Bella,
Thanks for the support. It is turning a little clearer and thinner on the left..still barely a drop from the right. I really feel like the 6 weeks on the Yasmin "did me in"..the first 4 months on the Diane I felt more changes, then six week on Yasmin, I feel i went back down to square one! In hindsite should have just used Orho or Necon and stuck with that. The side effects would have probably been much less etc...
I try to relax when pumping at work,, I go into the bathroom of the locker room, standing up...I am going to go tomorrow after work and have a Prolactin level drawn,,,,so we'll see! Take care, Cathy

Hi Cathy

My name is Rosie

I did not go on any medical interventions to produce milk, but I did pump, take herbs, and dom.

It took about 2 weeks for me to feel moisture, then clear liquid, then an occasional opaque drop after a month. My right breast started first and is also considerably larger than the left. After 2 months of pumping, I just got a spray a few days ago and the sprays are coming more frequently. Again the spray started in the right breast and the left lagged behind. Ten days ago I started collecting my milk and now have about 14oz in the freezer. My left breast is just now starting to spray occasionally, while the right is more consistently spraying.

I tell you all this to encourage you that it takes time. You have an advantage in that you took the bcp and dom for all those months. Please believe me all your suffering, bloating, and hormone craziness WILL pay off. Just be patient and be consistent and do not get discouraged.

Look how long I have been working at it and I only am producing about 2 ounces a day right now. I am remaining focused, positive, pumping, and being consistent and taking my herbs and dom. My milk has become richer looking and beautifully white (it started out yellow). I am seeing the foremilk and the hind milk. I am looking forward to the day when our little one will suckle at mommy's breast!

Things should pick up rather quickly for you. The fact that you already have liquid coming outafter only 3 days is wonderful! Soon that liquid will become opaque, become more milky, and large drops will begin to come out, then you will see a spray or two and it will increase as the days go on.

I wish you the best in your endeavors with making milk for you rlittle one!!

God Bless YOU
Rosie

Thanks Rosie,
I am trying to keep positive, but I can't help but be a little discouraged. I am at day 4 of pumping, the left has a light brown creamy liquid that is at least getting the phlange and the horn wet,,still not enough to drip in the bottle. The right...absolutely nothing! When I was on the Diane, I could express drops and the right was always quicker....on the yasmin a tiny drop of dark black liquid, not the creamy tan color with the Diane. I am going to get my prolactin level drawn, if it is below 200 I may go back on the orho or necon for a while, esp since now our baby is not going to be home until December or later. We are trying to decide now between the slower Guatemala or the quicker Azerbaijan...which is two trips both parents and alot for the airfare..2,000 a piece x 2 trips,,Yikes!
Thanks for the encouragement,,,,take care, Cathy

Day 6 of pumping,,.,,I am wetting the phlange and horn on the left breast and drops on the right. I am a pumping machine,,,every two hours. I guess I was hoping to have the same fast results as Dawn L, so I am a little discouraged. Lenore says it is normal and to wait and see. I will keep everyone posted! Thanks, Cathy

Cathy,
Dawn is out of the Norm. Most women don't get milk like she did. Most have to build there supply up slowly. She just got lucky

It will get there, Cathy, and I still think you are doing great! After 13 years of infertility, both male and female infertility issues, my body had to finally be good at something!
I may have had a quick start, but it has still taken me a long time to get where I am. I have been pumping since mid-January. If I had started pumping only 2-4 weeks before we expected our baby home, I think I would have had to use a Lact-Aid for a few weeks.
Don't be discouraged. You really are doing great! I am not just saying that.
DawnL

Hello,
I am positive that domperidone causes depression, even though it is not supposed to. I actually felt less depression on the bcp and domperidone together,,,the domperidone by itself is making me feel horrible. I am either on the verge of tears or am crying most of the time. I had this experience last August when I pumped and took domperidone, I felt so blue,
To make it worse, day seven, still only 1 drop from the right and a few from the left,,,and...my mother needs a cardiac cath procedure,,she is having angina attacks 2x this week.. she is only 59 years old. And, my son is had 4 D's and one E on his progress report, he may need to be held back. I am handing my papers in tomorrow, otherwise our baby may have to stay in Guatemala for the x-mas and new years holidays if we are not able to process her paperwork over there in a timely manner.
Dawn, Nona, Candace, Bella and Josie thanks for your support, I will keep pumping even though it is hard with no results. I went to get a Prolactin level drawn this am after work and it was to be a one hour wait at this walk in clinic so there was no way I could wait after being up all night.
I feel lots of lumps in my breasts, so I know there is breast tissue in there, I just wish that darn milk would start to flow, I could use some good news about now. Thanks, Cathy

Cathy,
I just went through some of the old postings and read about what you are going through with your adoption. My heart broke for you. I can't imagine how frustrated and heartbroken you must be...BUT...if I could offer any words of advice it would be to be prayerful about your situation. Be honest with your feelings. Maybe even write a "What I Should Be Thankful For" list (sometimes that helps me). I'm sorry that you're having such a hard time. Please know that we're out here thinking of you. I will say a prayer for you and ask God to grace you with patience and perserverence.

