Saturday, February 3, 2007

We've got a golden ticket...

I was singing this all day yesterday...we got a surgery date! March 1st, and our pre-op appointment is February 9th. We've got kind of a relief mixed with terror thing going on here now, with a little sprinkle of pure exhaustion.

It's a good thing there's an end in sight to this whole hole-in-the-heart ordeal, too, cause the Lact-Aid is kind of a pain. It's a little fussy to use, and with all the washing and sterilizing of both the device itself and all the pump parts, I spent all of today either nursing, pumping, or standing over the sink/stove. I don't know whether it's the medication, or the supplementing, or both, but Demeter has really been nursing alot today, when two days ago she wouldn't spend more than a minute or two at the breast. I am now completely drained, literally and figuratively. Now, with all the nursing or pumping, my supply should be up (hopefully) tomorrow and I won't have to spend so much time tapped out. Intellectually I know this to be true, but I'm kind of afraid I've just completely run out of milk and my body just won't make any more. Of course, the complete opposite is more likely to be true, and what with all the nursing and pumping I'll probably have breasts as hard as rocks tomorrow. Nature is just too clever.

I realize that all this discussion of supplementing and weight gain and pumping makes it seem like breastfeeding is really hard. It's really not! This is a unique case, and the vast majority of people (including myself, previously) can (and do!) nurse with no problem, after a few weeks' learning curve. No funky equipment required.

1 comment:

...Nikkisworld said...

That's excellent news! It is really good to hear that breastfeeding isn't usually such a complex rocket science. Sounds like what you are doing is tonnes of work, but totally worth it, of course. Thanks for the breastfeeding book you got us, it is really interesting....I'll be calling you up as my lactation consultant next fall!
Ciao fro now
Nikki