Badass Breastfeeding Podcast
Badass Breastfeeding Podcast
Ways You Can Hurt Your Milk Supply
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Do you worry about your milk supply?
Have you ever wondered how it works, or if it will just ‘dry up’?
We have all been here, especially Dianne and Abby. Listen for all the info.
If you are a new listener, we would love to hear from you. Please consider leaving us a review on itunes or sending us an email with your suggestions and comments to badassbreastfeedingpodcast@gmail.com
WE HAVE TRANSCRIPTS!! You can also add your email to our list and have episodes sent right to your inbox!
Things we talked about:
It’s World Breastfeeding Month! [4:47]
It’s not as easy to hurt milk supply as you might think [6:43]
Breastfeeding Curriculum (brilliant idea) [9:48]
Process of milk coming in [13:06]
Feeding on a schedule [15:53]
Skipping feeds [20:55]
Challenges of pumping at work [21:51]
Early Night Weaning [28:46]
*This Episode is sponsored by Niki’s and Fairhaven Health
Links to information we discussed or episodes you should check out!
https://badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com/episode/signs-breastfeeding-is-going-well/
https://badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com/episode/124-breastfeeding-boundaries/
https://badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com/episode/black-breastfeeding-week-with-meisha-the-nurse-milk/
Set up your consultation with Dianne
https://badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com/consultations/
Check out Dianne’s blog here~
https://diannecassidyconsulting.com/milklytheblog/
Don’t Forget!! Dianne and Abby have started the new parenting podcast! Check out Revolution Parenting!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1755123/8400508
Follow our Podcast~
Here is how you can connect with Dianne and Abby~
- Abby Theuring https://www.thebadassbreastfeeder.com
- Dianne Cassidy http://www.diannecassidyconsulting.com
Music we use~
Music: "Levels of Greatness" from "We Used to Paint Stars in the Sky (2012)" courtesy of Scott Holmes at freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott Holmes
dianne (00:21):
[inaudible] Welcome To the badass breastfeeding podcast. This is Dianne, your lactation consultant,
abby (00:25):
and I'm Abby, the badass breastfeeder and today's episode is brought to you by Fair Haven health stop battling with storage bags filled with either too much or too little milk. The milkies milk trays, freeze your milk into one ounce sticks. And today's episode is also brought to you by Niki's natural wipes. The first all natural baby wipes made with menuca honey and coconut oil. And we'll hear more from our sponsors later, but these sponsors make this podcast possible. So head to badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com and you can check out our sponsor page. Um, if you need anything and see if you can give them any of your business. And while you're there, be sure to scroll down and enter your email address and you'll get episodes sent straight to your inbox every Monday. Um, and now Dianne has our review of the week.
dianne (01:13):
and this one comes from iTunes and this was, um, she sent this to us back in May. So I am, I'm really happy to read. It said the title of this is breastfeeding miracle. I started listening to your podcast when I was one month postpartum and my baby literally couldn't latch. It was like watching someone stab themselves with a spoon. She just saw nipple and had no idea what to do with that. We saw five LCs, had a tongue tie corrected, saw pediatric chiropractor and read the entire internet in the hopes that I could figure out how to solve my baby's problem. I hated your podcast at first because I felt awful. I couldn't breastfeed, but I kept listening. For some reason, I was exclusive pumping and was about to throw in the towel and just go to formula. But on one episode, one of you said your baby was born to breastfeed and something to the effect of your baby wants nothing more than to breastfeed. And that really clicked for me. I had thought my baby was rejecting me, but you helped me to realize that the opposite of that was what was happening. I kept offering her the breast until she was three months and one day she was able to do it literally overnight. I stopped being chained to a pump and my baby and I entered into a totally blissful, easy breastfeeding relationship. So I'm so glad I continued to listen to your wisdom on this topic. And I thank you for giving me the right perspective to keep going. When it was tough. Breastfeeding has been the best human experience of my life thus far. And I get emotional thinking what we would have missed out on if I had given up, thanks for providing such solid grounding discussions.
abby (02:43):
Wow.
