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.

[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.

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).)