Mommy and the Milk

I breastfed my first son until he was 18 months. I plan on doing the same with my second. In my many months of boobie milk production, I have learned a couple things. Here's what I know:

• Making milk is hard work. Your body needs extra fuel to produce quality nomnoms for your little, at the exact same time as your mind is screaming at you to get back into those pre-pregnancy jeans. 
• It really doesn't matter if you exclusively nurse, exclusively pump, exclusively formula feed or any combination of the aforementioned. As long as you and baby are healthy, thriving and HAPPY - don't let anyone bully or guilt you into thinking one method is any better or worse than another. 
• Exclusively pumping is not just hard, it's more work - so be prepared. If you're nursing, you can pretty much just pop a boob out whenever you hear a hungry little squeak. If you're formula feeding, you make up bottle and voila. When you are exclusively pumping you need to not only heat up and feed babe a bottle, but then you have to pump as often as if you were nursing (can be anywhere between 8-100000000 times a day). 
• Nothing kills your milk supply like stressing over your milk supply. In my previous experience, whenever I started to get really worried over my supply, my milk production would slow down. So relax, take your cues from baby - he/she will be the best indicator if they are getting enough and if you have enough milk. If you are worried that baby isn't getting enough, get him weighed once a week for a few weeks (you can do this at breast feeding groups, in RD) and see how much he is gaining.
• A crappy latch hurts, a good latch is uncomfortable in the beginning, but gets better.
• It's ok to sometimes feel like all you do is nurse... because some days that is ALL.YOU.DO.
• You will feel guilt (comes with mommyhood); guilt about what you eat that upsets baby's belly, guilt about giving a bottle, guilt about being pissed off at having to get up for the 74th time that night to feed the demanding little creature, guilt about wanting to stop nursing, guilt about having a drink, guilt guilt guilt. Remember; You are a good mom and you are always doing what you think is best for your baby (happy mommy = happy baby, so have that glass of wine!)  
• water, water, water! Stay hydrated. Make sure you are drinking at least your daily minimum of 8 glasses a day. 

Need to increase your supply (naturally)? Here are some things that definitely helped me:

• A bowl of oatmeal a day -  I found that eating a bowl of 'real' oatmeal worked better than eating the sugary instant variety. There is no scientific proof that oatmeal will increase your supply, but it's often recommended. I believe that part of the reason it works for many women is because oats are filling and long burning in our bodies which helps fuel milk production.
• A cup of warm tea (just be careful with your caffeine consumption) before you nurse. A cup of tea relaxes you and can help with your let-down. Similarly, a warm/hot shower or bath can also do the trick.
• pump after every feed for 15 minutes - even if you aren't getting much of anything. Sometimes (most times) babies don't completely empty your breast, by pumping afterwards you are emptying your breast which signals your body to produce more milk. Even if you aren't getting anything, the stimulation of pumping will tell your body to make more milk.
• double pump - this can fool your body into thinking you have TWO babies who are demanding more milk. Just be careful of this if you are just establishing your supply in the first couple months or if you just want to pump the occasional bottle, because if you do this often enough you can give yourself an over supply. This is great if you want to stock up your freezer with milk to use later though.
• pump/nurse at night - even if your baby is sleeping for longer stretches at night, it's helpful to at least pump during the night. The hormone that signals milk production is higher at night; stimulating that hormone by removing milk from the breast, coupled with the supply/demand aspect of nursing can help increase your supply. This is why you will normally notice babies doing cluster feeds at night when they are going through a growth spurt.
• offer the breast throughout the day, often, for comfort sucks - the sucking stimulates your letdown. Also, if you are offering the breast more often, then baby is most likely going to drink more which will signal to your body to produce more.
• take a 'nursing vacation' - this only worked for me with my first when I didn't really have anything else to do or anywhere to be: basically you lay in bed (or on the couch) with your shirt off and put your boob in baby's mouth whenever they'll let you, for a couple days. This is supposed to be (a) a relaxing time to rest after giving birth (b) bonding time for you and baby and (c) supply and demand - all of which are supposed to be good for increasing your supply. I only did this once since I felt it was too limiting and I felt trapped with my baby (which made it neither relaxing or a  good bonding experience), but it did boost my supply a bit.