dianne (02:44):
I know. So inspiring.
abby (02:47):
and reading the whole internet. Like I can still relate to that. Yeah. And I'm so glad she doesn't hate us anymore. I know. I know. I was like, oh my God, someone hates me. I know a lot of people hate me, but you know, whatever. Um, that's really amazing.
dianne (03:05):
Yeah. Thanks for not giving up fresh Sarah, her, her, her name on here is fresh Sarah, but will thank you so much for not giving up and for keeping it going.
abby (03:15):
and congratulations, you did so much work.
dianne (03:18):
and this is the reason why I tell people like your baby doesn't latch in the beginning. Don't give up, don't give up. She was three months in and I've seen personally have seen that happen with clients of mine one month, two months, three months in and the baby finally latches. It can happen.
abby (03:36):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's so true too, that like, you know, we just think, sometimes we're thinking, we're told like, well, your baby's just not, you know, it's just not for your baby or your baby just doesn't want to just, you know, but all babies want to and the baby's just as frustrated as you are. Yeah. And like, it doesn't feel good to anybody.
dianne (03:58):
And you do feel like it's a personal attack on you.
abby (04:04):
Totally. I did too.
dianne (04:05):
Yeah. I mean, you really feel like, oh my gosh, they don't want me. Yep. And it's just, it's really, really hard for it, like you said for everybody. So she did an amazing job. So thank you for continuing to listen and for just not giving up, it's fantastic. It's amazing. So that's it, that's my story. That's fresh Sarah story. And if you want it send us your, I want to say your updates, but your, you know, your experience, your suggestions, anything we would love to hear it. You can put it on iTunes for us that really helps the podcast a lot. Or you can send us an email at badassbreastfeedingpodcast@gmail.com.
abby (04:47):
Yes. And we would like to acknowledge that it is world breastfeeding week.
dianne (04:53):
Woo!!
abby (04:54):
And the start of breastfeeding awareness month breastfeeding awareness month is the whole month. And then world breastfeeding week is the first week. And then the second week is native breastfeeding week. And then the third week is, I'm not sure. And then the last week is black breastfeeding week and it's just chock full of all kinds of things and actually kind of business as usual around here.
dianne (05:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
abby (05:18):
To your surprise. We're talking about breastfeeding today.
dianne (05:25):
at the first week of worldwide breastfeeding month.
abby (05:27):
Yeah. We're going to celebrate world breastfeeding month by talking about breastfeeding for something new.
dianne (05:34):
Yeah. Don't fall off your chair.
abby (05:39):
Um, yeah, so you can, um, you know, so like we, you know, it's business as usual around here, I'll be posting on the badass breastfeeder on social media, on Instagram and Facebook, you know, celebrating each week and, you know, posting kind of, you know, things that are going on, um, if you want to follow along, feel free to do so.
dianne (06:02):
Absolutely. And if you haven't, if you're new to us, check out our episodes from last year, because we did have, um, like we had an episode with, um, somebody specifically for native breastfeeding week, which was really, really interesting and enlightening and we had special things for black breastfeeding week. And even just for world breastfeeding month, I remember we did breastfeeding around the world. So check those out too. They're pretty cool.
abby (06:27):
Yeah, I'll share those. I can link those episodes throughout the month too on social media, good idea. Um, so today we're going to talk about, um, milk supply and things that you can do to hurt your milk supply.
dianne (06:41):
It's not as easy as you think.
abby (06:43):
it's very difficult and it's all. And it's, I would bet that it's probably the things that, um, are generally not what you think. Right. You know, we're told a lot of things hurt our milk supply when they actually don't. And then we're told that things don't hurt our milk supply when they actually do that. Or can, if you follow that, you know, honestly what probably your doctor's advice.
dianne (07:08):
Yeah, absolutely. Or internet.
abby (07:11):
or the internet. Yeah. Right.
dianne (07:14):
So do you want to start?
