This is a story all about howwwwww I made it through a year of nursing (11 months so far) WITHOUT stockpiling, supplementing, or night pumping.....

I popped out a baby and set my goal to make it one big, long, year exclusively nursing. Here we are almost 11 and 1/2 months later and my fun bags did not disappoint. Also to be noted I don't have a freezer stocked to the brim of milk either, although some days I wish I did so I would start weaning now but,......anyhowwwwww, I am going to tell you how I made it though WITHOUT, STOCKPILING, SUPPLEMENTING, OR NIGHT PUMPING. You may want to read that last part again because it is possible!

Let's start from the beginning, I had a relatively smooth birthing experience 12 hours start to finish. Epidural, yes ma'am and keep it coming. Oxygen, just while I pushed. Vaginal, few stitches. Babygirl is here!

I tried to nurse as soon as the nurses allowed me to after birth, about 30 minutes post. During my hospital stay I popped a nipple out anytime the baby made a peep. Boob first, then check diaper, then rock. I did not send babygirl to the nursery at all, the only times that she was away from me was for I believe her hearing test (which felt like an eternity). I met with the lactation consultant as soon as I could, early the morning after I gave birth. She was a breast navigation magician. Showed me how to get baby to latch, how hubby could help, positions, and even followed up with me after a week.

I think the nursing on demand was the reason my milk was in within I believe 3 days! Woot woot! Babygirl was over her birth weight by the time she was 5 days old and had her first check up, Rockstar!

I have NEVER woken my baby up to eat. To me the idea seems preposterous, however I did not have an underweight baby or any number of issues that would make it totally necessary and warranted to have to do such a thing. But, since she was back to her birth weight so quickly it was never recommended for me to wake her up.

When she was awake I basically never wore a shirt for the majority of the day, usually just a nursing bra, I like the sleep bras the best, and possibly a robe, but I was the middle of the summer so that was pretty lucky, my neighbors probably saw more of me than they cared to for 3 months, ha ha.

When I went back to work, she had bottles no more than 3 hours apart during the day and woke up about twice a night to nurse. She started sleeping for a good night time, 6 hour stretch, at about 5 months old, which was heaven on earth! I think the strict schedule during the day kept her belly for the long night stretch. One weird thing about baby starting to sleep through the night it is does give you a little bit of a panic attack at first.
-Enter me, lying awake, staring at the monitor until I am sure I saw her little chest move up and down no less than three times....ok I can sleep.....peeks one eye open again....-

When she started to sleep longer I did too. If she didn't need to eat I didn't want my body to continue to over produce milk, which leads to......3 nights or rock hard boulder boobs and waking up in a milk bath and not of the spa variety (get some good boob pads, I LOVE the Lansinoh ones they really cup the girls). But, 3 nights was all it took for my body to balance out, and "through the night" we ALL slept.

I typically wouldn't pump when she was asleep during the night but, when I hadn't gone to bed yet I and she was asleep I would pump one last time and I still do this now, gets a head start for the next morning, or gives you milk to add to the freezer. I don't mean dooms day prepper style. Side not: I got about 100 ounces in the freezer to sustain any dips in supply before returning to work or any other unforseen bumps in the road just by doing this last night pump session on my maternity leave.

For the bulk of our journey, I have nursed her when I am with her to save milk for when I am not there. Here is the pumping schedule.

Morning: nurse one side, pump on both
Lunch break: pump on both sides (nurse if home)
Before bed: nurse on both sides, pump on both sides

When I am home all feedings are nursed between 5-6, unless we go out somewhere then I usually bring one bottle but, i tried not to use more than on bottle feeding if I am with her all day. I am gone I have the milk from the morning and night sessions on the previous days usually I send about 20oz to day care. And, I come home with a bottles worth of milk from work to add to the supply for the next day.

This routine has worked for me for the last about 6 months since I did some trial and error and got this plan figured out. Week to week I typically have about 10oz of back up at daycare (two bottles worth), 10oz at grandma's, and about 15-30oz in our freezer at home. So no more than 50oz total of frozen milk total for any extra time away or supply dips. This keeps me comfortable with any day to day tweaks in supply, nights out (or nights in, TGIT with Shonda=wineeee.)

