looking into a supplemental nursing system (SNS). Basically, its a bottle with narrow plastic tubing attached to it. You hang the bottle upside down on a string around your neck and the tubing is taped to your breast, with the end placed at the tip of the nipple. This allows baby to actually "breastfeed" before breastmilk is being produced. Not only is this good bonding and comfort for mom and baby, the suckling helps stimulate breastmilk production.
I called the pharmacy to see if they carried these but they were out. The pharmacist recommended I call the lactation office of the local hospital. The lactation consultant I spoke to told me to come on over, she had plenty. When I asked how much she would charge, she said it was on the house! (In case I haven't said it before, lactation consultants are awesome!) She sat with me and told me how to use it, gave me some great tips for relactation, and told me to call or stop by if I ever needed anything. (I'll say it again, awesome!)
Setting up the SNS was a little more difficult than it should have been. At first, the milk kept leaking from the bottle. I had to have a towel in my lap to catch it all. After a little investigation, I realized a valve cover was assembled upside down. Easy fix! After I figured that out, we were dry. My anatomy is still a little flat and LC has no idea what to do with it, so I've been using the nipple shield with the SNS. This seems to help with nipple confusion from the bottle but we're still going through some trial and error. At first, I filled the shield with milk prior to latching her on. This turned out to be bad, she took almost all the milk out in one suck and choked... which immediately ticked her off. When the shield is empty, she takes a couple sucks and then loses interest. We are trying with just a small amount of milk but she still gets upset after a few sucks. I know I need to keep offering it to her, but its a little frustrating for both of us right now. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to wait until I was producing even a little bit of milk.
Even though I'm not producing any milk yet, I feel that there is progress. My breasts are pretty sore, like when I was pregnant. At first I attributed this to PMS, but I've already started my next cycle and I still have the soreness. Yah for pain!
Thats all I have to report from this past week. We've only taken baby steps but thats ok. I know its not going to happen overnight and am trying to be patient and stay motivated. So for now I'll celebrate the baby steps we have achieved... sore boobs =)
This past week has been interesting. I've kept up with pumping pretty regularly except for the last two days. I was a little distracted with Mr. D actually being home from work, LC was a fussy butt, and I felt the need to cook and clean. Today it becomes a priority again though.
Along with pumping, we're still keeping up with the skin-to-skin, fenugreek, oatmeal, and Mother's Milk Tea. Skin-to-skin (s2s) with LC is proving to be not that enjoyable. Between her spitting up and sweating, its actually pretty gross! We might have to start spending most of our s2s time in the bath. The fenugreek has me feeling like Aunt Jemima, I reek of maple syrup! Last night I experienced another side effect of the herb, a drop in blood sugar. That was no fun. Today I am going to try taking two pills per dose instead of three. As long as I still make everyone crave pancakes, the dose should be effective.
Last week I began looking into a supplemental nursing system (SNS). Basically, its a bottle with narrow plastic tubing attached to it. You hang the bottle upside down on a string around your neck and the tubing is taped to your breast, with the end placed at the tip of the nipple. This allows baby to actually "breastfeed" before breastmilk is being produced. Not only is this good bonding and comfort for mom and baby, the suckling helps stimulate breastmilk production.
I called the pharmacy to see if they carried these but they were out. The pharmacist recommended I call the lactation office of the local hospital. The lactation consultant I spoke to told me to come on over, she had plenty. When I asked how much she would charge, she said it was on the house! (In case I haven't said it before, lactation consultants are awesome!) She sat with me and told me how to use it, gave me some great tips for relactation, and told me to call or stop by if I ever needed anything. (I'll say it again, awesome!)
Setting up the SNS was a little more difficult than it should have been. At first, the milk kept leaking from the bottle. I had to have a towel in my lap to catch it all. After a little investigation, I realized a valve cover was assembled upside down. Easy fix! After I figured that out, we were dry. My anatomy is still a little flat and LC has no idea what to do with it, so I've been using the nipple shield with the SNS. This seems to help with nipple confusion from the bottle but we're still going through some trial and error. At first, I filled the shield with milk prior to latching her on. This turned out to be bad, she took almost all the milk out in one suck and choked... which immediately ticked her off. When the shield is empty, she takes a couple sucks and then loses interest. We are trying with just a small amount of milk but she still gets upset after a few sucks. I know I need to keep offering it to her, but its a little frustrating for both of us right now. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to wait until I was producing even a little bit of milk.
Even though I'm not producing any milk yet, I feel that there is progress. My breasts are pretty sore, like when I was pregnant. At first I attributed this to PMS, but I've already started my next cycle and I still have the soreness. Yah for pain!
Thats all I have to report from this past week. We've only taken baby steps but thats ok. I know its not going to happen overnight and am trying to be patient and stay motivated. So for now I'll celebrate the baby steps we have achieved... sore boobs =)
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