abby (07:15):
so sure. Um, so we both made like little lists and we were just going to share it and well, I don't actually, what if we talk about milk, should we talk about milk supply and like, what is milk supply? Because sometimes I think that can straighten things out too. Like, like even just the fact that, you know, supply and demand, you know, um, taking milk out of your breast helps your body make more milk. Like these are things that we just don't know. Yeah. I didn't know that.
dianne (07:47):
I know. And I didn't know that. And when I had my kids, you know, I, I thought for sure, like when I was breastfeeding for the first time with my son, like I thought it would just go away. Like, how do I keep it? You know, like I was breastfeeding all the time, but I was like, but what could happen? I was felt like I was constantly in this phase of like, oh my God, it's, it's just going to go away. Am I just not going to have any milk tomorrow? I didn't realize that the more you breastfeed, the more your body is telling your baby that they need the milk and the more your body's just going to make the milk and response to that. It's a pretty cool system. Really. It's effortless. Really.
abby (08:20):
It really just works on its own. And it's like, we go through all these health classes right in school. And we talk about all this and we learn about like our cycle and we learn about, you know, reproduction and things like that. But you, beyond that, you never hear anything about birth. You don't hear anything about like breastfeeding, it just like stops. And all of a sudden from this is still information about your body that we're never given. Like, you know, what's going to get you pregnant because like you just grow up knowing that that's like information, like, you know, oh my God, if you have sex, use a condom or have birth control. Cause you could pregnant. But you know, how often do we hear this as kids or as like, you know, don't have sex you might get pregnant. Like these are things that we know about. But then like beyond that, we don't and then like, you know, so that, so, okay, so now we're pregnant. We knew how to do that, but we don't know how to do anything else. No, because the information is not given at all. It's like secret.
dianne (09:18):
I remember years ago when I was working, I think it was when I was still with the WIC department here and I was, you know, breastfeeding peer counselor coordinator. And I was doing a breastfeeding class and they were younger girls in the breastfeeding class. I mean, it was mixed class, but there was a couple of younger girls and they didn't know that Even if you choose to not breastfeed, your milk still comes in. They just thought it was an option. Yeah. That if they breastfed.
abby (09:48):
Right! How would you know?
dianne (09:48):
exactly how do you even know? Like, it's like, that should be in curriculum. Like if they're going to teach how to, how babies are made in school, which does happen a lot now, you know, they talk about, you know, whatever sex education in school, but they stop at that. It's like, this is a natural physiological change that your body goes through. When you have a baby, if you decide to breastfeed or not, your milk is coming in, right. It's going to happen. It's what your body knows how to do. Just because you decide to not breastfeed. Doesn't mean your health does not come in.
abby (10:21):
Yeah. And actually, if you decide not to breastfeed, you have something you have to deal with.
dianne (10:24):
Exactly. Yeah.
abby (10:25):
You got to deal with the fact that it's there and how, and you have to, you know, get rid of that milk supply, which is hard people that are breastfeeding and have a milk supply. Think that their supply is going to go away easily. But then people who choose to bottle feed off the bat realize that it's not that easy to get rid of your milk supply.
dianne (10:43):
No. So I mean, it's, it's really like, nobody teaches you about this stuff. You just kind of like, okay, my milk's here. What, what now? How do I keep it here? What happens to it? Is it gone? You know how many times I get calls from people, but my milk supply is gone. It's just gone.
abby (11:00):
I get a message daily. Yeah. I'm messages daily. My milk supply dropped or, you know, I went to the dentist and my milk supply is gone. I, I was gone for a couple of days and now my milk supply has gone and I'm breastfeeding and I'm pumping and I'm doing everything to bring it back, but it won't come back.
dianne (11:19):
It's not gone.
abby (11:20):
It's so frustrating. It's so frustrating to be that person who feels like there's no milk in there.
dianne (11:25):
Yeah. But it just doesn't go away that quick.
abby (11:28):
No it doesn't. And so when you're pregnant, you don't actually all starts in pregnancy, correct?
dianne (11:32):
Correct.
abby (11:34):
Tell us more.
dianne (11:35):
Yes. And that's when, like, you know, when you get a increased growth breast growth and that's your body preparing to breastfeed, you know, your body is preparing to breastfeed. Your body starts to make colostrum while you're pregnant.
