Scary
The trip to Pittsburgh was really hard on poor Limelet. He's not one of those babies who love being in the car seat. He manages pretty well for trips to the doctor or grocery store, but the actual seat time rarely exceeds half an hour.
This trip included seven hours driving time, plus whatever stops we made, and we started around 6pm--Limelet's fussy evening time anyway. We tried to stop to nurse him frequently, but you can't always stop on the Ohio Turnpike. I could see he felt abandoned when I wouldn't pick him up, and that really scared him, which made him cry worse. So much for sleeping most of the way there!
I really have had no problems with my milk supply--if anything, I've had a bit of a problem with oversupply. Until now.
I had to pump all last week to save up some milk for Limelet to have while I was in my four hours of interviews on Friday. Pumping (or nursing--any form of demand) builds up your milk supply, so by Friday I think I was pretty well-stocked. (Or should I say stacked?)
I took my milk pump to the interview site, to try to relieve some of the pressure. If you let milk back up, the byproducts of its breaking down signal your body to reduce your milk production in general, and I was worried about going without nursing for four hours.
Well, I should have worried. I had absolutely no time between interviews to even think about pumping. And on top of that, the trip to and from the site ended up taking an hour each way, so I ended up going not four hours but SIX hours without any milking.
When I got back to the hotel I grabbed the baby and took off the nursing bra, and sat there watching as milk sprayed out of me a couple of feet. I tried to nurse as much as possible that day, and also pumped all afternoon, just to try to neutralize the effect of such a long non-nursing period.
However, it seems that it drastically reduced my supply anyway.
Now Limelet is hungry and nursing (while groaning and fussy) constantly, day and night. Which I'm encouraging, of course, as nursing's the only way to get your supply up. I'm also stuck trying to pump again this week for him to eat this Friday (and on the trip itself, which helps him cope), but can barely get any milk to come out.
Normally I leak profusely while nursing, now I have no leaking at all. I can feel that the letdowns I have are fewer and weaker. Milk doesn't dribble out of his mouth as it always used to. Also, I have suddenly lost that nursing-thirst I always got just when he latched on. So much for my oversupply problem.
He's not actually starving, and I can tell that there is still milk, and he's still wetting diapers, there just isn't the wonderful bounty there was before. He has to nurse for a long time just to get by. I've been sleeping terribly, as I tensely awake at his every stirring to try to force a nursie into his mouth willy-nilly. I've been waking up with a headache from sleeping so tensely.
The interview Friday will only be a two-hour one, and the hotel is right around the corner (I went to this one last year, too) so that will be less bad. However, the one the following week is another @#^$* four-hour one.
In addition to nursing constantly (he was asleep as I wrote this), I've been using as many galactagogic herbs and foods as I can find around the house. Fennel tea, fenugreek and cumin (used to season) steamed barley and brown rice, oatmeal, beets, (only) one cup of sassafras tea, milk thistle capsules and nettle capsules, and I haven't yet been able to force down raspberry leaf tea, too, but I will.
I really hope my supply comes back as good as it was before, dammit. Stupid non-nursing society, damaging my baby's food supply. >:[
This trip included seven hours driving time, plus whatever stops we made, and we started around 6pm--Limelet's fussy evening time anyway. We tried to stop to nurse him frequently, but you can't always stop on the Ohio Turnpike. I could see he felt abandoned when I wouldn't pick him up, and that really scared him, which made him cry worse. So much for sleeping most of the way there!
I really have had no problems with my milk supply--if anything, I've had a bit of a problem with oversupply. Until now.
I had to pump all last week to save up some milk for Limelet to have while I was in my four hours of interviews on Friday. Pumping (or nursing--any form of demand) builds up your milk supply, so by Friday I think I was pretty well-stocked. (Or should I say stacked?)
I took my milk pump to the interview site, to try to relieve some of the pressure. If you let milk back up, the byproducts of its breaking down signal your body to reduce your milk production in general, and I was worried about going without nursing for four hours.
Well, I should have worried. I had absolutely no time between interviews to even think about pumping. And on top of that, the trip to and from the site ended up taking an hour each way, so I ended up going not four hours but SIX hours without any milking.
When I got back to the hotel I grabbed the baby and took off the nursing bra, and sat there watching as milk sprayed out of me a couple of feet. I tried to nurse as much as possible that day, and also pumped all afternoon, just to try to neutralize the effect of such a long non-nursing period.
However, it seems that it drastically reduced my supply anyway.
Now Limelet is hungry and nursing (while groaning and fussy) constantly, day and night. Which I'm encouraging, of course, as nursing's the only way to get your supply up. I'm also stuck trying to pump again this week for him to eat this Friday (and on the trip itself, which helps him cope), but can barely get any milk to come out.
Normally I leak profusely while nursing, now I have no leaking at all. I can feel that the letdowns I have are fewer and weaker. Milk doesn't dribble out of his mouth as it always used to. Also, I have suddenly lost that nursing-thirst I always got just when he latched on. So much for my oversupply problem.
He's not actually starving, and I can tell that there is still milk, and he's still wetting diapers, there just isn't the wonderful bounty there was before. He has to nurse for a long time just to get by. I've been sleeping terribly, as I tensely awake at his every stirring to try to force a nursie into his mouth willy-nilly. I've been waking up with a headache from sleeping so tensely.
The interview Friday will only be a two-hour one, and the hotel is right around the corner (I went to this one last year, too) so that will be less bad. However, the one the following week is another @#^$* four-hour one.
In addition to nursing constantly (he was asleep as I wrote this), I've been using as many galactagogic herbs and foods as I can find around the house. Fennel tea, fenugreek and cumin (used to season) steamed barley and brown rice, oatmeal, beets, (only) one cup of sassafras tea, milk thistle capsules and nettle capsules, and I haven't yet been able to force down raspberry leaf tea, too, but I will.
I really hope my supply comes back as good as it was before, dammit. Stupid non-nursing society, damaging my baby's food supply. >:[
posted by liz at 11:42 AM
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