One day I will miss this…

The D family has been a family of four for about 2.5 weeks and I would love to say that we are falling into a routine of sorts…but we are not quite there yet. Baby L has been doing a great job during the day, but she is a bit of a fusspot at night. Now, some days are better than others…but we still have some pretty crappy nights (last night was one of them).

One of the issues that I have been dealing with is an overproduction of breast milk. Prior to now, I would never have thought that this could be a bad thing. When nursing and pumping for Lil C, there were times when I was barely scraping by in the milk department. But this time, I am having the opposite problem. I kind of figured this out by trial and error. Earlier in the week, Baby C started having these ridiculously huge spit-ups with almost every feeding (I mean like water fountain huge….we were both changing outfits numerous times per day). She was also super gassy and fussy for the entire day and night. Out of curiosity, I decided to pump on one side to see how much I was producing. After a mere 15 minutes of pumping, I had four ounces of milk. Wow, that would mean that if I offered Baby L both sides at each feed, she could be getting as much as eight ounces! There is no way her little tummy can handle amounts like that.

So, I implemented a couple changes. First, I have only been offering her one side at each feeding. I also have been reclining back when I nurse, so that she can regulate how much milk she gets at a time. This has greatly improved the spit ups and the gagging and choking during feeds. Her fussiness during the day has also improved. And, the cherry on top has been the ability to pump the excess milk to start a stock pile for when I return to work.

Unfortunately, she is still pretty fussy at night. This has been rough. The Hubs and I hate to see the little one upset and sometimes there is absolutely nothing we can do to help her out. I am hoping this is just a quick phase (emphasize quick) and not the beginning of a colic journey.

But moments like this make it all worthwhile…

• Posted in: Baby ♦ Breastfeeding
• Tagged: breast milk overproduction, family, fussiness, kids, newborn, toddler, two weeks old