abby (11:49):
while you're pregnant, some people can express it while they're pregnant.
dianne (11:52):
Yeah. I never could, but I never really thought about it.
abby (11:56):
I never even tried. I was just like what? There's nothing to do right here right now.
dianne (11:59):
But some people will leak. No. I mean, if your leak, that's great. If you don't leak, if you're listening, if you're pregnant, you're listening and you're not leaking. It has nothing to do with what your milk supply is going to be. Like, don't worry about that. But some people do leak in pregnancy and it's all good. It's all your body preparing to breastfeed your baby. And then your baby is born and they survive off the colostrum. That's all they need. We used to say, we used to have this little saying when we were learning, um, you know, when I was first starting to learn about breastfeeding and stuff, and it was like, if your baby needed a full milk supply on day one, it would be there. Like, that's just how it would be. But your baby doesn't need a full milk supply on day one.
abby (12:44):
You also won't feel, you wouldn't feel if your baby came out hungry, you wouldn't feel like you'd just been hit by a truck because your baby's been sucking nutrients from, you know, your baby's like been eating the whole entire time. Yeah. They're they're not gonna come out hungry. They're like, oh my God, I'm so starving. What a trip.It's such a long journey.
dianne (13:06):
They're full of amniotic fluid. Still. Like, it's just a whole thing. So all they need is a colostrum, which is very, very, very important for them to have. And as your baby is feeding on the colostrum, it's signaling your body to make the milk. Now, the other thing that triggers your body to make milk is the hormonal response. So as soon as the, I was going to say the uterus, which would have been just, I don't even know why I was going to say that. But as soon as the placenta leaves your body, not your uterus, your uterus stays there.
abby (13:40):
It's not gonna fall out. Even though it feels like it's going to fall out.
dianne (13:42):
it does feel like it's going to fall out. But as soon as the placenta leaves your body, your hormones drastically go through a change. And that is what starts to signal your body to make the milk. So it's pretty cool the way the whole process happens. And then usually two or three days after your baby's born. And they've been feeding on colostrum. You've been putting them to the breast, you know, on demand whenever they want it. That is triggering your body. To get that milk to come in faster, your body listens to your baby. Your baby tells your body what it needs, and then in comes your milk. Usually by like day three, day four, somewhere in there, that's when your milk supply is coming in and magically, that's when your baby can actually start to hold a little bit more volume too is by day three because their stomach is so small in the first two days of life. And they really can't start to hold much volume until about day three. So it really it's perfect. It's a perfect system. It's still not much. No, not at all like an ounce. We're talking, we're not talking one of those two ounce bottles of formula. We're talking about a half an ounce. It is just a perfect system. You know? And then in that first, you know, the first days home with your baby, just feeding on demand, feeding on demand. That is how your body learns what your baby needs, because your body just doesn't know in the beginning, it's just like, floods you with milk and doesn't know like, all right, how many babies are we feeding here? We feeding one baby. Or are we feeding two babies? Your body learns what it needs to do based on your baby feeding. That is the key and milk out means milk coming back in. You know? And I always like to try to explain it like a, like a glass of water, like you're not going to refill a glass of water if it's already full. So if you're skipping feeds and your breasts are staying full, that's going to tell your body, oh, we don't need milk right now.
abby (15:53):
Right. So one of the ways you can hurt your milk supply is by feeding on a schedule.
dianne (15:58):
Yes, yes. That will absolutely do it
abby (16:03):
Not allowing your baby to decide when they should be emptying the breast and allowing your baby to have that communication with your body about what they need when they need it, how much they need, you are told to go home and feed on a schedule, feed every two or three hours, whatever. And then your breasts are full and not being emptied kind of on demand, which can hurt the supply.
