Moo.

The quest for breastfeeding is not an easy one around here. Best intentions, right? The reality of it is that, for me, supply is likely to be a constant worry even as we get further down the road. I guess the biggest barrier is that I need to try to get a certain amount of sleep every night so that I can keep up with the demands of the family and not have a sobbing emotional moment at the tail end of the day. To do that, I can't be up in the middle of the night pumping every 2 hours. The Toddler's schedule means that I can't pump regularly at set times during the day either; I catch it on the fly. And so reality keeps creeping in to my best intentions.

Right now I'm stalled out at just under a quarter ounce every time I pump. Except for first thing in the morning when it's nearly a whole half ounce. With this sort of output I should open a dairy, right? Maybe a micro-dairy. Specializing in the finest of preemie milk. Formulated especially for my newborn micropreemie and his needs to help him grow into the biggest and best that he's capable of. Added benefits are an increased immune system, and a lessened chance of catching a nasty bacterial infection in his intestinal tract.

The latest and greatest protocol I've come across is a pump and rest (and pump and rest) method. I think it's supposed to simulate a newborn cluster feeding, but I don't know. I'm trying it for the next few days or as long as I can stand it, because I'll try just about anything if I don't have to force myself awake in the middle of the night to be milked. Pump for ten minutes, rest for ten, pump for ten... do this for four pumps and rests, then repeat in 2-3 hours.

It's only been three sessions of this so far, and I think I'm seeing a slight improvement. Instead of a bare quarter ounce as normally achieved at this time of night, I got a full just-over quarter ounce. Those little drips just kept coming along. Very encouraging. So is the recurral of my intermittant insomnia. Hey, isn't the trick learning how to make your challenges work for you instead of defeating you?