There is a little girl from our church who is 2 or 3 months old now, and she's having a very hard time figuring out nursing, and gaining weight. Her mom is still continuing to nurse her, but they had been supplementing a bit with formula as well. However, that was causing its own problems for her due to how hard it was on her digestive system, so I gave them all of the frozen breast milk I had (this only worked because all of my milk was already dairy-free, as their Dr recommended she give up dairy while nursing). Clearly, Cora has decided to never us it, at least in bottle form, right?? Ha. (I have purchased a sippie cup for her, though, so we'll see if she takes to that sooner than her siblings did, and if she takes milk from that form...that would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath, of course...)
Anyway, things have been going much better for her on the frozen milk, and she is slowly gaining weight now, but they are fast running out of the milk I sent. So I gladly offered to start pumping for them 2X a day, after Cora goes down for each nap. As you can see from my pictures of Cora, she is a big fan of eating, so I can't have a lower supply for her, but pumping after she goes down for a nap will give my body enough time to recover before she needs to eat again.
I am only too happy to help this little girl out. I have BEEN there--it's so tough sometimes (my entire first 6 months with Layla were a nightmare when it came to nursing/eating, but we made it through...), so I am so happy I can easily do something to help this stressed-out family just a bit.
To help my milk supply increase I have been using Fennel essential oil and spreading it across my upper chest before I got to bed, and right when I get up. I've only used it 2 days so far, and I can already tell it's helpful, but MAN. You guys. I stink like black licorice! I detest black licorice--it's the candy for people with no good taste in candy!! So, that's not super fun. But if that's the worst I have to deal with, I will gladly be stinky for this sweet little girl. (Plus, I won't use it forever...10 days max, so I can last that, right??)
Ah, the adventures of a nursing mom. :)