dianne (16:29):
Yeah. Because it's telling your body to slow down supply. And along with that kind of goes, I feel like it goes hand in hand with feeding on a schedule is timed feeds. So if you are like, if somebody tells you, oh, only feed 15 minute, baby doesn't need to feed longer than 15 minutes on a breast. Maybe they're not done yet. And if you're timing your baby and you're saying up time's up and move them, you're not letting them really give your breasts that signal. Okay. I'm taking all the milk out of here. I need more to fill it. And if you're leaving the breast full, then your body is going to think it doesn't need to make milk anymore. So I always say, just leave them there until they're done. It could be 15 minutes. It could be 20, but sometimes I'll hear people say, oh, your baby never needs to eat longer than 10 minutes.
abby (17:21):
Well, that's like saying everybody takes the same amount of time eat. Right? That's like ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense.
dianne (17:30):
I don't understand why we lump these babies in a...You just get, they just get thrown in the pool of everybody's the same. Yeah. I just don't get that.
abby (17:38):
They're as different as adults are. They all take different times to feed. They all feed at different frequencies. They all, they're all different. That's why, if you just breastfeed on demand, breastfeed, let your baby decide and let your body and your baby communicate with each other the way it's supposed to be. Your baby can't do anything like they're just born. They can't do anything, but they can do this. And they're the best at it. They're better than you at the, at determining what milk supply is going to be.
dianne (18:05):
Yeah. They know what they need.
abby (18:07):
And let's talk more about that after a break, um, and hear from our sponsors,
dianne (18:13):
that was quick.
abby (18:14):
It really was. We'll be right back today's episode is brought to you by Niki's natural wipes. Niki's was created out of the passion of two new parents, wanting to protect the health of their precious new baby, Niki. Conventional baby wipes contain harsh chemicals that can lead to redness, itchiness, dry skin, a burning sensation, even blisters and urinary tract infections utilizing the miraculous antibacterial qualities. And menuca honey combined with the proven ability of coconut oil to more moisturized dry skin Niki's has set a new global standard for premium baby wipes. The smell and feel of the wipes is unique. 100% natural ethically sourced, EWG certified and biodegradable check out the first all natural baby wipes made with menuca honey and coconut oil on Niki's.com. N I K I s.com and use code use promo code badass 10 for 10% off of your order. And today's episode is also brought to you by Fair Haven health. Are you tired of defrosting breast milk from your storage bags only to find that it's too much or too little? What if you could defrost the exact amount of mil you need? Every time the milk is milk trays look like regular ice cube trays, but have 16 semi cylinder cavities that each hold one ounce of milk. When it's time to feed your baby or prepare bottles for the day, just pop However many breastmilk sticks you need into any type of brand of bottle. Nothing is wasted, no extra breast milk leftover, tempting your caregiver to overfeed your baby and blow through your precious stash. Once the sticks are frozen, just transfer them into a freezer bag, freeing up the milk trays for your next batch of breast milk. And they come with lids so that they can be stacked, which will free up space in your freezer. They are reusable environmentally friendly made with food grade safe plastic and can be used for baby food later on no BPA failures or dyes. Check out the Milkies milk trays at FairHavenhealth.com. That's F a I R H a V E N health.com and use code badass for 15% off of your purchase and all of our sponsors and the promo codes, um, can be found in our show notes. Under this episode at badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com our show notes We'll also include further information about things we talked about in this episode and at badassbreastfeedingpodcast.com, you can also find our breastfeeding resources, all of our other episodes and information about scheduling your very own one-on-one online lactation consultation with Dianne, and now back to how to hurt your milk supply, which everybody wants to avoid. So we're telling you exactly what you can do to hurt it. So you can avoid doing that.
dianne (20:55):
So I have also skipping feeds, which is pretty much kind of what we were just talking about. Like, that will definitely hurt your milk supply. And I don't mean like, okay, you went to the dentist, like you said, you know, you had some, oh, what if I went to the dentist? And my milk supply is gone. Like you go to the dentist, you miss a feed. Like if it happens once it's not going to hurt your milk supply, if it's consistent it's going to hurt your milk supply.
