Milk thoughts.

[rivka]

A funny thing about breastfeeding is that you don't have any idea how much milk your baby drinks. In my case I don't even feel anything when my milk lets down. So I know about how often he nurses, and I know how many ounces of pumped milk he takes when I'm at work, but I don't have any way to estimate how much milk he takes straight from the tap. It doesn't seem like all that much - we don't have marathon 45-minute nursing sessions like we did when he was younger; he's much more goal-directed about it now.

Last night we had a babysitter. It's the first time anyone but me or Michael has put Colin to sleep at night, and I think Michael's only ever done it once. So I was kind of shocked when the babysitter checked in and told me that Colin had taken 7-8oz of milk. That's not much less than he'll take in a whole workday. I wondered if he was upset about the change in his routine and drinking more than usual for comfort, because I couldn't imagine that he took that much milk by nursing in an average evening. Surely she was overfeeding him?

When we came home at midnight, Colin roused a little. I nursed him for a while and he fell back asleep. Then I decided that I really had to pump before bed, because I was pretty engorged.

And I pumped five ounces from the side Colin hadn't nursed. The side he had nursed gave an extra ounce and a half. Six and a half ounces, at a time of day when milk supply is supposed to be lowest. And when my previous best pumping session (in the morning, when milk supply is highest) was five ounces.

So, um, I guess he really does drink seven or eight ounces straight from the tap in the course of an evening at home. I had no way of knowing. After having one formula-fed baby, the not-knowing feels kind of weird.

Comments

[ailbhe]

Efficient little eaters, babies :)

Edit: The reason supply is "lowest" in the evenings is because that's assuming it's *as well as* feeding the baby, rather than *instead of*. The morning pumping session is usually the longest time since feeding the baby, so there's most to spare.

[anthologie.livejournal.com]

Are you sure? I thought it's because we're tired and run-down and we make better milk when we're rested.

I actually find I'm more calm and relaxed in the evenings and seem to make more milk -- judging by the guzzling my daughter does after dark. :)

[ailbhe]

Most babies eat a ton about bedtime. Breastfed babies too. Some do it as clusterfeeding for hours, and some in one go.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

It's also because prolactin is highest after we've been sleeping for several hours. The farther you get from having slept, the lower your prolactin and the lower your milk.

Babies are way more efficient than pumps. He's probably drinking more than 8 ounces in the evening.

[torontoteacher.livejournal.com]

I remember having this conversation with the nurses at the hospital when my little one was sick. "So how much did he eat?" they would ask. "About a boob and a half," I would answer. And they would laugh, and I would point out that I had skipped the option to have gauges placed on either side.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

"I had skipped the option to have gauges placed on either side."

You might have just created a new fetish.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

You might have just created a new fetish.

Yeah, in NICU nurses!

When my younger was in the NICU, I'd nurse her and they'd ask me how much I thought she'd eaten, like I had ANY idea. "Uh, she nursed for about fifteen minutes." I had no idea how much she got. Drove the nurses crazy because they didn't have anything to write in the log.

[torontoteacher.livejournal.com]

I wonder why they feel this need. I mean, if the munchkin is hydrated and peeing and gaining, why does it matter if they're a guzzler or a sipper? I had one delicate nurser and one barracuda, both made breastfeeding an aquatic sport at first.

In particular, I loved my younger child's preference for latching, getting the milk flowing and then letting go and licking as if I were some kind of drinking fountain.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

If they were really worried they could've weighed her before and after and gotten good solid numbers without baffling you. :->

[rivka.livejournal.com]

At the hospital where my kids were born, nursing mothers had to keep a record of how many minutes the baby fed. The nurses would come in and conscientously copy down the log, but I have no idea how that information was helpful to them in any way. I guess if there was a mother putting the baby to the breast less often than every 3-4 hours they would've said something to her, but mostly it just seemed like an earnest attempt to quantify the unquantifiable.

time tells you nothing

[(Anonymous)]

I had a standup row with the nurses when my fourth baby was just about to come out of NICU. They maintained that he wasn't feeding for long enough and they wouldn't let him out. I had previously fed twins, and I knew how much milk there could be in a short feed. In the end I went into the pumping room and showed them that I could pump 500 ml in the same amount of time. 'Oh', they said, and discharged Mick from NICU. He went on to be a contender for World's fattest breastfed baby.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I am laughing, if only because of the wide variety in "normal." Ben and I go for 90-minute rounds about 1-2x a day, and with Spud, there were a few months when I was filling two Medela 6-oz bottles up to the top (so, closer to 7 oz) every 3-4 hours.

OK, that probably sounds a little competitive, but I don't mean it that way. I have no idea what's usual for breastfeeding, in terms of time spent or ounces, and I really do think it's funny how much variation there can be in two healthy breastfeeding dyads.

(I am hoping Ben learns to be a more efficient nurser - a lot of that 90 minutes is spent falling asleep and being woken back up to take a few sips here and there (but he rouses if I put him down).)