Adventures in Breastfeeding

When I was pregnant with C I was looking forward to breastfeeding, I missed out on that relationship with my twins. After months of fighting an uphill battle with the E&G I gave in to donated milk and gave up on trying to get medically fragile preemies to latch to a breast that would not make enough milk. Within seconds of being born C found my nipple, latched on correctly and looked up at me with happy big eyes. I cried tears of joy.

I have been very blessed, C has always latched well and I have been able to keep my supply up

enough to make her happy and gaining weight rapidly. We have had some fun adventures with our breastfeeding that I thought I would share along with a recipe for my favorite Gluten Free Lactation Cookies.

Forceful Letdown
Usually mothers with this problem have an oversupply but my boobies produce just the right amount, they just spray down baby's throat like a fire hose! When I pump the milk forcefully comes out so fast that in about five minutes I have pumped two ounces and my breast is empty. All this milk so fast made poor C gassy. I talked to a couple lactation consultants and they suggested breastfeeding while lying on my side, at a slight recline, or with C sitting up so her mouth was slightly above the nipple and the milk had to go "up hill". With in a day of nursing in this way her gas was manageable and she was happy again.

Breastfeeding in Public
I do not use a cover. I know many mothers do and for different reasons. Some feel like it is more modest, some feel like it draws less attention and some do it so the baby does not get distracted by the noise, bright colors and nature of the outside world. I do not use a cover for the following reasons,

1. Nursing is a bonding experience, if C cannot make eye contact with me it takes away from the relationship.
2. If I use a cover it is harder to check for a good latch and position her correctly so she does not end up with gas from my forceful letdown.
3. I feel like it draws MORE attention. Once you see a mother sitting on the side with a nursing cover you know right away what she is up to and if you do not you might stare a little longer to figure it out. Every day I wear a modest nursing tank or a two shirts so one can go down and one can go up keeping me covered. I position baby so her head blocks my boob and nurse away. Anyone who looks in my direction almost always look away very fast if they actually understand what I am doing. No one has ever just stood there and watched and so far no one has had the guts to tell me to use a cover. This funny commercial says it all for me, a big thumbs up to Luvs! 

Bring Up Your Supply
Although I am a stay at home mama at the moment I was so frightened something would happen to make my supply go down and I would lose my nursing relationship or make it frustrating. I began to build up a supply by pumping once a day. I slowly built up a little freezer stash, but I wanted to add a little more so I am in the process of building up my supply. Here are the couple tricks I have been doing to increase my milk supply slowly,
1. Pump for an extra few minutes after the milk flow stops to encourage my body to make more milk.
2. Nurse on demand. When C is hungry I give her nursing and try to encourage her to nurse for a long session. People tease me of letting her use me as a "human pacifier" but allowing the baby to comfort nurse helps to build up your supply. Plus there is the added bonus of your body releasing happy oxytocin (the love hormone) making you feel that all is right with the world. When I lie down at night and let baby C comfort nurse I am convinced I can solve the world's problems by letting angry people hold an adorable sleeping baby!
3. Eat lactation cookies. Not that I need an excuse to eat cookies but this is a great idea. You can mess with your own recipe but you want to make sure that it contains flax seed, brewers yeast and steal cut oatmeal. Those are the three magic ingredients to make you a mama milk machine. Here is my favorite recipe. I bake a third and freeze the rest so I can cut and bake two at a time.

Gluten Free Lactation Cookies
2 Tablespoons flax seed meal
4 Tablespoons and 1 cup of water
1 cup salted butter, soften to room temperature
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of almond flour
1 cup of GF oat flour
3-4 Tablespoons brewer’s yeast
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups steal cut oats
1 bag of chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a small bowl, combine the flax seed meal and 4 tablespoons of water. Let stand for 5 minutes.
3. In a medium sized bowl combine steal cut oats and one cup of water and let it soak for 10 minutes while you do the next steps.
4. In a large bowl or stand-up mixer, beat butter and brown sugar well.
5. Add eggs and beat well.
6. Add flax seed mixture and vanilla, beat well.
7. In a separate bowl combine brewer’s yeast, and baking soda.
8. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, mix well.
9. Strain water from oats then add to mixture gently
10. Stir chocolate chips.
11. Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto baking tray.
12. Bake 12 minutes.
13. Cool on baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

If you are baking from frozen add two minutes to the baking time. My whole family loves these cookies! Oh and don't worry, your husband can eat these and he will not start lactating ;)

Baby C signing "I love you" to her boobie

Donating Your Freezer Stash
I do not produce a lot of extra milk, I keep 20oz in my freezer and donate the rest. It was important to me to give back to the world since so many mothers donated to my twins. If you are interested in donating your extra milk look up these two organizations on Facebook. They are wonderful communities and will help you connect with mothers who are in need. On the flip side, if you have a low supply or are in need you can connect with women who are willing to donate to you! 

Human Milk for Human Babies
Eats on Feets

Feel free to share your breastfeeding adventures below!