Nursing update

9 months later, we're still at it. I feel like that's quite an accomplishment, seeing as I've never made enough milk for her. 

We've basically run out of donor milk at this point. I haven't been able to find anyone new to donate, probably because most people want to donate to younger babies. It makes sense, they need the milk more than a 9 month old who's doing well eating solids. However, she still needs to be taking in quite a bit more milk than I make. 

I'd been saying that I was going to get her on raw goat's milk after we ran out of donor breast milk, but our local farmers are in the process of drying off their herd so they can breed them for the spring. They didn't have any milk available. I did a little research and came up with this recipe for goat's milk formula made from dry goat's milk powder. I ordered a bunch of the ingredients from amazon and while I was waiting for them to show up, I put her back on powdered formula; the expensive organic Earth's Best kind. We had the same congestion issue that we had when she was just a tiny squee (the first time she was on it). I had hoped that she would have grown out of it, but apparently not. She got all snotty after a few days of formula instead of breast milk. We used the formula while we were down in California for Christmas and she did ok (not too snotty), but still more snuffly than I like my tiny squee to be.

Now that we're back home and I have all the ingredients for the goat's milk formula, we're feeding a combination of goat's milk formula and Earth's Best canned formula. I've been making up 16oz of goat's milk formula most days and then we supplement with Earth's Best when we go out (it's much easier to transport) or when we've used up all the goat's milk formula and need a bottle in a hurry (like the middle of the night). We've been doing a good portion of the feeding through the Lact-aid, although both goat's milk formula and powdered formula are a lot more irritating to use with it than breast milk was. The goat's milk formula has a bunch of added oil (coconut and olive), which solidifies when it cools down. If the Lact-aid is too cold, the oils clog the tiny sucking tube and TS can't get any liquid out. The powdered formula has a tiny little strainer that has to be used inside the funnel when the formula is poured into the bags. Otherwise, the undissolved formula gets stuck in the tiny tube as well. 

I'm still planning on changing her over to raw goat's milk once it's available. That'll probably be about the same time she turns one, which is when she's supposed to be able to start drinking plain dairy products as a beverage. Since I've got all the stuff to make the formula, I'll probably keep it up until I use some of it up, but it's nice to know that we've almost made it to the point where she can drink plain cow milk. 

My current plan is to keep nursing with the Lact-aid until she self-weans. However, I keep waffling on that decision. It's sometimes hard to rationalize all the trouble that I go through to produce a few ounces of milk. I have decided that I'm going to stop taking all the herbal supplements when she turns one, though. Then she can nurse whatever milk there is there and have a Lact-aid when she wants more (before naps and at bedtime, possibly). I keep hearing stories of babies who abruptly stop nursing and never go back to it, so maybe that'll happen to us. Or maybe she'll want to keep nursing forever (I hope not). At a minimum, I'm committed to continuing to take my supplements until her birthday, then letting her nurse through the summer. I'm torn about keeping it up through next school year - it'd be nice to not have to worry about pumping while I'm at work. That's a long time away in the life of a tiny squee, though. She'll be a totally different, much larger, person by then.

Lactogenic Foods

I was reading this article about lactogenic foods (foods that are supposed to increase milk production). I made some barley water this evening by boiling a cup of barley in about 3 quarts of water for roughly 2 hours (until it had boiled down by about 50%). I strained out the very soft barley and just finished a cup of barley water. It tastes kind of like very thin oatmeal. It's not awful, but it's not something that I'd pull out of the fridge for fun.

I also read this blog post about a woman whose milk supply increased after drinking raw milk. I decided to check it out. The farm that supplies our eggs through our CSA also has two cows and a herd of goats. We went out to their farm today, met the cows and goats, and picked up three half-gallons of milk (two of cow, one of goat).

Raw milk is awesome (although the woman who wrote the blog post seemed to think it was pretty gross). I was expecting it to taste thick like grocery store whole milk does. It actually tastes less fatty than whole milk, which seems counterintuitive. At least an inch of cream separates out off the top of the milk when it's stored in the fridge, but it's easy to mix back in.

I'm guessing that neither of these things will have any effect on my milk production. I'd say that for women who have plenty of glandular tissue, but that tissue isn't producing optimally, might be able to "jump-start" milk production using a food-based approach. However, I'm pretty sure that neither will grow more tissue or help me out. However, both foods are nutritious and supposedly very healthy regardless of their (lack of) effect on milk production.

This is what I take in a day

This is the schedule of supplements that the lactation consultant recommended:

• Domperidone - 30mg capsules 4 x day
• Motherlove milk plus (ordered from amazon) - 1-2 capsules 3 x day
• Malunggay 350mg 2 capsules 3 x day
• Shatavari 400mg 1 capsule 3 x day
• custom lactation blend tincture - 2-3ml 3+ x day:
• contains: goats rue, fennel, fenugreek, blessed thistle, shatavari, lactva virosa, vitex, schisanda, yellowdock, saw palmetto, milk thistle, borage, nettle

So first thing in the morning, I take allergy medication (2 pills), then 5 or 6 capsules, and several droppers-full of tincture (which tastes pretty vile). Then at noon, I take a second domperidone capsule and another couple droppers full of tincture. At 3pm, I take various capsules and more tincture. About 6, I take another domperidone. Last thing (11 or 12), I take more allergy medication (2 more pills), 5 or 6 capsules, and more tincture. 

Here's what it all looks like.  I put the pills out in two tiny dishes  because they all sort of look similar: full of brown herby things.

I've been trying to pump at least twice a day and ideally more like 4 times. It's difficult to time because I don't want to pump right before Sterling wants to eat, but it's hard to determine exactly when she's going to want to eat. It's easier with the supplemental nursing tube since she's going to suck all the pumped milk while she's at the breast. 

When I'm going to be out of the house in the middle of the day, I leave with my pockets stuffed full of pills.

It makes my pee smell like I've eaten asparagus.