I'm a generator!

Lactogenerator, that is.  (Bruce or any other male member of my family that wouldn't like to think of me making milk, please don't read this post :))

I had always heard about postpartum women "leaking" milk when they heard a newborn cry in the grocery store or something.  But I never knew that you could leak milk BEFORE you had a baby.  When you're pregnant, your mammary glands start growing and growing and become fully developed sometime during your second trimester. 

All of those ducts right underneath the nipple act as straws for the baby.  At this point, I'm only leaking colostrum, sometimes referred to as "liquid gold."  According to La Leche League, colostrum contains little fat and lots of carbohydrates, protein, and antibodies to keep Little Nacho healthy.  It is also highly digestible, so it will help Nacho get rid of some of his excess billirubin and helps to prevent jaundice.  Breasts don't begin to produce milk until after the 3rd or 4th day postpartum.  Another interesting fact: A newborn's stomach is the size of a small marble. It can only hold 5-7 mL of fluid at a time, which means that if you feed the baby anything more than that, it will spit it up, since newborn stomachs are rather rigid and don't have the ability to stretch.  The colostrum you produce is small enough that the baby will get the 5-7 mL per feeding.  Cool, eh?

Ok, so now you guys are going to view me in a totally different light.  It's sort of like being pregnant...everyone KNOWS exactly what you have been up to get that way.  Now you know that I'm walking around and leaking boob juice, maybe even when you see me face-to-face. 

But you have no idea how thrilled I am about this.  For a while, I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to breastfeed adequately because of my breast reduction.  The first time I leaked was in Copenhagen; I woke up one morning and found what looked like a dry, flaky spot on my left breast. I woke up Billy immediately and showed him and we celebrated for a bit and then went back to sleep.

Ever since then, I've had what I call "booby dandruff" in my bras.  I take them off and, in the area where the nipple is supposed to be, there are what looks like white flakes of skin.  I told Christy of my concerns and she says that it's perfectly normal and a good sign that there's some lactogenesis going on.  Sometimes, I squeeze them just to make sure I'm still lactogenerating.  It's this weird obsession I have: if I squeeze them and nothing comes out, I sit and fret about it all day.  If something comes out (usually looks like water at first, and then it comes out milky), like it did today, I give a hoot and holler and tell Billy the good news. 

I would have never, in a million years, thought that I would get this excited about making breastmilk.  I'm so pumped (no pun intended :))!  Christy even gave me some of her breastpads (yes, they serve the same purpose as the other type of pads).  They're washable and reusable and go right inside your bra so you don't accidentally start leaking out of your bra and into your shirt in front of your professors and colleagues at research roundtable.

I'm also terribly excited to try out a breast pump.  I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like: would it hurt?  would it tickle?  would it sort of be too stimulating to sit through?  As always, I'll keep you folks updated.