I just realized that I haven't made a blog post since last Wednesday. It's been rough at the Miller house so I haven't had any time to post anything. I also haven't had much time to stalk my favorite blogs read any blogs so I'm way far behind. So here's a recap of what's been going on with us.
I had originally included a lot more in this post but I realized that it was way too long so I took some sections out and will post on them later.
Breast feeding -
If you have been following along, you know that I have been having a hard time with breast feeding. Once I got past all of the pain I was experiencing, I realized that my supply was just not enough to keep up with my little guy. I have been trying everything I can to boost my supply while supplementing him with formula with hopes of exclusively breast feeding.
Here's what I tried:
Fenugreek - 6 pills per day for 4 weeks
Licithen - 3 pills per day for 2 weeks
Mothers milk tea - 4-6 cups per day for a week
Pumping every 3 hours
Nursing at times but more focused on pumping to boost supply
Sadly, nothing has worked. I have not seen enough of an increase in my supply to keep up. I've been drinking a ton of water, keeping up with calories, filling up on protein. Nothing has helped. I am having a very hard time with this. Why is it that something that's supposed to come naturally just isn't happening? I certainly feel like I've failed but I know I can't do anything else about it.
So, I'm done with all the pills and the teas. If I have to pump myself full of supplements to make this work, then maybe it's just not supposed to work. I've decided to continue to nurse my son and give him whatever I can. I figure any breast milk is better than none. And then continue to supplement with formula.
If for some reason my supply gets stronger, then so be it. If it dries up instead, then I just have to accept that. I told my husband that the day I stop nursing I will cry my eyes out. I will cry because I tried so hard to make this work and I was completely defeated. I wasn't expecting to feel so strongly about it. I wasn't expecting to be so emotional about it.
My husband said he was preparing himself for that emotional day. He isn't used to seeing me so emotional (see post partum below) but he knows how I've been feeling about this. He says "We had one healthy formula fed baby and now we'll have another." He's glad that I am resolving this because he didn't like the stress it was causing. He also didn't like all the supplements I was taking. It's nice to have that kind of support at a time like this.
So I will continue to nurse him as long as my body allows it and that will be that.
Weight Loss -
Within the first ten days of having my little guy, I dropped 20lbs. Now, I'm stuck. I still have eight more pounds to lose before I am back to pre baby weight but then I also want to lose quite a bit more.
I'm starting to use Lose It to count calories and track exercise. I bought all healthy foods and snacks for the week. I plan to alternate walks with the babies with the aerobics portion of the P90X program. I know I can't do that whole program but I can do parts of it. I'm hoping these things will help me shake the weight.
House -
We have been trying to decide what to do with our housing situation for quite some time. We were planning to purchase a 13 acre property but that seems to be falling through so we have to figure something else out.
One of our options is to renovate the house live in now to make more living space. It would be nice to do that for many reasons. Our mortgage is a steal, we like our neighborhood and we are close to my family. The bad part is that we don't have a very big yard and my husband and I don't want to raise our kids on a 'postage stamp' lot. We are looking for bigger.
We might renovate the house for now and then plan to purchase something bigger down the road. If we do decide to have a third child, we would want a bigger house then anyway so we have a little bit of time.
Stay tuned for some more updates on the little guy and his big sister.
I had originally included a lot more in this post but I realized that it was way too long so I took some sections out and will post on them later.
Breast feeding -
If you have been following along, you know that I have been having a hard time with breast feeding. Once I got past all of the pain I was experiencing, I realized that my supply was just not enough to keep up with my little guy. I have been trying everything I can to boost my supply while supplementing him with formula with hopes of exclusively breast feeding.
Here's what I tried:
Fenugreek - 6 pills per day for 4 weeks
Licithen - 3 pills per day for 2 weeks
Mothers milk tea - 4-6 cups per day for a week
Pumping every 3 hours
Nursing at times but more focused on pumping to boost supply
Sadly, nothing has worked. I have not seen enough of an increase in my supply to keep up. I've been drinking a ton of water, keeping up with calories, filling up on protein. Nothing has helped. I am having a very hard time with this. Why is it that something that's supposed to come naturally just isn't happening? I certainly feel like I've failed but I know I can't do anything else about it.
So, I'm done with all the pills and the teas. If I have to pump myself full of supplements to make this work, then maybe it's just not supposed to work. I've decided to continue to nurse my son and give him whatever I can. I figure any breast milk is better than none. And then continue to supplement with formula.
If for some reason my supply gets stronger, then so be it. If it dries up instead, then I just have to accept that. I told my husband that the day I stop nursing I will cry my eyes out. I will cry because I tried so hard to make this work and I was completely defeated. I wasn't expecting to feel so strongly about it. I wasn't expecting to be so emotional about it.
My husband said he was preparing himself for that emotional day. He isn't used to seeing me so emotional (see post partum below) but he knows how I've been feeling about this. He says "We had one healthy formula fed baby and now we'll have another." He's glad that I am resolving this because he didn't like the stress it was causing. He also didn't like all the supplements I was taking. It's nice to have that kind of support at a time like this.
So I will continue to nurse him as long as my body allows it and that will be that.
Weight Loss -
Within the first ten days of having my little guy, I dropped 20lbs. Now, I'm stuck. I still have eight more pounds to lose before I am back to pre baby weight but then I also want to lose quite a bit more.
I'm starting to use Lose It to count calories and track exercise. I bought all healthy foods and snacks for the week. I plan to alternate walks with the babies with the aerobics portion of the P90X program. I know I can't do that whole program but I can do parts of it. I'm hoping these things will help me shake the weight.
House -
We have been trying to decide what to do with our housing situation for quite some time. We were planning to purchase a 13 acre property but that seems to be falling through so we have to figure something else out.
One of our options is to renovate the house live in now to make more living space. It would be nice to do that for many reasons. Our mortgage is a steal, we like our neighborhood and we are close to my family. The bad part is that we don't have a very big yard and my husband and I don't want to raise our kids on a 'postage stamp' lot. We are looking for bigger.
We might renovate the house for now and then plan to purchase something bigger down the road. If we do decide to have a third child, we would want a bigger house then anyway so we have a little bit of time.
Stay tuned for some more updates on the little guy and his big sister.
WHOA, twenty pounds in ten days? I'm so jealous. It took me months to lose the weight! WOW! You might not produce all the milk you would like but you cant hate your body too much when it's dropping all the weight! Don't be so hard on yourself about nursing, you really went above and beyond to try to make it work. I'm glad your husband is so supportive because he's right, you have one healthy daughter and you'll have a healthy son too. You are a great mom, don't you for one second forget that!
ReplyDelete