Breastfeeding and hunger

I find that breastfeeding makes me really hungry.  I remind myself of my chooks clucking around the backyard.  The hens that are laying actively forage for food and go nuts every time they see someone come out of the backdoor, convinced that they are carrying scraps just for them.  They are perpetually hungry, seeking out the choicest bits and squabbling over them with determination.

Just like those chooks I feel I am always a little bit hungry and always up for a bit of tucker if it's on offer.  At dinner time I seem to eat enormous amounts and as main cook I am probably reserving the choicest bits for myself. I'm sure this is nature's way of ensuring that I definitely don't run the risk of losing weight while I am breastfeeding (and believe me I am not) but more importantly, ensuring that I maintain sufficient energy to support my baby's breast milk needs.

When Ellie was three weeks old I travelled to Canberra by plane to visit family.  My siblings seemed very keen for my mum to meet Ellie as she had recently become bedridden and her prognosis was uncertain.  While I was pregnant, with about 4 weeks to go, mum caught a urinary tract infection.  It was discovered after she had been found a couple of times collapsed on the floor.  The infection caused her to be put to bed and treated with antibiotics.  In the time that she was convalescing she lost her ability to walk.  In her dementia state she still believed that she was able to walk, but she just seemed to have lost the ability to understand the process of steps involved in walking.  This was obviously a great shock to the family and there was a real fear that her downward progression  may continue.

 

Leaving my husband and older children at home I left for Canberra wearing my 3 week old in a sling. There were a few hiccoughs to begin with. Ellie poohed through all of her clothing before we even got our of the airport car park in Coffs.  So first stop was the baby change room in the terminal.  The second difficulty occurred as Ellie and I were going through security before boarding the plane.  The staff insisted that I take her out of the sling.  I had other luggage too and a long line of waiting passengers behind me.  Ellie was asleep and I struggled to try and get her out of the sling and to get the sling off.  The staff were not allowed to help by holding her.  Luckily, a mate of Steve's happened to be passing through the gate at around the same time and he pushed forward to the front and offered his assistance.  He held the baby, much to the acute jealousy of the other females standing around, and I was then able to disentangle myself from the sling and pass it through the metal detector.

The rest of the trip worked out pretty smoothly with a transfer at Sydney, this time I was pre-warned about ensuring Ellie was not in her sling when I reached security.  The connections involved short waits where I was able to pick up a snack.  The flights provided snacks too, but never enough for a hungry breastfeeding mum.  It felt like I needed two meals to everybody's one.

I hired a car in Canberra and stayed with my brother Murray and his wife, Sharon.  It was lovely to be able to care for Ellie and have them look after me by cooking meals for me.  Both Murray and Sharon are really good cooks and the meals were delicious.  I definitely scraped my plate clean every time.  By a few days into my visit, however, I noticed that my milk supply had radically dropped.  Ellie was suckling constantly and seemed unable to be satisfied.  My breasts felt really soft.  I quickly realised that a few days of consuming not enough calories and of running around visiting people had taken its toll on my reserves.  Here I was still recovering from birth, being much more physically active than a mum of three week old should be and although eating a good diet, it was only enough for one adult, not one breastfeeding mum with a baby totally dependant on her for all her calorific needs.

The solution to this problem was to immediately cease all social interaction, and go to bed with my baby.  I literally just ate and slept and fed for a full 24 hours.  It did the trick and my supply jumped back up again.

I have noticed that at various times during the past nine months I have had days where I feel almost constantly hungry. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are barely enough.  Just in the past week I directly correlated my sudden increased need for food with a period of night waking that Ellie had gone through a few days earlier.  For two or three nights she seemed to be waking hourly for drinks. Most nights I am aware that she'll have one or two suckles, but I am barely awake enough to notice.  But for these few nights, she was waking repeatedly and suckling for extended periods of time. It was exhausting and I was wondering what was going on.

What was going on was that for whatever reason, growth spurt or increased activity levels, thus increased calorie needs, Ellie was lifting my supply to meet her new needs.  I just happened be a few days behind her.  Now her needs have settled, either her need for increased calories has passed , or my supply has lifted to meet her new needs, and I now find myself incredibly hungry.  The extra milk that I need to make to meet Ellie's needs is made out of the food I consume.  So Ellie needs more of my milk, I need more food. That has left me back foraging in the cupboards between meals wondering what to eat and feeling like a mother hen scratching around for scraps and leftovers.