The last few days this is what my life has been all about. Every two hours I'm hooked up to a pump trying to get some milk flowing. I've always been pro nursing so it isn't a surprise that with this little baby I would continue to follow that pattern. Breast if best, right? The NICU team is extremely encouraging, almost to the point of demanding. They want mama's milk for the baby. One of the difficulties for preemies is that they miss the point in the uterus when a lot of mama's immunity is passed. Luckily babies get a lot of immunity from mama's breast milk. So not only is it the perfect diet, it also gives them the best possible start they can ever have against infection. It is like liquid gold. So much so that if you can't manage to produce your own they keep a stock of donated breast milk that they will give to your child if you allow them. It's nice to know the supply is there if you want it, but I definitely want to nurse this little girl when she comes home so I have been working it trying to get my own supply to come in. Three days I've just been pumping and all I get is little tiny drops. I've been drinking water like crazy and eating all the oatmeal a girl can handle. I've been pumping every two hours. I've been resting. I've been using hot packs. I haven't been relaxing very well...it's always been a struggle for me to relax when I'm waiting for my milk. This morning I took it one step further. I put a picture of little miss up on the computer and then I played you tube videos of babies crying. I don't know if it would have happened anyway or if this actually helped but I got this in my pump. Just one little syringe full, but like I said, LIQUID GOLD! Can I just say I'm so excited to take this down to NICU! I got to hold little miss last night, yes she still needs a name, and it was awesome! They have you do what they call
kangaroo care, where the baby gets to be skin to skin with your chest. It is kind of a hassle to set up, all the little leads have to be taken off, baby is gathered up and placed under your shirt, and then all the little leads have to be reattached while alarms are going off all over the place, and yes when the nurse slipped little miss under my shirt there was definitely an awkward boob graze but it was so worth it. Skin to skin. Baby girl cuddles in nice and tight and mom gets to feel all those feelings of love and happiness she missed out on two days ago. I sat with her two hours, loving my little daughter, chatting with the nurse, just enjoying the moment until my percocet drugged mind started to slow to the point I knew it was time to come back to my room. I love my little daughter. Another little blessing, Sunday night Dr. J took all the kids in one at a time to meet her. As of yesterday flu/rsv season is upon us and kids are no longer allowed in the NICU until the season has left. I feel so lucky that they got to meet their sister once so now when we bring pictures and video home they will know who we are talking about! Finally I wanted to share this little
video I saw today when I was looking for baby cries. So funny. I love the not being eaten twins face. You can just see it in the eyes, "Why are you eating me?" Adorable!
The last few days this is what my life has been all about. Every two hours I'm hooked up to a pump trying to get some milk flowing. I've always been pro nursing so it isn't a surprise that with this little baby I would continue to follow that pattern. Breast if best, right? The NICU team is extremely encouraging, almost to the point of demanding. They want mama's milk for the baby. One of the difficulties for preemies is that they miss the point in the uterus when a lot of mama's immunity is passed. Luckily babies get a lot of immunity from mama's breast milk. So not only is it the perfect diet, it also gives them the best possible start they can ever have against infection. It is like liquid gold. So much so that if you can't manage to produce your own they keep a stock of donated breast milk that they will give to your child if you allow them. It's nice to know the supply is there if you want it, but I definitely want to nurse this little girl when she comes home so I have been working it trying to get my own supply to come in. Three days I've just been pumping and all I get is little tiny drops. I've been drinking water like crazy and eating all the oatmeal a girl can handle. I've been pumping every two hours. I've been resting. I've been using hot packs. I haven't been relaxing very well...it's always been a struggle for me to relax when I'm waiting for my milk. This morning I took it one step further. I put a picture of little miss up on the computer and then I played you tube videos of babies crying. I don't know if it would have happened anyway or if this actually helped but I got this in my pump. Just one little syringe full, but like I said, LIQUID GOLD! Can I just say I'm so excited to take this down to NICU! I got to hold little miss last night, yes she still needs a name, and it was awesome! They have you do what they call kangaroo care, where the baby gets to be skin to skin with your chest. It is kind of a hassle to set up, all the little leads have to be taken off, baby is gathered up and placed under your shirt, and then all the little leads have to be reattached while alarms are going off all over the place, and yes when the nurse slipped little miss under my shirt there was definitely an awkward boob graze but it was so worth it. Skin to skin. Baby girl cuddles in nice and tight and mom gets to feel all those feelings of love and happiness she missed out on two days ago. I sat with her two hours, loving my little daughter, chatting with the nurse, just enjoying the moment until my percocet drugged mind started to slow to the point I knew it was time to come back to my room. I love my little daughter. Another little blessing, Sunday night Dr. J took all the kids in one at a time to meet her. As of yesterday flu/rsv season is upon us and kids are no longer allowed in the NICU until the season has left. I feel so lucky that they got to meet their sister once so now when we bring pictures and video home they will know who we are talking about! Finally I wanted to share this little video I saw today when I was looking for baby cries. So funny. I love the not being eaten twins face. You can just see it in the eyes, "Why are you eating me?" Adorable!
Ok, so this popped up in your "you might also like" thing at the bottom. So I read it...and then checked my BF chart for when Benjamin was 4 days old.
ReplyDeleteI was getting between 120 and 190 mL each session (so eight times a day) for a total of 1254 mL (which is like 1.25 liters, which is like more than a quarter of a gallon). This was even still colostrumy stuff but even my milk-milk tends to be half'n'half (like, half cream, ya'know?). So, that's kind of why I wonder how limited Benjamin's nutrition is when people balk at him being nearly fully breastfed. 'Cuz he's getting lotsa milk.
But, on the other hand, a friend commented that her baby was having sleep issues due to anemia. And Jason says it's important. So I've been trying to feed him (food) more regularly the past couple of days (Benjamin, not Jason) and he has been sleeping better. But that might also be because he's finally getting over this cold.
Yes you are very good at milk production...that being said I think it is about the iron not the fat content :)
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