We can all make it to and beyond our goal nursing timeline. If we have a good support system and a solid plan. You need a PERSON, someone who gets it and had been there, to any level of success, just someone who gets it who you can vent to and hopefully, will have some helpful tips to keep you going, anddddddd maybe to listen to you bitch about your raw nipples and cluster feeding bitty baby! Thanks Alex!

THREE hot tips for supply dipping

• Drink lots of water and eat healthy calories.
• Lactation cookies. (See my past blog posts for recipes)
• Pumping power hour once a day for a week.​ https://www.lansinoh.com/en/help-advice/power-pumping-what-is-it-is-it-for-me

Top tips for keeping supply up!

• Don't forget your pump or parts! Keep a spare set of parts in your pumping bag.
• Get some good soap I love the Medela one that dissolves milk, quick clean.
• When pumping at home just rinse parts and put them in the fridge, do a deep clean once a day.
• Do your best not to STRESS! Stress can literally stress your supply.
• Don't skip you pump sessions!
• Get a good app that can track when baby ate, which side, and how much supply you have in the fridge and freeze. I LOVED "Baby tracker" you can sync it with multiple devices so my hubby and mom could also enter info when they were with baby and everyone could see what and when she ate.
• Remember baby is the boss, at least until you have a solid supply and established routine, so if she wants boob she gets boob!

Still sooooooooo determined to make it to one year of pumping and nursing babygirl exclusively!

Changed up my recipe a bit and it surprisingly worked out! This recipe makes a flatter crispier, butterier, cookie....ohhh yasssss!

I can only speak from my experience, but these bad boys increase my supply in under a weeks time. So eat up momma. Plus if you are pumping like a banshee, you have some calories to spare.


Makes: about 24 give or take for size, and take for the ones that didn't make it to the cooling rack. Don't make them too big or you will have a sheet cookie, which wouldnt be so horrible because it would count as one cookie. Am I right?

Serving size: how ever many you serve yourself.

Preheat that oven to 350.

What cha need, you will probably have most of these ingredients in your kitchen aside from the flaxseed meal and brewer's yeast. Those two ingredients are the heroes here so you will have to plan ahead a bit.

First: combime 2 tbsp flaxeeed meal and 4 tbsp water in a small bowl and set aside

Dry: combine dry ingredients and set to the side (except oats and chocolate chips)
1 cups all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups of steel cut oats
1 cup over sized semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup Brewers yeast
2 tbsp flax seed meal (which you have already prepped per the instructions above)

Wet: cream together butter and brown sugar, add eggs one at a time, blend. Add vanilla, and flaxseed mixture.
2 eggs
1 cup butter
1 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp water (which you have already used to prep flaxseed per the instructions above)
​

Add in dry ingredient mixture slow. Then fold in the chips and oats. Spray baking sheets with cooking spray.
I just use two spoons and drop this on the sheets, I dont have time to be fancy.
​
Cook time: until GBD! (Golden brown and delicious) about 8-10 minutes depending on your oven. Cool them on racks before storing. This recipe freezes really well as dough or already cooked, I doubt you will need to freeze any. Watch for sticky fingers from your significant other, these are so yummy!

I had a hard time finding the Brewer's yeast the first time. NOT baking yeast. This:
​

Ok here is the deal. I have read so many articles on breast feeding and all of the benefits and become so passionate about it because it so good for baby. Also,
when I was a baby I had some adverse reactions to multiple types of formula for the first couple months of my life and I figure hey, if I can save my kid from going through that why not try. Plus, they say it helps them build up their immune system and makes them less likely to have allergies, especially if mom and dad don't have them.

So, I ask you, why did I spend my morning staring at a bright red welty rash spread across my daughters neck and thigh when she got an eraser size serving of peanut butter on her banana?

Why GOD? WHY?

I surprisingly did not panic, I took a picture of it, convinced my self it could be a heat rash and stay calm and of course "call my mom."

She says it's suspicious but could be anything, watch it and call the nurse line. Ok, I strip the baby investigate to see if it is spreading, give her water, let her play while I watch her like a hawk and try to get the nurse on the phone. I left a message on the nurse line voicemail which is typically prompt but, of course not today. Now, I am starting to sweat.

I get dressed, get her dressed, we are in the car and gonna get some answers, got the nurse from the pediatrician's office on the phone. Her doctor has no openings today? Well, that is unfortunate for you because I am a nervous mom and I am pulling into the lot now. Someone is gonna look at this kid.

