What to do about milk? Again.

Milk seems to be a real issue for me. Whether it’s raw cows milk, goat milk or breast milk, it seems like it’s never more than a few days before I’m back onto the subject of milk. Annabelle is nearing her first birthday and I’m trying to decide what to do about my milk. The question isn’t whether or not we’ll continue nursing, I plan on doing that until at least 18 months and then reevaluating. The question is how much to keep pumping.

Right now I pump 3 times a day, twice at work and once at night. Pumping is no fun at all. I’d planned on giving up my 2pm pumping session after Thanksgiving. I figured that by that point Annabelle would be eating more solid foods and would be needing less in her bottles for daycare. That didn’t happen, she still drinks just as much. So I kept on pumping and now at she’s 11 months and I’m thinking about dropping that 2pm session again. Actually I missed it yesterday and today and it’s ok because I usually only get about 5oz. total at that time of day.

Except it’s not ok because Annabelle is still not drinking any less milk even though she is eating more and now I feel guilty. I need to pump either 3 or 4 times to get enough for one day of bottles. I have some stashed in the freezer but not enough.  I don’t want to give her any more than her nightly bottle of Earths Best formula. So if she’s still drinking as much I should keep on pumping and just try to get my milk supply back up right? So confusing! Not to mention the fact that Annabelle has been going on a nursing frenzy the last few nights and gets really vocal about the lack of milk. Sorry angel, I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.

I never know what to do! I’m actually thinking of switching her nightly bottle of formula with a homemade recipe for formula that I got from the Lifetime Family Wellness Center in Hurst. There’s also a recipe for homemade formula you can get on the Weston A. Price Foundation website but that one takes a lot more prep time which I just don’t have after getting home from work.  I know it’s only 1 more month before I can get rid of that nightly bottle and then I don’t even need to worry about formula. Andrews point of view is that its only one more month why start making the formula now? I’m looking at it this way: it’s only one more month, it’s going to be a lot of work to make the homemade formula after getting home from work every day but it’s just one month, surely I can do that for 30 nights. As soon as I find some good raw goats milk.  Now if only my juicer was easier to clean…

So continues my search for milk producing foods. I’ve gone through the typical ones of Brewers Yeast, beer, oatmeal and I swear by More Milk Plus by Motherlove. I came across a recipe for lactation cookies and decided to tweak it a little and give it a try. At the very least I’ll have a healthy treat when that sweet tooth kicks in and hopefully it’ll get those milk ducts to start cranking out some more milk.

Here’s the recipe I used:

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 1/6 cup blackstrap molases
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 tablespoons flaxseed meal*
* 1 large eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cups whole wheat flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 1/2 cups thick cut oats
* 1 cup goji berries and ¼ cup raisins
* 2 tablespoons of brewers yeast

2 tbsp. raw milk (just enough to be able to blend if too dry)

You can add some fenugreek too to help increase lactation, I didn’t since I already take a fenugreek supplement.

Directions:
Preheat oven at 375 degrees F. Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal
and water and set aside. Cream together butter, molasses, and sugar. Add egg, flaxseed mixture and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, oatmeal, baking soda and salt. Add to the butter mixture and then stir in the goji berries and raisins. I had to add some raw milk because the mixture was too dry so just add enough to make it moist, it should be very thick. Form into balls and back for about 12 minutes. They won’t expand so you don’t need too much space between them. They look like heavy little golf balls but they are surprisingly light and delicious when cooked.

Enjoy making some milk! Actually it’s a pretty good snack or quick grab and go breakfast even if you don’t need more milk or aren’t breastfeeding at all.