Making Milk…
This might not be one for the boys, but it is too amusing
not to share….
Less than 24 hours after Lily was born, midwives told me it
was time to start expressing for Lily. I wondered how this would happen without
having our little baby girl actually there. The body does amazing things
though, and with a change in hormones I am now a milking machine. Not always a
very reliable one, I have had mixed success in the last week, none the less,
there is milk!
I think this part of the baby making journey has been nearly
the most eventful, (more so than the birth and manual removal of the placenta).
Initially a midwife brought to me a tiny little syringe, squeezed (really hard)
and caught the tiny drops that came out those first few days. I was keen to
learn this skill myself to avoid further squeezing from the midwife; so squeeze
into the syringe I did for the next couple of days, until I was introduced to
the expressing machine. A quick education on to how to express using the pump,
and more milk! Third day in on the milk making for Lily, and I woke up feeling like
some kind of barbie doll…the most rock hard lumps attached to the front of my
chest I had ever felt. Besides the fact there was no bra I owned that would now
fit, they were so sore! (Apparently this is when the milk is coming in…) They
didn’t even look like mine, and I wondered if they would ever return to some
kind of normal.
Expressing away in my hospital room as shown by my midwife
(one of the really nice ones…called Robyn funnily enough) the lactation
consultant arrived out of nowhere, and exclaimed that they looked terrible, and
needed to be fixed…enter the help of Mr T…poor Mr T!
Lactation nurse on one, Mr T on the other, she had him
massaging and squeezing to remove lumps and bumps, collecting heat packs and
hot flannels. She had me worried enough to think they were about to explode off
the front of my chest, or rot and die or something. This lady was extreme, way
over the top and created more angst than necessary. I’ve avoided her since nearly
completely and told her on one occasion that “everything was fine”, “thanks for
asking”. Secretly I was really thinking back away from my chest, do not
touch!!! This was pretty much it for Mr T, an amazing man by anyone’s
standards, but after 5 long weeks…I nearly saw the cracks appearing that
afternoon and an imminent lid flipping was near.
After crazy nurse left the room, we decided he would not
need to do that…ever…ever again!
Now we are home, I have started to sort out a routine, but
expressing every 2-3 hours, plus twice overnight means life is ruled by the
pump. You have to mimic the feeding of the actual baby in order to keep the
milk coming…so instead of Lily, I am attached to the machine permanently
instead. Snuggled up cosy and tightly in bed while visions of pumping dance in
my head…
All this of course is for Lily, and is about the best way I
can be of help to her at the moment, and makes me feel like a real Mummy. They
feed her 1ml of milk every four hours, which she is tolerating well. Breast
milk contains natural antibodies and good stuff to help her along. It can help
her develop better, protect her from infections and reduce her stress. Somehow
the body knows that the baby has come early and makes slightly different milk
to that of a full term Mum.
Three hours since the last ‘pump’ time for some more milk
action….bottoms up, cheers Lily!
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