More Imbalances

Seems that everything is off-kilter these days. I have a foremilk-hindmilk imbalance. What in the sam-hill is that you ask? It means I make too much milk and therefore Ian fills up on the high-caloric, sugary foremilk and doesn't get enough of the fatty hindmilk making his digestive system (and moods) go haywire (read: he has lots of gas).

Ian has always had a steady supply of gas and he seems to have a love-hate relationship with nursing. Loves it, but hates the milk that sprays all over his face when he nurses. I hate that part too. It means we are both covered with bodily fluids which is really pretty disgusting. I've come to accept that parenting means contact with all sorts of fluids that one would never consider touching or talking about pre-kids. I just sort of added milk to the list of fluids I regularly have smeared all over my clothes, arms, hair, skin, furniture, etc.

Two nights ago Ian seemed particularly uncomfortable all night long. Finally at about 5AM I turned to the trusty Internet for some answers. Within minutes I had a link to a La Leche League site. These are hard-core long-term nursing mamas, or so that's my impression. But, the information on their website resonated so clearly that I called about attending their next meeting. Ian had 10 of the 13 bulleted items listed on a page about an oversupply of milk. What to do about this? Start selling milk on Craigs List? Worth consideration, but I'd rather just correct our supply-demand problem in-house. Turns out that I need to feed him LONGER on each side so that he gets the creamy hindmilk. I'm not the patient type so it's no surprise that I wasn't nursing him long enough (and my mother, darn her for being right, has long complained that I feed my babies too quickly). We tried the new system and last night was our best night in months (well, two months). Ian was particularly fussy today, but I'm going to blame that on something else (that I'll find on the Internet in the wee hours).