Hold the Dairy, Please

My milk supply isn't keeping up with Samantha's demand. We'll be running out of frozen milk soon (only a week or two left), so something has to be done to make sure she's getting enough nutrition for her age. She really likes her solid food now and is taking in less and less breastmilk as the weeks progress. One result of her reduced liquid intake is that she has been having constipation issues. She strains and cries when she tries to pass the hard stools. It's awful being the mom who knows what it's like but doesn't know how to make it better.

That is where we're at. I thought I would try two things to help make sure she gets enough milk. The first is to try supplementing her diet with an alternate milk source. So, I thought I would try Samantha on yogurt. From what I've read, yogurt and cheese can be introduced at her age, but cow's milk should be held off until later. Joe gave her some last night for supper and I gave her some this morning for breakfast. She thought it was different but ate it anyway. This afternoon when I picked her up from Dawn's house I wasn't even in the doorway when one of the twins started telling me a story about Samantha having diarrhea and getting poop all over her clothes. Dawn said it made her gag worse than any of her five kids' poop ever has. That's pretty bad. And she had two bouts of diarrhea. Poor thing. Her tummy must not have felt good at all. That is a total of three poops in one day for a girl who doesn't always go every day and it's hard when she does. Only thing new in her diet is the yogurt. We'll be laying off dairy for a while. I was hoping to be able to give her cheese, but it's probably best if we wait on that too. Now I have a tub of plain whole milk yogurt in the fridge to eat.

I started taking fenugreek. It's an herb that is supposed to help increase milk supply. I went to two pharmacies before finding it at GNC. One side effect of fenugreek is that it makes you and/or your baby smell like maple syrup. Apparently fenugreek is used to flavor artificial pancake syrup. I burped earlier today and felt like I had recently eaten pancakes. I read that most women will notice an increase within 24-72 hours of starting fenugreek. We'll see how it goes. I'll be happy if I can pump an additional half bottle a day. That won't be enough to meet her current milk intake, but every little bit helps. I won't be quite so worried.