Take care of yourself,
Candace

Thanks Candace, noone ever said adoption was easy..I have learned to be the flexible and "go with the flow" otherwise you will go crazy.
take care,
Cathy

Cathy,
I have a few suggestions to help you milk come on along.. Try taking 400 mg of Lecithin 4 times a day. Thats what Lenore told me to do and it helped.. I had lumps and they were sore.. It got the milk flowing... Also try warm compresses before you pump and massaging before and during.. and last... try pressing the side of the horn in either side and see if that helps.. I always get more when I press the edge in.
hugs. Nona

Thanks Nona, I will try that. I am getting about 1 tsp per pumping, 8x a day,,,what does that translate to? I can't remember the conversions. I have some Soothies, I will start using them warm. Thanks , Cathy

Cathy,
Thats an 1 1/2 ounces a day!!! 3 tsp. equal 1/2 ounce.. Way to go girl!!

Hey Cathy,

YOU"RE DOING GREAT!!!!! Remember I only had 1/8th of a tsp at this point and I went on to produce 32 oz per day. You're ahead of ME. Keep up the good work and you'll get there. Next week should be a lot easier once the bcp is out of your system.

For the crummy feelings on the domperidone, try St. John's Wort. Worked for me.

Hang in there.

Fondly,

thanks Nona,
I guess I should start saving it,,,I was waiting for it to actually get into the bottom of the bottles before I save it..right now it keeps backflowing and staying the the phlange and the horn..I will use a needle and syringe to try to catch the milk. Thanks, Cathy

Thanks Lenore,
My milk is still pretty thin, but is white in color now. It is hard for me to save it , it doesn't go into the bottle yet, it keeps back flowing into the phlange. I will get some Lecihtin, my breasts have alot of very hard lumps. I did not realize that 3 tsp is 1/2 ounce. I feel better about things now.
I actually have some St.Johns Wort and SamE at home, maybe I will start them again. Thanks alot, Cathy

Cathy,
You are on your way! Congrajulations! Please consider yourself pumping in ounces a day not teaspoons. I think that you will feel better about what you are producing that way. I do not know much about lecithin but I do know that lenore and Nona know what they are talking about. Maybe the lumps have been causing you to not be able to pump as much. I feel that this upcoming week you will see even more progress. At times it seems slow but you will see increases. For me just starting out it was hard to see increases. I think too that it is stressful just starting out pumping. We have to suddenly get used to doing something new. I think that once we are more accustomed to pumping that we relax more and are able to produce more milk. I know that was the case with me. You are doing great pumping 8 times a day. This week it has been hard some days to do that. Today though I am going to pump 8 times. I am going to force myself to. I want to reach my next goal not stay where I am. Isn't it amazing that our bodies do what they do.

Take Care,
Bella

Hi Cathy! Wow, I must say you are amazing! To be prepared to pump for many months - you are so dedicated! Keep your chin up, I bet things will start to happen for you!

I'm a bit new and I only have my own limited experience behind me, so please forgive me if any of my suggestions are things you've already found to be unhelpful. I started pumping while using domperidone, but without the protocol, as I thought I had very little time before we were to go to be with our child. It went well - after almost three months I was pumping 18 oz. per day. But I would have gotten only half of that had I used my pump only. Though the pump did work a lot better if I used breast compression. I would pump sometimes with manual expression afterward, or just manually express - 6-8 times a day (including once at night in the last month). I did notice that if I went too long between expressing sessions I got hard lumps in my breasts, and those required extra work/massaging, but ended up being just full glands, and I could express them back to suppleness every session. I didn't take the advice to make pumping sessions short but frequent - usually I tried to empty my breasts completely each session - sometimes taking over an hour if they were really full (though usually closer to 20 minutes), expressing one, then the other, back and forth emptying each one after successive let-downs until I was getting very little at all from either one. I also have to mention that I've never seen another woman manually express, so I kind of had to figure it out alone with the written descriptions I could find - I don't know if I'm doing it perfectly correctly but it seems to work. I'm really not gentle at all - I don't have any bruising and it doesn't hurt me at all, but both people who have seen me have said it LOOKS like it must hurt. I don't know if any of this is new at all to you, just thought I'd put it out there just in case. Oh, and it always seemed like I was hitting plateaus that I couldn't get past - like 4 oz., then 7, and 11 seemed to go on forever. ;-) But it did increase. Every time I had a marathon day of 9-10 sessions I would see an increase, but only 2-3 days later. Often, the day or two after that marathon session, my supply would actually seem to go down an ounce or two.

