Increasing Milk Supply - TMI. Not Sorry.

It was just last Wednesday that I was worrying about my milk supply for the baby.  There was a delay, but I got my body adjusted to his new demand.  How you ask?  I did a few things, and I think they all worked together to create more:

1. Lots of oatmeal for breakfast.  Every single day.  I have been eating 1 cup of Bob's Red Mill quick cooking oats, a teaspoon of flaxmeal, a half teaspoon of honey, and a teaspoon of almond butter.  This makes a huge bowl of tasty oatmeal once you add water.  I don't always finish it, but it's so good and healthy and filling. This helps some women, you can read more on Kellymom, I figure that it's not hurting anything, and I stay full all morning.

2. Pumping past empty.  When I'm at work, I usually am finished pumping in 10 minutes.  When I'm done or "on empty", I keep pumping for about 5 more minutes.  This should tell my body that it needs to make more.  It's annoying.  Like sometimes I'm sitting there in my underwear because I wore a dress that day, and I just want to get back to my desk already, but I can't because I spend half my life making milk.  Everyone tells me to keep with it though, like moms stop me in the hallways when I'm carrying my pump to talk about how their babies thrived with exclusive breast feeding.  It's awkward.

3.  Offering the boob to the baby often when we're together.  At night from the hours 6-8:30pm I probably feed him 3 times which obviously is a lot in that short period of time, but he always takes it.

The result of 1.5 weeks of this new combination of stuff:
Previously in 1 pumping session I would make barely 4 oz. total at the very most.  Now in 1 pumping session I make 5 - 5.5 oz.  It sounds like a small increase, but that now meets the baby's needs vs. being under it.

I have two bottles of Fenugreek if I need it since my friend is using it with very real positive results.  However, I don't really want to smell like maple syrup all the time and I think that getting my body to naturally make more milk is a better idea in the long term than relying on a supplement.

Also - look at how good his skin looks!! Eczema is under control, diaper rash is gone, neck rash is gone, AND the kicker to all that is that I've been eating cheese for the past 3 days.  I think that I can bring dairy back in since it doesn't seem to be harming him right now.  Is this a slippery slope to a bowl of queso for dinner?  Likely.

First Mother's Day and Rashes

My first mother's day was nice.  It was really rushed because my husband left on a business trip the same day, but it was still pretty good.  The baby and dog got mom a new bag, it was really thoughtful of them and I love it!  Abe made us a nice breakfast, and then holiday was basically over after that.  There was just no time to do anything else unfortunately and Abe was running around like crazy.  Maybe next year will be better.  After my little family mother's day I went to my parents house where my dad made us giant steaks for dinner.  This momma ate a lot of food yesterday only furthering confirming that I have a major sugar addiction and I only eat junk these days!  It's bad.  Really bad.  I snuck in some strawberries today, my body was like: WTF was that?!  Seriously, it said that.

The entire household is having health issues right now.  I survived the worst cold that I've ever had.  It likely was not the worst cold that I'd ever had, but I wasn't able to take anything for it so it Felt like it was.  Now I have hives all over my stomach, neck, inner arms and chin.  The stars aligned and I was able to go to the doctor today to get myself checked out.  I was thinking that she'd say: oh this is clearly A or B, but no, she's like: oh it's hives, you are having an allergic reaction to Something.  This was actually a better answer than the Minute Clinic had for me on Saturday.  That person said: um... it's not bug bites.  Abe got hit with some kind of stomach virus, which luckily stopped with him.  I also took the baby to the doctor today, he has folliculitis.  His rash looks like my rash, but on a smaller scale.  He looked a little stumped at first, or maybe just surprised that it was a real rash and not a new parent over reaction to something stupid.  I asked the doctor about allergy testing as well.  I am going to keep bringing this up for the next 6 months until I get some answers god dammit.  The baby's skin is just horrible, just a constant rash.  The teachers at his school are always asking me about what we're doing for it, etc.  Clearly he's not the first baby with sensitive skin, so like everyone needs to back off, he will live... but I still want answers.

Not much else is going on over here.  Just trying to survive daily life.  Every single day is a challenge to get through.  I know that I am always harping about how hard it is to have a new baby... do not plan on me stopping anytime soon, I just can't control it.  Oh but I do have a new skill: falling asleep in 10 seconds flat.  I used to take up to 30 minutes to fall asleep at night, while wearing ear plugs, and an eye mask and even then it was a struggle.  These days I have a baby video monitor right next to my head and a husband who sometimes snores to my left, but my fatigue reigns all.  This is a good skill.

