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Monday, May 14, 2012

Eating and feeding

For some time now my life has completely consisted of food.
Food, food, food, food, food, food, food.
So much so that I'm sick of eating. Every two hours I'm literally stuffing my face with the most caloric thing I can find in the fridge so that way I will produce enough, and it's getting mighty old around these parts.

So here's the deal: breast feeding this little lady is just nuts!
It's totally different from Carter {with whom I effortlessly fed and pumped sometimes two bottles a day!}, and after talking to a few different second-time mamas, I think that's just the MO. Take the other day for example. I was standing in line at Starbucks chatting with a lady friend, and she started telling me about how she didn't think her milk was satisfying her little guy who is now 7 months old, which was funny because I had just been talking to Chad about that same conundrum. Just a few hours later while at Target, I ran into another mommy friend who told me her little bambino eats every other second and is always hungry in between feedings, much like how Kota is! What the heck?

Okay, so here is what's been going on {she says guiltily}: 
My mom watches the babes for a few hours on Mondays when I head off to work, and as of a few weeks ago, she started telling me that she thinks Kota is not satisfied. At first I thought thoughts like, "What the heck, mother? She is more than satisfied after eating a combined 10 oz.'s over a 4 hour span! She's just fussy." But then Chad started asking me if it was about that time to start formula, to which I defensively answered, "Heavens de-betsies, NO! I'm going to go until 6 months and then I'll think about doing that... I'll think about it." 
But here's the thing, I feed her ALL THE TIME. Anytime she's tired of lying on her back? Let's eat. Sick of being bounced on my knee? Let's eat. Over walking around? Let's eat. All because if I don't feed her there's no chilling out, and now that we have the two of them, that's just not an option if we want to get through the day unscathed.  So the problem is not the amount of production, it's the quality of the milk, I think. Maybe I'm just burning more calories because I'm chasing after Carts? I don't know!
Anyway, the thought that I may be acting based upon selfish feelings has occurred to me. I mean, it's not like the world is going to end if I start formula, but I'm just not READY! 
I'm being the operative word there.

We shall see.
But just for fun, let me tell you what I ate yesterday, and yes, this is for real.

7:30 am: humongous bowl of oatmeal and banana

10:30 am: McDonald's coffee, toast with a generous amount of jam, two scrambled eggs

12:00 pm: two leftover enchiladas

2:00 pm: full glass of milk with a slice of french silk pie

3:30 pm: string cheese

4:30 pm: dark chocolate Ensure protein drink

7:00 pm: Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich {crispy, mind you}

9:30 pm: small glass of milk, Half Baked bowl of ice cream

I'm literally tired of eating sweets and other rich foods. Man oh man. At least it's all going to the breast feeding cause, because if this was effecting the ole' waist band, there would be problems up in here.
Sheesh kapeesh.

3 comments:

  1. I love your blog! It's great you're breastfeeding! I have two sons and have breastfeed them until ages two (sounds crazy to some but there are many benefits of extended breastfeeding). Anyways, maybe it's a growth spurt? If so it'll pass soon enough. Quality of milk is only effected if you are severly malnutritioned. But some babes just like to feed all the time too. I too have found that I am constantly stuffing my face with food. Just try to keep up protein and hydration and REST (haha ya right!). And stay away from things that may effect milk supply.. like too much caffeine or certain meds.

    Also A HUGE thing I learned about pumping is that baby (no matter how old) needs only 1-1.5oz per hour..it doesn't sound like enough but since your milk is tailored for your baby it's milk fat changes to her needs. (As oppose to formula doesn't so you just keep increasing the amount of formula). Sometimes if a breastfed baby is overfeed through a bottle.. it will stretch there stomach and she will be wanting more to feel full when you get home. Here's a great link about that... http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/

    I would suggest going to cafemom.com they have a great breastfeeding group and i would just copy and paste what you wrote above. there's many experience breastfeeders and some lactation consultants on there who will help you out or at least try to. Hope that helps. Good luck. Congrats again. Oh and that kellymom.com has tons of breastfeeding info too.

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    Replies
    1. I so so so appreciate this comment!! Thank you so much for this information! It definitely made me feel better!

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  2. Hey Nicole,

    I just wanted to say that I love your sidebar with all of the black and white photos! So charming.

    :-)

    MissYellowShoes.blogspot.com

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