Saturday, June 16, 2012

Inducing Lactation: Day 8, plus quick update

Today is the first day of increasing my dosage of domperidone.  It doubles today, and so far everything has gone pretty well I suppose.  This past week I had minor headaches at night, in particular.  I'm not entirely sure that it's due to the domperidone, though I suspect it is.  I'm hoping it's just due to seasonal allergies.  If it is the domperidone, then I suspect it's b/c I'm not drinking enough water.  So as I head into this second week of meds, I'm definitely going to increase my water consumption.  I'm trying to limit my caffeine intake as well.  One and a half cups of coffee a day.  I should probably have even less than that, but talk about causing a headache without it!!  OMG.  The headaches have started around 10pm and last through the night.  I usually wake up during the night and drink some water by my bed, and fall back asleep.  Then once I wake up (in the morning), have some coffee and more water the headache goes away.  The rest of the day, I'm fine.  Has anyone else inducing lactation had this problem?  Especially frustrating since I'm only a WEEK into the medications.   :-\

In terms of any visible breast change, there hasn't been a ton in just a week.  Although I've  noticed they've gotten a bit larger, they mostly feel different.  Fuller. Bouncier.  My husband is definitely liking the change!!  Haha!  (We'll see how things progress as I get further into this process.)

Not much else to tell really.  We're playing the famous surrogacy "Waiting Game" over here.  I feel like everything I do these days involves waiting.  B says the baby is growing well and doing fine.  Nothing major to report.  We touch base about once a week.  (Again with the waiting. These are the moments when I wish she and I were closer, both physically and personally.  But at the end of the day, we both have our reservations about getting too close I think.  So in the meantime, I just wait and try to fill up my time reading blogs and focus on getting my meds correct.)  Waiting is one of the hardest parts of this process, especially for an impatient Taurus like myself.

Oh, and for anyone else going through the surrogacy journey, have you recently tallied up how much $$ you've spent on the process so far?  Did it make your stomach jump up in your throat!?

Ohmigod!

Although I know we've spent less than many b/c our first attempt was successful (which I'm eternally grateful for), I will say that wow...all those meds, fees, lawyers, ivf, gifts, flights, bed rest, cards, hotels, etc add up quickly!  We're now almost at the $$ amount where I hoped we'd be at the END....and we still have 5 months to go!  Thankfully a lot of it is advance money paid out in escrow, but still.  Once again, I have to salute everyone going through this process b/c it's draining both mentally...and financially.

But even with the humdrum waiting and gasp-inducing financial revelations, I haven't lost sight (or excitement for) the end result!!  I'm so excited about meeting our little bean for the first time, that I can't stand it.  At the end of this road, all the hard stuff will be worth it!  Even our one little fur kid that is a complete terror must be getting excited because on this morning's walk, he didn't freak out at all when a little girl on a scooter rode by him with about 6" to spare.  That is a miracle indeed!

4 comments:

  1. Hey girl, you should know caffeine is going to SEVERELY affect the amount of milk you make.. I have had a cup of coffee here and there and I produced a OUNCE or more less those days :( you will eventually have to ween off the coffee my friend.. It sucked donkeyb@lls when I did, so I feel your pain! But I am SO PROUD of you for starting the process girlie!! You know I am here if you need any help or have any questions! Oh are you going to be doing the supplements too? I will just email you, LOL!

    And Uhh yeah on the financial aspect.. Makes me throw up if I think about it too long, lol.. Definitely much more than I thought I would have spent, but like you said SO WORTH IT! ok gotta go pump! :)

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    1. Hmmm.....ugh. Weaning myself off coffee. Well, if I have to then I have to. Might as well start soon, so I guess I can start tomorrow since today is already done and I had 1.5 cups!! Oops!! It will just be orange juice in the a.m. for me then. :-)

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  2. How is it going? I started the meds in july. Now I am 21 days into pumping every 2 hrs except at night I go every 4 hrs. I am only up to 5-6 ozs a day. I am kind of discouraged! What if this is all I make ever!

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    1. Hi Tori...Sorry for taking so long to reply! Definitely keep at it! After 21 days I was still only getting drops(!), so getting 5-6 oz a day is great! And I've heard stories of getting more milk once you actually have a baby on the boob. :-)

      But even if you don't get more than that, having some amount of breast milk for your baby is great. Since I wasn't able to get any milk myself, we've been having to use formula. But we've been lucky to get some donated bm for our daughter too. I have to say that I think the formula has allowed us to get sleep through the night. Most of the moms in my local moms group are getting next to no sleep, and we're getting 6 hour stretches already. Obviously I'd be thrilled to be able to breast feed, but I had to allow myself to fail. Once I accepted that, I stopped beating myself up about it. After all, I was raised on formula and ended up fine. Loved my mom. Graduated high school with honors and college too. :-)

      Anyways....good luck and keep at it! Any amount is great!

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