abby (21:25):
Right. Right. Again, because your milk supply is pretty sturdy, right? So it's hard to hurt your milk supply. So these are not things that you can do just like once in a while and hurt your milk supply. But if you're consistently practicing this, you know, if that's just what you do day in and day out, skip feed space feeds, um, time feeds, schedules, schedules. Yeah. Your, your milk supply will not respond to that. Right.
dianne (21:51):
And I see that one of the, one of the examples of that is when parents go back to work and that's really hard, that's really, really, really, really hard because you're trying to balance working with pumping. And that can be a really difficult thing to do. And, you know, you've just been on maternity leave. You don't want to say, Hey, I need all this time free so I can pump. So I do find that sometimes parents are trying to decrease the amount of times they have to go pump. And oh, can I get away with only pumping once or twice at work? Will it really hurt my milk supply? and yeah, over time it will. It will. There's. I mean, it's, it's unfortunate. And it sucks that in the United States, we have a horrible maternity leave that you have to go back to work while you're still dealing with this, but it will impact your milk supply if you only pump once in a Workday.
abby (22:43):
And it's, it's one of the reasons why people don't reach their breastfeeding goals. Yes, it is. It's because it messes everything up. And like, you have to be like, you do have to be pumping pretty consistently throughout the day. Like every time your baby would normally be breastfeeding, you need to be pumping throughout the day in order to maintain that supply. And that was really hard for people that most people, most jobs that's really difficult to do. And then you get into jobs like EMT or, you know, nurses or who are just like,
dianne (23:14):
Teachers.
abby (23:14):
yeah, right. Where like, you can't just be set, you know, you don't, I, when I was at work and I was going to return to work, I had an office and I worked in my office. And so I was pretty much able to pump whenever I needed to, I was going to be able to pump whenever I needed to, if I decided to go back and that was the plan and that was fine. And that probably would have worked out Okay. Of course, then again, you have to learn how to pump because that's not like an automatically known skill. Right. Um, and then you, so you'd have to ha you have to get that right. And then you have to, you know, it's no wonder that people are just like this isn't working. Yeah. It's really because it's not the way that your body and your baby are set up to function. Yeah.
dianne (24:01):
And I wish there was a magical way that I could tell people. Yeah, don't worry about it. Only pump once or twice during the Workday, your milk supply will be fine, but I can't, it's just not going to survive that. It's just going to learn. Like, it's just going to think, okay. I don't need, I don't, we don't need milk right now. Right. Baby's not feeding at this time. We don't need milk right now. So it's, that's definitely one of the things, you know, like you said, it's, it's, that's a struggle for some time. People don't make their goals because of work conflicts.
abby (24:31):
Yep. Um, so, so far we all were, and we have all the same ones. Cause that was my next one.
dianne (24:38):
What else you got?
abby (24:39):
Uh, so one of the things I think too is like waiting to fix problems. Oh, that's a good one. Yeah. So like, if your baby is struggling, if you're having problems early on, like with latch because of whatever, sometimes there's like lip ties, tongue ties, other kinds of issues, just not getting, not learning how to, you know, to get like a good latch or other kinds of problems, you know, that can lead to baby, not transferring enough milk. And you know, you run into all those issues and you don't get those fixed early on. That can, because again, that affects the amount of milk that your baby's pulling out of your body. Yes. Which will then leave the milk in there and signal to your body that it doesn't need anymore. Yes. That's a very good one. So, you know, like we always say, get that lactation consultant while you're pregnant and if you didn't that's okay. Cause they're still out there. And, but when you start to run into problems, you don't have to wait until you have a full blown problem. You know, you can even call a lactation consultant where you're, if you don't have a problem and just say, Hey, you know, I don't, I don't know what's going, I seems everything seems okay. I don't know. Um, can you tell me, like, if everything's okay and I even have an episode of how do you know if breastfeeding is going well?
dianne (25:52):
Yeah. And I have people that call me about that all the time. They'll be like, I feel like it's going okay. But I just want to make sure, I just want to double check. I just want, you know, I just want to know that we're headed in the right direction and that's a good.
abby (26:06):
yeah. That's way to make sure that like your babies, you know, getting everything it needs out of your breasts.