Pumping and Rashes and Bugs

The second week back at work was significantly easier than my first week back.  I was somehow able to manage things better - although it still remains very difficult.  These days what I find to be the most stressful is keeping up with the baby's demand for milk.  He eats 4 4oz. bottles per day at daycare, which equates to me pumping 4 times per day.  Now we are at the point where he might need to eat more, so I'm going to send him tomorrow with a couple 5oz. bottles.  I'm barely keeping up with his current demand, how am I going to meet this new demand?

There are a lot of answers online for this sort of problem.  The most popular seem to be to pump often and nurse often so that your body knows that it needs to create more.  Who has time for that?!  I pump once before I leave for work (one side only, nursing the baby on the other side), and then at 9:30, 12pm, and 3pm or something like that.  How could I possibly be pumping more often than that?!  It's mind boggling.  This solution would work for someone who isn't working.  My sister in law was somehow able to pump multiple bottles all in one sitting.  She would pump only once at lunchtime and go home with a bunch of bottles for the next day.  That doesn't seem normal, although it would be really nice.

Other things on my mind:

The baby's constant rashes - All over his body.  We have diaper rash, eczema, dry skin, sometimes heat rash, yeast growing in his neck folds, cradle cap, etc.  It really never seems to end.

I wake up with more bug bites every single day.  I have no idea where they are coming from, or why they are attacking me.  Abe doesn't have any and my dog is on flea and tick treatment, so it can't be her.  It's been like a week and they are now all over my body and they are very red and itchy.  I've ruled out spiders based on the interwebs description of bites, however, I have not ruled anything else out.  WTF.

Sugar.  I think that I may have fallen into a sugar addiction.  I can't stop eating sweets.  I think about things like cakes, brownies, candy, soda, etc.  all the time.  I was never really like this before, it's so strange.  I might have to go cold turkey and just get rid of all the sweets in the house or all the chocolates and cake at least, I need to regain control!  I have very little control of anything over here.

8 minute abs.  I thought I would start to do this nightly before bed.  I was like: 8 minutes?  I have 8 minutes.  Well it turns out that when it's late and I'm exhausted, I don't always have 8 minutes.  I've done it once so far.  I really liked it though.  This is to be continued, because I will eventually do it again.

What's In My Makeup Bag Now

I love trying new makeup - I probably have like 5 x more than I actually wear or use.  It's a horrible addiction that I will someday get a hold of.  There are totally worse things in the world though, so whatever!  I'm really picky about my products because I have a really hard time matching my foundation and concealer to my skin tone, liner runs all over my Asian shaped eyes, and I look dead if I don't wear a little natural looking blush.  I tend to cycle through different mascaras and liners a lot, like every month I'm using/trying something different.  

What I'm using at this very moment:

Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Natural Beauty

Lancome Dual Finish in Matte Honey III

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Radiant Touch Luminizing Pen in 5.5

L'Oreal Voluminous Million Lashes

Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink

Liner brush from L'Oreal Infallible Gel Lacquer Liner - the liner itself is pretty good too

Shiseido Eyelash Curler

Make Up Forever Full Cover Concealer in Golden Beige

Stila Lip and Cheek Stain in Cherry Crush

Tarte Smooth Operator Micronized Clay Finishing Powder

Cherry Chapstick

Bobby Pins

EstheticPlus Super Inox Mini Tweezers

I am not thrilled with the current mascara but it will do for now.  Everything else, I'm pretty happy with.    I totally need new makeup brushes though, but who doesn't?!

Colds All Around

OMG.
At this moment I am by Myself in the house: no dog, no husband, no baby.  This all happened only because the baby gave me the worst cold of all time so I stayed home from work.  His cold his fine, I think it peaked on Saturday and he's like basically all better already.  Not me.  I haven't had a cold like this in ages - mostly because I can't really take anything to soothe it since I'm nursing the baby.  Rest, tea, ibuprofen, and neti potting need to be enough for now.  The silence of the house certainly isn't hurting either!  I can actually hear myself think, and all my thoughts are my own.  I don't need to run around like a maniac from task to task for other people/animals, it feels so good to just chill for a minute.

Abe is doing a little traveling later this week and we have family coming into town over the weekend so this cold really needs to be taken care of.  Little Bear is having a big Korean celebration on Sunday!  There will be Chinese food, cake, and a new outfit.  He's so excited to see his older cousins I'm sure.  He really loves staring at people and observing.  Maybe they can get a few laughs out of him.  He's just started giggling, it just takes a lot of work on our end to coax a little out.  Like crazy arms flailing all around and funny noises.

I can't wait till he's big enough to use his jumperoo.  His feet don't touch the floor yet, but soon enough!