And good luck with Guatemala, Cathy! Adoption makes my head spin and I'm realizing that it's utterly impossible to predict what will happen. I'm the person who had a nearly completed adoption fall through in Bolivia because of political unrest and adoption miscommunication between countries. We were then almost finished with paperwork for Peru when I realized it was likely to take a long, long time there, too, despite what Peru was promising. I got depressed and stopped expressing - just couldn't keep it up for an undefined time period that could run to years. I started to think about trying infertility treatments (we hadn't tried anything yet - thought we'd adopt first since we'd always wanted to adopt), and called my social worker to discuss it. Turns out she had a bunch of birthmoms due in the next 2 months in the Marshall Islands, with 4 families waiting for girls but no one interested in boys at the moment, and we were paper ready after prepping for Peru. Well, after thinking about it for a few days, we decided to pull our Peru app and go with the RMI on Sunday. On Monday night a baby boy was born, on Tuesday morning we received the referral, Wednesday we named him, and Thursday we got a picture of our beautiful little guy! We're hoping to be able to go to the RMI in the next 6-8 weeks to bring him home. Needless to say, I'm pumping up a storm again, and am back at about 10 oz. per day - thank goodness it's going a lot faster the second time around! It's international, but an open adoption, and still not absolutely certain. The birthmom or birthfamily could yet change their minds, or changing INS procedures there might slow us down. But it looks good so far. So keep hoping, you just absolutely never know what might happen!

Take care and congratulations on your building supply!!!
Heidi

Cathy,
Go to the nursery in your hospital and see if they have a 2 ounce feeder. Use 2 of them on your horns.. they measure in millimeters. 5 mil is a tsp. And to help get the milk into the bottles.. Lean forward as you pump. Once your done pumping... unscrew the bottles and pop off the yellow diaphram holder. Then pour the milk in it into the bottle. Thats what I do when I am done pumping. Just don't stick your yellow cap on tight.. I just slip my on lightly snug.. that saves you from having to use a needle and syringe. Another trick to help you with the milk that is on the flange.. Go to walmart and get a ear bulb syringe. You can squeeze air at the milk like blowing on it and it will all run down and collect in the yellow cap and then into the bottle.. It works great.. no waste that way. It helps so much in the beginning
hugs, Nona

Nona and Heidi,
Thanks for the encouragement. I had about 1 tsp per pumping on day 8, but after that I am back to 1/8 tsp again,,and drops on the right side. On day 10. I am getting frustrated again.
I will try your trick with the ear syringe and the air,,that is a good suggestion.
We sent our paperwork in finally. It's been a long road. Hope my supply is able to go up. I am having signs of Raynauds again. I tried the 'all natural' approach to tx this, but I think I will need medication. I am going to buy the Lecithin tomorrow. 1/8th tsp seems like such a small amt after 10 days, but it is better than nothing! Thanks, Cathy

Cathy,
Are you pumping with the PIS? If so what suction level are you using? You want it to be atleast on medium. Mine is about 3/4 of the way between medium and high. Also try starting it out on the fastest speed 5. It initiates a letdown like a baby.. Actually the truth is.. I pump on 5 all the time.. See if that helps to.

Nona,
You are so full of good info and it is so nice that you have so much experience to share. I am using the PIS, I start on the low but within a few minutes and up to the medium setting. Occasionally I feel I can go above the med and put in between the med and high. I had been on the "4" setting, but now am on the "5". I used to feel really sharp, almost painful letdowns last August,,but I have yet to feel a let down this time. I am using the warm soothies prior to pumping. I am still loosing some milk down the underside of my breast and drips down my abdomen. If only all of it would go into the bottle I think I could actually catch a little bit. I hope my supply builds, I only have about 4 weeks to build it up. I was hoping to not have to supplement, but it looks like I will def. have to. At least she will get some breast milk. I still am having just drips, I am hoping I will get a spray eventually and it will go into the bottle. I am going to get some Lecithin today at our local health food store, I'll let you know how it's going,,,thanks Nona, Cathy

Cathy,
Don't give up...think of it this way..you have FOUR WHOLE WEEKS..yahoo! <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> Could be less.

Just wanted to give you some words of encouragement... <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
Candace

Candace and Bella,
Thanks for your kind words. I have about 9 months so far invested in this , so I won 't give up now (not to mention all the med's, nursing clothes, Lact-aid's, SNS, bras's, PIS etc,,)
I will just keep pumping and hope for the best, thanks alot, Cathy

Cathy,
I hear you on the investments! I have been buying Motherwear clothes of eBay like crazy. I have 3 Lact-Aids, a PY pump, an old PIS, and new PIS, an Avent pump, several bras (and I only use one, as it's my fav) The list goes on. I'm just thankful that Dh supports me in all this. Even when I went and bought a freezer! (We needed it anyway)
You are doing great! I will be praying that your Reynaud's doesn't cause you problems. Have you talked with Darrilyn about it? I think she had that, too, and maybe she can give you some helpful tips.
Please let us know when you get a referral. I am feeling your pain, with all the hoops you have had to jump through!
DawnL

Dawn,
I know I have spent close to a thousand dollars so far. I guess I was hoping for a full supply so I could rationalize that formula costs about a thousand dollars a year. My husband is not that supportive, I have to work OT to buy alot of these things so I am working too much, house is a mess etc..which gives me stress. I feel like after spending so much, and then needing to buy lots of formula, it is really going to add up.
I am trying to stay focused and positive, but tonight I am back to only pumping drops,,on day 12. Not even one bit have I been able to freeze yet. I am trying so hard. I try to look at it like at least I have drops. Thanks for the support, Cathy

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