I don't know if it's just me, but I'm constantly anxious about my milk drying up. My mum reckons that my extended stay in hospital after Mr A and Miss E were born has left me with a legacy of stress related to feeding.
A quick summary of my hospital experience.... E and A lost too much of their birth weight in the first 48 hours so we were stuck on an intensive feeding regime for eight nights which involved being told by the registrar to stop breastfeeding altogether and feed each baby a prescribed amount of milk (formula at first and then expressed breast milk once my milk came in) at every feed - not conducive to a relaxed attitude to feeding! As it took over an hour to feed each baby, I was left with little time between feeds (and no time at all when I started to express milk). I didn't sleep for three nights in a row because Young Daddy was kicked off the ward at 8pm and not allowed back in until 10am - oh the joys of Lewisham Hospital visiting hours.
Now, over four months on, I feel much more laid back about Mr A's feeding (the advantage of bottle-feeding is that I always know how much he's taking) but I spend far too much of my time worrying about Miss E. Logically I know that as she has plenty of wet nappies, doesn't really fuss between feeds, and goes pretty much three hours between feeds, she's most probably doing ok but it doesn't stop that annoying voice in my brain constantly picking at my confidence.
And so I've developed a bit of a secret addiction to Organic Mother's Helper tea and fenugreek tablets - both of which supposedly aid milk production. I guess there's worse things to be addicted to.