dianne (26:13):
And then I have people call me that are like two months in and they're like, I thought it would just fix itself. Right. Right. And then now they're struggling.
abby (26:20):
Yeah. Well, my, my baby's never had a good latch. I don't know why it's always been painful. It really hasn't gone, you know? And now, you know, I don't know. I feel like my milk supply has gone after two months of doing this and it probably is not gone, but like, you know, struggling for sure. Yep. Well, milk supply. Just a quick note. So I stopped breastfeeding when Exley was five, he just turned seven. So that was like around the time, about two years ago, it was when everybody had to like officially waned. And I told, I think I told this story a few months ago that I was like itching inside my shirt. My nipple was itchy. And I reached inside my shirt and started itching and it was wet. And I was like, what the hell? I expressed and they were like, drops of milk coming out. Well, I had to scratch on my arm and I was like, oh, breast milk is so good for scratches. Let me see if I still have some in there. I do every, every few hours I've been putting breast milk on my scratch. I have not breastfed anybody for two years. And I'm not saying I have a full milk supply, but there's, it just doesn't dry up.
dianne (27:24):
Yeah. It just doesn't go away like that. And I have people that will say that too. Like it's been, it's been months since I've weaned. Is this normal that I still have milk.
abby (27:32):
They freak out about it. Seriously. Thank God I knew because I would have freaked out too. Yeah. I was like, oh man, I've heard of this. Oh, it's happening to me.
dianne (27:40):
I wish I still had milk.
abby (27:43):
That's what everybody says when I say that. Yeah. They're like, oh man, I wish I can do that. And I know it is really easy to just be like, oh, here I have this little just a little cut on my shoulder. And it's just like, I'm just treating it like that.
dianne (27:56):
When I first started dating Tom, he was on, um, he had just had knee surgery. So he was on crutches and he was complaining about the chafing under his arm for, from the crutches. And I was like too bad I'm not still lactating. I could've fixed that for you. And he was like, do you think that fixes everything? And I'm like, yes, it does. And now he's the producer of our podcast. So he knows that that fixes everything. Right. But it was just like, it was really fun. Like that's always, my first go-to is like, well, yeah, it's too bad. I can just squirt a little breastmilk on that. And you'll be fine. Right. All right. We're kind of off topic, but that's okay.
abby (28:30):
No, that's fine. So, but you know, let's see, what else do we have? Do you have any more?
dianne (28:35):
I do have a good one early night weaning.
abby (28:39):
OH MY GOD that was going to be my next one!!
dianne (28:41):
Was it really?
abby (28:44):
Oh my God. That's so funny.
dianne (28:46):
Early night weaning. So, and I really want to make it clear that if your baby is stretches out, feeds on his or her own, on their own, and they're sleeping longer stretches during the night, you can go with that. If it's baby led, you can go with it. If you are attempting to stretch your baby out on purpose, which c'mon, everybody wants to try to do that because we all want to sleep, that will probably impact your milk supply. And that is because prolactin, which is the hormone that keeps your milk supply at a higher level is at its peak during the night. So those overnight feeds is what tells your body. Let's get more. Let's get more. That is why you leak more at night. A lot of parents will go, oh my God, I wake up in a pool of milk. That is why. And that is why you feel more full in the morning because your milk supply is just kind of like ramped up during those nighttime feeds. If your baby is naturally on their own stretching, those, those nighttimes out, then that's okay. You can go with that. But if you are just like not getting up during the night to feed them and letting somebody else feed them during the night with bottles or whatever, then your milk supply is probably going to suffer. It just is.
