This weekend, my ills took me to an all new mommying low, a place I’ve never been in my ENTIRE mommying career: I ran out of milk. I know, I know, how did that happen when I’m a hoarder? Well, my freezer is still sufficiently stocked but I ran out in my boobs. I knew that the 3+ days I was laid up on the couch I wasn’t drinking enough water (I had trouble getting up to get it and when I did manage to drink some it made me sick to my stomach). It didn’t bother Doodle until Saturday night.
He took to constant nursing, fussing each time he would come off a breast. I was able to distract him for 15-20 minutes between before he wanted to try again and again would come off unsatisfied. I’ve dealt with a lot of common breastfeeding problems from clogged ducts to cracked nipples to biting to oversupply but NEVER before have I not had enough milk.
And honestly, I started to panic a little. I thought “it’s ok, I know it’s just cause I need more water. I’ll just give him a bottle before bed to get him through the night an drink a ton tomorrow.” And I was okay with that thought for about a half hour while we did our nursing dance and then I got really emotional. A bottle was NOT the answer. Sure, it would have worked but it wouldn’t have solved the problem.
So I decided to do something I never would have guessed I’d ever do: I asked hubby to let me have him in our room for the night. Doodle has been in his own room since August but we have kept the play yard in our room to use as a safe play place while I get dressed and such. Before we got sick he had been sleeping through most nights for a couple weeks. But when I stopped my water drinking, he stopped his good sleeping and with my “going to pass out” issue, it was really hard for me to get to him to feed him, even though I knew in my mommy heart that he was hungry.
I figured if he was closer to me (2 steps from my bed versus 25 down the hallway), it would be easier for me to feed him when he woke and while sleeping though the night would have been nice, making sure my baby has what he needs for the next 6 months is much more important than one night’s sleep. It actually wasn’t as bad as I expected. Doodle woke up when I came to bed, about an hour and half after I laid him down, so I fed him and then he slept until 3:30 and then until 6:00.
I’m happy to report that my extensive water drinking on Sunday quickly brought my milk production back up to where it needed to be and Doodle went back into his room last night. While I certainly would have given Doodle a bottle of expressed milk if our troubles had continued to keep him healthy and happy, I’m so glad that I went a different direction and the issue quickly resolved itself.
