So my dream sleeper/tiny foodie went from one overnight feed to hourly within a week of setting off on our travels. The interwebs has informed that this could have been caused by one (or both) of two things.
- Travel messes with milk supply so baby is still hungry after feeds.
- Return of cycle (did NOT miss his over the last year) also messes with milk supply (and taste) meaning baby still hungry (and unimpressed) after feeds.
What I have concluded from this… baby is still hungry after feeds. In order to check whether the interwebs was being truthful I decided to express a couple of feeds and sure enough the interwebs was right. Milk supply decreased from 100-120ml in 20 minutes of expressing to 80-100m in the same time. As for the taste, well I have no idea, because I wasn’t about to taste it. It may not seem like a huge drop but given that small amount of expressed breast milk (EBM) used to get the Mogwai through half the night, that 20-40ml difference is the equivalent of a couple of hours sleep. So how did I combat this while still traveling I hear you ask?
Traveling is exhausting without a bub so, it’s fair to say it’s even more exhausting with extra baggage (sorry bug, you’re well-loved baggage). Go figure. For this reason it is important to schedule in time for resting in between visits and adventures. So for the first time since the bug arrived, I attempted to nap when she did. Not an easy feat since she mainly only naps while I’m driving, and that would be unsafe…obviously.
The other major issue is changes to diet and fluid intake. I drink a lot more water when I am around my home than I was while I was running around the North Island of the Motherland (NZ). Attempting to keep on top of this certainly helped. Being aware of what I was eating, and making sure I kept a good balance of fresh foods, while difficult, proved essential. Lucky for me, I love feijoas (Kiwis love them, Australians…not so much) and you can buy them on the side of the road every couple of kms by putting coins in a good ole fashioned honesty box! [Disclaimer: I did not just eat feijoas, they were just an example]
And then there’s the cycle situation which, unlike the other stuff, could not be easily resolved, so I was left with no choice but to be patient with the extra feeds and waking. Sure enough, once that was over, supply increased a bit.
The easy solution in the end was the end of the holiday, but obviously I wasn’t keen to do that. So instead I opted to be patient with bug a lug and not to stress about it. Anxiety over routines and feeding etc. will likely only make the milk supply situation worse so relax and go with the flow until the [milk] flow is going.
And is expected things are going back to normal, slowly, since we got home from our trip.
Happy Travels Milk Machines!
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article sponsered by Northern Michigan certified lactation consulting and Mother Hubbards Country Cupboard
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