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I am scaird I am loosing my BM

402 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  sunnysideup 
#1 ·
So here is a bit of background. I had baby, became a stay at home mom, then decided to start classes this spring. I have 3 classes, (1 corrspondance) so that I am carrying full time credits. two classes require each about 10 hrs extra out of class work. I am behind in all classes and bearly able to keep up. My ds goes to day care while I am in class and if I need to go to the dark room (the chemicals are not good for him at all), and he waits to nurse till I get back to him because I am having trouble with pumping. There are other stress factors in my life at teh moment too, dh is gone for work since the first week of classes til March 18th, then will leave again after 3 weeks, gone for 3 wks, back for 3 ect. I was also talked into runing as leader for our reactment group I think someone slipped me a micky on that one
: On top of all that ds is 8 mo and going through this terribly clingy stage, he is just starting to like his day care after about 40 days, he loves solids but still like to nurse alot and here's where the issue really is.

Ds nurses, and nurses and gets a let down, its not very long and I can feel when my milk is flowing and when it stops. He dosent get milk for very long but will continue to nurse. My breast are not always full and ready for him, even after a long time between nursings. There are certin times in the day when I can feel them get full and I might leak. I have never doubted my body could feed my child but I feel that this crazy schedual and stress is going to cause me to loose my milk.

Also I am not eating all the time or if I do its not very good food. I avoid junk and will snack on fruit, make a dinner once a week thats big enough to make lunches out of, I will sometime grab a pp&j, but my main substance is Pria bars and a nut mix I made with dried fruit, cause if it takes more work than that I wont eat. I am going to grab a crock pot this weekend and a blender for smoothies.

any advice for someone whos only consistance in life is coffee, classes and a shower?
 
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#2 ·
Can you pump milk, like on a breck during school, and dive in a bottel or sippy cup, and nurse him when ever you can. Sorry i really don't have any good advice

FWIW: My DS is 17mo still BF, he basically does not nurse much during the day, a few under 5 mins sips a day. He had really good nursing at night about 2-4 times. I am probebly more stress than you(won't go into details) and have been for awhile and have not lost my milk. Your body adjusts to what you baby needs, and keep in mind, a lot of you milk supplt is made while your baby is nursing
 
#3 ·
Pumping isnt going so well for me, I can sit there almost asleep and get no more than an ounce or two..trying to pump and nurse at the same time just becomes a battle over the pump..ds wants to pull it and chew on it and if he sees me pumping he gets ticked and wants to nurse like he thinks the thing is stealing his milk lol its really cute actually.
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Ds nurses, and nurses and gets a let down, its not very long and I can feel when my milk is flowing and when it stops. He dosent get milk for very long but will continue to nurse. My breast are not always full and ready for him, even after a long time between nursings.
It might be that there is nothing to worry about. When baby is nursing, milk is flowing at all times, not just during the let-down. A nursing moms breasts do not normally feel full, even when there is plenty of milk. A feeling of fullness is actually engorgment, which is not good--it means you should be pumping or nursing more. When your breasts get engorged your body is signaled to slow down production, which can reduce your supply.

Here is some good info from Linda Smith IBCLC :
"In 1944, Peterson showed that milk secretion was continuous but let-down was a different and separate process. Let-down (or MER - milk ejection reflex) squeezes out milk that is ALREADY MADE and stored in the alveolar lumen. It just FLOWS faster - it isn't made any faster during MER."

Studies have shown that the rate of synthesis - how fast the secretory cells pump out milk - was related to the degree of emptiness (or fullness) of the breast. This is autocrine control. As the lumen fills, compounds in the retained milk itself (peptides, fatty acids and possibly other components) signal the cell to SLOW down making more of the stuff. The emptier the breast is, the faster it tries to refill - similar to an automatic ice-maker. (A toilet tank sorta works the same way.) Hartmann says the rate of milk synthesis ranges from 11 to 58 ml/hour/breast, or about 1/3 of an ounce to 2 ounces per breast per hour. Emptier breasts make milk faster than fuller ones.
 
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