abby (30:12):
And we're not, we're not talking about a toddler. No, you are, you know, a toddler, an older kid, you know, they're talking about a baby. Yeah. We're talking about an infant. But like a lot of people when they get to the toddler, toddler years are like starting to work on boundaries, starting to actually, it's so annoying. I hate this conversation is so annoying because it's like for the whole first year, we're like, don't space out the feeds feed on demand, feed through the night. This is all wonderful stuff. Good stuff. And then when it comes to toddlers, I can't take it anymore. It's like, okay, now it's now it's okay to do all those things We told you it was not okay to do no. It's okay to start stretching out the feeds. It's okay to start working with them on, you know, that, uh, you know, just boundaries in general. And you can see our boundaries episodes if you want to, um, delve into that. Um, but by then, you know, then everything's, you're, you're free to do that, but early on that stuff can really impact your milk supply. Um, and also I feel like we need to acknowledge how hard that is to be breastfeeding through the night, especially if you are having to get up to go to work. And if you have other kids or if, you know, just in general, not sleeping is hard on everybody. Um, and so, um, you know, what you can do to try to, first of all, it's temporary and you will get through it. And second of all, there are, you know, to work on setting up that safe bed sharing space, you know, so that you can be laying down and sleeping while your baby, if your baby is one of these babies that nurses all night, like mine always were, you know, try to create that safe beds, sharing place space in your, in your bed, you know, get, um, work on getting into a good, comfortable position at night. Cause sometimes just laying on your side all night, just starts to feel like you're just a pile of bones and you start to get kind of sore and achy. I remember that, um, jamming a pillow behind your back. So you've got a little something to lean on, helped putting a pillow in between your knees can help switching sides. I actually was doing a video the other day on Facebook about sideline nursing. And, um, a lot of people said that they never even thought about that. Oh, wow. About how you can switch sides. Um, which really helps with that feeling of just like you've been laying in the same position. It really helps. It really feels a lot better on your body if you can roll over. Um, and you can even do that without losing the latch of your baby, although you probably want to switch breasts. Um, but, uh, yeah, so working on trying to get comfortable throughout the night can help through that. Um, but yeah,
dianne (33:01):
yeah, absolutely. And I mean, and it kind of goes along with the, it can be a tricky thing because if your baby, if you're like newborn and you're like, oh my God, I just need, I need to get a stretch of sleep to function because a lot of us feel like that, you know, I just need one stretch of sleep to function. If it's like once or twice that you have somebody else feed the baby for you so that you can have a little bit longer stretch of sleep. That's not the end of the world. But if it's something that you're doing consistently, then again, it's going to impact your supply.
abby (33:34):
Yeah. Like we're talking about all these things are like regular practice, regularly scheduled programming in your house. If your regularly scheduled programming in your house is, you know, somebody else feeding a very wakeful baby at night from a bottle, then that's what we're talking about. We're not yet. We're not talking about like, oh my God, you had a hard day. You really just need some help tonight. Yeah. That's not because your milk supply is strong. It's very sturdy and resilient. So it will take, you know, some consistency with this to, to hurt it.
dianne (34:06):
So that's it do you have any others?
abby (34:08):
No, that was all for me.
dianne (34:09):
Yeah. That's it for me too.
abby (34:11):
Oh my God. That is so funny that they were basically all the same. They were all the same.
dianne (34:16):
That's so crazy. Funny. Well, if anybody thinks of anything else, let us know.
abby (34:22):
Or if you want to know, if something that you're doing, you know, could hurt your milk supply, just ask us. Um, I was going to say, oh, you know, because you hear a lot of things like before we came on, we were talking about like peppermint, you hear about like, oh, peppermint's gonna hurt my milk supply or exercising. It's gonna hurt my milk supply or you know, coffee, or like what, or what else? I don't know. There's all these things like, oh, this can hurt your milk supply. No, these are not the things that are hurting your milk supply. These are not. First of all, probably your milk supply is probably not hurt. It's probably just fine. And you know, there's all kinds of terrible information out there that actually just makes it really hard for people to reach their goals or to even think that breastfeeding is an option for them. You know, like, oh, I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do all of these things anymore. And so people are like, well, forget it. That's too hard. But actually though, that those things are just not true. Many of those things are not true at all.
dianne (35:17):
Yeah. Breastfeeding is way more resilient than anybody gives a credit for. Yeah. That's just kind of the bottom line for my story and I'm sticking to it. Yes. What it is.
abby (35:28):
Thanks for listening. Thank you. Bye
Speaker 1 (35:42):
[inaudible].