Milk making blues...

In my very first blog I mentioned that there were many paths that my life had taken recently that I had never expected to find myself on. Today I am going to blog about one of those paths... breastfeeding an adopted child.

To be honest, until we were a month or so into adoption process I had no idea this was even a possibility. It wasn't until I started announcing to close friends and family members that we planned on adopting that I found out that it was. My first reaction to the idea was less than positive... I mean, is it natural to do that? How much work would it be and how much would it cost? What if I failed at it? Would it make me feel even worse about my body's ability to take care of a child? For these last reasons, DH has been unsure as to whether or not he should support my decision.

However, my interest in inducing lactation increased as more and more of my friends and family recommended it. So I started to research it online and discussed it with my wonderful discussion board friends, my gynecologist and my naturpathic doctor (I told you I was a hippy!). My gynecologist wasn't as keen on the idea because I have a very delicate hormonal balance and she was afraid I would make things worse by increasing my prolactin (the hormone associated with lactation) levels. But from everyone else I found the following benefits:

1. Great bonding opportunity (a given)
   
2. Health benefits for River (though I won't be able to produce colostrum)
   
3. Increase chances of getting pregnant (post breastfeeding of course)

I already knew the first two and really wanted that for my son and my relationship with him. As I'm sure any adopting mothers can attest, this process comes with huge fears that either the child won't recognize me as his mother or I wouldn't feel like his mother... just like a babysitter for a child whose parents never came to pick him up. So I was immediately attracted to those benefits. However, the last one definitely caught my attention. It was completely unexpected and as a woman with fertility issues, ANYTHING that increases chances of getting pregnant piques my interest. So if you don't mind if I digress off the topic of lactation momentarily, here is an idea of what commitment I've made to getting pregnant:

What I've done - read stacks of books on infertility, spent significant money on ovulation predictor kits, preseed and pregnancy tests, woke at 5 am even on the weekends to get accurate basal body temperatures (bbt) to chart and determine the health of my cycle, seen a naturpathic doctor and an acupuncturist, seen my gynecologist SEVERAL times each time breaking down in tears in front of her, timed "doing the deed" based on ovulation schedule, sat in very uncomfortable positions for long periods of time after "the deed" to increase chances of getting pregnant, spent hours and hours online researching tricks on how to increase my chances of conceiving, posted daily questions for ladies on the trying to conceive boards, meditated, did special fertility yoga at the end of each cycle and of course prayed, fasted, and cried (a lot).

What I've taken - currently take over 50 vitamins and supplements a day on recommendation of naturpathic doctor and acupuncturist, drink really gross tea the second half of my cycle to help tone ovaries, take baby aspirin every other day during the second half of my cycle to increase blood flow to the uterus and ovaries, and I tried Clomid for one month.

So, you can see now why this would catch my attention! With all three of those HUGE benefits I decided to go ahead and do it knowing that not everyone would support my decision. I'm sure everyone has those same thoughts that I did early on, but they don't have the opportunity to work through them for the benefit of an adopted child like I did.

Now that I have given some background, here is where I am at right now. I have been pumping now for a little over 3 weeks. I rented a medical grade pump from a local pharmacy and try to pump as often as possible. I should be pumping every 3-4 hours (even at night) but with my schedule that is next to impossible. I generally pump 2-3 times a day and am hoping to up that to 4-5 now that River's arrival is really not that far off. I may even get so bold as to start pumping at work. We'll see how desperate I get because I named this post "Milk making blues" for a reason... I'm still not producing much milk! Maybe a half dozen drops a DAY. River can't live off of that! I also take herbal supplements to increase milk supply including Blessed Thistle Seed, Fenugreek Seed, and Borage Oil. I also take a tincture called "Mother Love Herbs" and "More Milk Tea" because I couldn't find hops tea (yes, the same hops used to make beer and which my mother in law describes as tasting like old dirty socks that a teenager has worn for a month straight) to help as well. Any other recommendations from ladies who have done this before?

I am not totally on my own with this, though. I also purchased a supplemental nursing system called LactAid from my wonderful friend Ruth so that will help because he can nurse but also get supplemental formula from the nursing system. I'm hoping that if anything, once he's here and regularly feeds using the LactAid system maybe that will help me with my seemingly failed attempt to induce lactation? Maybe? Hopefully? If anyone has experience with this, let me know. And of course if anyone is considering doing the same and has any questions feel free to post them and I will do my best to answer them with my limited knowledge.

I hope I haven't scared anyone away from potentially breastfeeding an adopted child. Instead I just wanted to share my thoughts and frustrations on the topic to get feedback from those with experience and to let those considering it or in the process like me know that you aren't alone. I would highly recommend it to any other potential adopting mothers and I can tell you 100% that the sacrifice for your child will be worth it.

I apologize for the length of this post but want to say thanks to all of those who have made it to the end with me. Here are some pictures of the pump and supplemental system I am using.

My new ball and chain:

My supplemental nursing system (Thanks Ruth!!):