So yesterday was discouraging and I prayed for some encouragement that I’m doing the right thing. I pumped at 1 AM, and got nothing. I pumped again at 5 AM and 7 AM, and still nothing.

Then a coworker of mine came to me with a present. She and I had talked yesterday about my pumping and I told her I had read that having something that smells like a baby can help with bringing in milk. This morning she brought me a onesie that her infant daughter wore yesterday! I was absolutely floored by this thoughtful gift. For someone to be so supportive of what I’m trying to do is very humbling.

Of course, I tried it at my 10:30 AM pumping. And got more (and bigger) drops than I’d ever gotten before! I immediately went to my coworker and gave her a huge hug and thank you for her help. God knew what He was doing. It was just the encouragement I needed. I actually started looking forward to the next pumping session to see if the onesie would work again.

I pumped again at 3 PM (I didn’t like having such a large gap between pumpings, but classes got in the way). Again, I got larger drops than before. But I also got a tiny spot of blood from my right nipple as well. Ouch! I’d already decided I needed to go get some lanolin for my nipples, and that made me doubly sure.

So after work I went and got lanolin, breast pads, sanitary quick wipes for cleaning the pump parts, and a package of receiving blankets. My coworker said she would use the blankets and bring them to me so her little girl can continue to help my milk come in (I was so touched when she said that some day, when her daughter can understand it, she plans to tell her the part she played in helping me!).

When I pumped at 5:30 PM I used the onesie again and I got even more! As a matter of fact, I even got some drops to go into the collection bottle! Granted, I still couldn’t really collect it, but it was WAY more than before.

On the way home from dinner my right nipple started to tingle/itch/hurt. I think it’s gotten pretty chapped. I’ve used the lanolin, which I think has started to help, but that nipple still looks pretty raw. I went ahead and pumped again at 9:00 and there was even more! The drops came almost immediately after starting the pump and there was enough in the bottle that I could shake it around in the bottom. I decided to try and see how much it was by collecting it in a syringe. The total from both breasts was .2 ml. Not a lot, but certainly more than I’ve gotten so far!

I want to save what I’m getting (now that there’s enough to actually collect), but I read that breastmilk can only be stored for 3 months in the regular freezer (we don’t have a deep freeze). So by the time the babies would be here the milk (colostrum) would be bad. I put the syringe into the freezer anyway, but I don’t know what the point is. I don’t want it to go to waste, but I don’t want them to be here in less than 3 months either. I guess I’ll save the colostrum and then decide later what to do with the milk as it comes in. (what a wonderful problem to have!)

Oh, yeah. I also made my appointment today to get an IUD put in. I will be having that procedure done on Monday at 4:30.

So to summarize:

• pumped at 1 AM, 5 AM, 10:30 AM, 3:00 PM, 5:30 PM, 9:00 PM, and 11:00 PM (only seven times today. Oops. Gonna have to work on that.)
• Took More Milk Plus and Goat’s Rue 1 cap each 4 times daily.
• Drank Mother’s Milk Tea (2 cups) this morning.
• Was able to get small amounts of colostrum! Much more than the previous days of pumping.