Pumping and Breastfeeding Class

First I must say thank you for your kind words, encouragement, and suggestions. It means a lot to me to have all of your support. I'm still pumping away every 2-3 hours and all I can say is thank goodness for Medela Hydrogel Pads--they are like a cool piece of heaven on my sore nipples! I emailed Lenore, the woman who pioneered the lactation induction protocol that I'm using with Dr. Newman, and she made me feel better about how things are progressing. Here's what she had to say:

"As for your current impending arrival, you have done all the right things. Inducing a milk supply proceeds quite differently from lactation following a birth. The reason for this is that we can only approximate some of the hormones involved during pregnancy and we're missing a big one....human placental lactogen which is only present during pregnancy. We approach inducing lactation as a two phase process. The hormones can only do so much in phase 1 which is developing the milk making structures. Phase 2 is building the milk supply. To do that it is vitally important that you pump at least 8 times per 24 hours for about 20-30 minutes each time. According to research out of Australia, frequency of milk expression is more important than duration. We typically suggest fenugreek and blessed thistle along with domperidone once you stop the birth control pill and begin pumping. It generally takes about a week for the birth control pill to leave your system. It suppresses milk production while building the breast tissue. Once the milk starts flowing, it tends to build and build. Keep up the great work and your supply should build and build."

I felt much better after reading Lenore's response as she induced lactation herself and has worked with many others who've done it. At least I now know that my response isn't atypical and that I'm on track. I'm adding the herbs this weekend (after I get them) and plan to increase my dom dose to 3 tablets 4x/day (thanks for the suggestion Saffy!). Even without these changes I have already experienced an increase in milk production at each pumping. Last week I just had droplets forming on my nipples that didn't drip into the bottles, but this week I get a few mL that drip into the bottles with each pumping. I'm getting at least 2oz a day from my 8 pumpings. At this point I only pump once in the night around 1:30am, but then sleep until 5:30am and don't pump again until 6:30am. In about 2 weeks I plan to add a 3:30am pumping. I have to pump around 6:30am because I need to leave my house no later than 7:10am to get to school to start teaching at 7:35am. I can't pump again until 11:25am, so I want to have that morning pump as close to 7am as possible.

On Tuesday night J and I attended a breastfeeding class. I was nervous about going. The thought of sitting in a room full of pregnant women isn't the most appealing situation for me (thanks infertility!). It doesn't help that I'm obviously not pregnant and would get some funny looks. As I expected I did get a few stares despite arriving late and sitting in the back. We had to go around the room to introduce ourselves by stating our name(s), EDD, and gender of the baby(ies). I said "I'm Niki. This is my husband J. We are expecting twins via my cousin, our surrogate." I was so flustered that I forgot to mention the genders, so J added "boys ... the twins are boys". I'm sure that everyone in the room was curious why I was at a breastfeeding class (except the teacher ... she was thrilled that I was there), but no one asked. Instead they tried to steal curious looks at me. Nothing like feeling like a complete anomaly.

I thought the class was informational, but J couldn't help himself. He whispered jokes to me throughout the whole class. His favorite, that he's stil saying, is "Niki, can I get time at breast?" The teacher kept referring to "time at breast", so J couldn't help himself. Yep, I'm married to a man who often acts like a teenager. I appreciated J keeping the mood light, which he always does, but I felt bad for giggling. Although he's a jokester, J did take the class seriously and learned a lot. I think the stats they presented will help J to be even more supportive of my efforts.

We signed up for a newborn care class that meets next week. I think I'll be less uncomfortable at this class than I was at the breastfeeding class.