She never had any labored breathing which is why I wasn't a total basket case, but it was suspicious enough for a benadryl dose. Benadryl fixed her up good as new in 10 mins and we went about our day. Back to see the doctor a few hours later (magically she had an opening when I busted my ass in the office) and she hemmed and hawwed over the pictures of the rash enough to make mevery nervous, and recommended no PB for atleast 3 months but she continued conclusively say that's what caused it.

So what the fuck world?! Why did everyone make it seem like my boobs were a "get out of the peanut free table pass" I wasn't ready and I didn't expect this. She is too little for a blood test to for allergies to be totally accurate so it's pretty useless to me at this point.

Now what? I have to be helicopter mom to make sure she doesn't get any PB until the doc says. It really just pissed me off everyone gave me this false since of security that this wouldn't happen, that it was "highly unlikely." I mean BULL SHIT. The are no guarantees and nothing you do can control things like this. Not even the hundreds of Nutty Bars I ate while I was prego seem to have made a difference here.

Now we wait and see. As fas as allergies go this is a pretty shitty one. However, this little scare really puts things into perspective though, a lot worse things could be happening. We will deal with it if it comes to fruition. For now I am just glad that she isn't in any activities with kids that think their right to bring a PB&J is more important than someone's serious allergy, but we will cross that bridge if it comes.

I'll be the one slapping sandwiches out of crying kids hands and spraying everything with lysol...


Good night cruel world.

Follow me on instagram!!
​_cryingoverspilledmilk

Why GOD? WHY?

I surprisingly did not panic, I took a picture of it, convinced my self it could be a heat rash and stay calm and of course "call my mom."

She says it's suspicious but could be anything, watch it and call the nurse line. Ok, I strip the baby investigate to see if it is spreading, give her water, let her play while I watch her like a hawk and try to get the nurse on the phone. I left a message on the nurse line voicemail which is typically prompt but, of course not today. Now, I am starting to sweat.

I get dressed, get her dressed, we are in the car and gonna get some answers, got the nurse from the pediatrician's office on the phone. Her doctor has no openings today? Well, that is unfortunate for you because I am a nervous mom and I am pulling into the lot now. Someone is gonna look at this kid.

She never had any labored breathing which is why I wasn't a total basket case, but it was suspicious enough for a benadryl dose. Benadryl fixed her up good as new in 10 mins and we went about our day. Back to see the doctor a few hours later (magically she had an opening when I busted my ass in the office) and she hemmed and hawwed over the pictures of the rash enough to make mevery nervous, and recommended no PB for atleast 3 months but she continued conclusively say that's what caused it.

So what the fuck world?! Why did everyone make it seem like my boobs were a "get out of the peanut free table pass" I wasn't ready and I didn't expect this. She is too little for a blood test to for allergies to be totally accurate so it's pretty useless to me at this point.

Now what? I have to be helicopter mom to make sure she doesn't get any PB until the doc says. It really just pissed me off everyone gave me this false since of security that this wouldn't happen, that it was "highly unlikely." I mean BULL SHIT. The are no guarantees and nothing you do can control things like this. Not even the hundreds of Nutty Bars I ate while I was prego seem to have made a difference here.

Now we wait and see. As fas as allergies go this is a pretty shitty one. However, this little scare really puts things into perspective though, a lot worse things could be happening. We will deal with it if it comes to fruition. For now I am just glad that she isn't in any activities with kids that think their right to bring a PB&J is more important than someone's serious allergy, but we will cross that bridge if it comes.

I'll be the one slapping sandwiches out of crying kids hands and spraying everything with lysol...


Good night cruel world.

Follow me on instagram!!
​_cryingoverspilledmilk

BY THE WAY! Get yourself one of these little, bottle, medicine doser, thingys. This one came in a Safety 1st kit from Buy Buy Baby, literally thought I would never use it, but the children's meds don't come with that syringe thing, and I don't expect her to drink from that dose cup. The baby drank down her benadryl like a champ from it. Probably didn't hurt that it was cherry flavored. :)

Get that medicine bottle thing: here
​ https://m.buybuybaby.com/m/product/safety-1st-reg-deluxe-healthcare-and-grooming-kit-in-blue/1044909840