You see, I’ll be going back to work in another month and I want to make sure that our baby girl has enough food to eat when I’m not around; especially since I’ve been her main food source since day 1.

Now, the tricky part at the beginning was not knowing how much milk she actually consumed at a feeding. After all, it’s not like my breasts are transparent or come with a measuring cup, so this was a guessing game at first. However, I found out an interesting fact that was helpful at the beginning:

A baby should drink about 2-3 oz of breastmilk for every pound they weigh in a 24-hour period. So based on the number of feedings she has in a day, this should help me determine how much milk I should have expressed for her on a daily basis.

Great, there’s a way to figure this out, I thought, but then doing the math, I realized I’d need A LOT of extra milk! So then came the thought, well how do I get extra milk while still satisfying her daily needs? Here’s what I’ve done and it seems to be working!

1. Drink lots of fluids
Now, there is some controversy as to whether or not your hydration levels correlate to the amount of breastmilk you’re able to produce. I’ve read studies that say it has no effect and others that say it does. Well, here’s my standpoint on this: why not try it! Drinking extra water is good for my health and if I drink too much, then I’ll visit the bathroom more often. Inconvenient: yes. Harmful: no. So this Momma is staying hydrated!

2. Keep feedings frequent
As I mentioned earlier, I was worried about the fullness of my breasts correlating to how much milk I was producing. Well, while researching this topic, I stumbled upon an interesting fact: when your breasts are full, especially for longer periods of time, milk production slows down; so trying to stretch out our baby girl with 3 – 4 hours between feedings was not helping my production. If I keep feedings more frequent, every 2 – 3 hours, then my breasts will empty regularly, thus keeping my milk production high. Now, I do read her cues and don’t force feedings on her…and I’ve noticed that doing it this way, they’ll be points throughout the day when she’s not fully hungry for a meal, she just wants a little snack. I call it a “top up” for her little belly as she will only feed for 10-12 minutes. I don’t mind as this frequency is helping keep the milk production high.

3. Eat lactation cookies
Now, this one had me contemplating whether or not I should try them for days! I researched and researched what option was better: Brewers yeast or fenugreek. Both help with lactation so I started researching the side effects, not only for me, but for my baby. I can put up with an upset stomach, but if my baby girl has to, then I’ll rethink my decision. Well, after much thought, I opted for the homemade version. I found a recipe online that had fenugreek, fennel, flaxseed and almond butter in the recipe. Apparently flaxseed and almond butter also help with lactation…who wouldn’t guessed?! Anyway, I was comfortable making this choice for this recipe as it had fennel in the cookies as well. Well, a common side effect to fenugreek is an upset stomach, gassyness…basically, everything that’s uncomfortable with your stomach and the same side effects could affect my baby; but what fennel does is actually aid in digestive stomach issues. The side effects just took care of themselves. I’ll admit, I was still skeptical at first, if these cookies would even help, but once again, worth a try! And if the effects were negative, the solution was simple. Stop eating them! It’s been 4 days now, and we’re doing just fine. Stomachs are good and milk production is up! **stay tuned for the recipe! coming soon!**

4. Pump when she’s feeding
Mom’s are good at multi-tasking! After trying to pump while just watching a video of our baby or looking at her, I was starting to get frustrated because it was taking a long time to get my milk supply flowing..my let-down reflex just wouldn’t let-down. As a trial run, I started pumping while feeding our daughter and voila! Let-down automatically established & my milk started expressing at a good rate! Also, since I’m big into fitness: great chance for an arm workout! Static holding a 15-lb baby in one arm for 20-30 mins…lets just say, I’m ‘pumped’ about the situation!

After doing these 4 things, I’ve noticed I’m able to express an extra 5 oz – 6 oz a day! If I keep freezing this much on a daily basis, I’ll definitely have plenty of food for her before I go back to work in 1 month.

Oh what comfort and relief this brings to a new Mom! May it help you on your going-back-to-work endeavours as well!