Hi Everyone,
thanks for all your supportive messages, btw. I have editted and printed
out all particularly encouraging stuff and posted it to E- with her
Christmas card. She says thanks to everyone for caring :-)

Yesterday, she phoned me to say she was working up the courage to phone
the local LLL leader. We spoke for a few minutes and they she said she
had to go because she wanted to "strike while the iron is hot" and phone
the lady. I prayed hard that the LLLL was in! Before that, we had a talk
about her embarassment re. bfing, particularly in public and her
feelings about it being "wierd" to start bfing a 5.5mo. She is like me
in that she is very open about her feelings, and sometimes this gives
people a chance to put her down; I advised keeping it to herself and
supportive people only. Her brother is a doctor, and his skepticism is a
big problem (he said bfing won't make a jot of difference at this stage
and accused her of clutching at straws. I don't think he is supportive
of what he sees as "extended bfing") - it turns out he is visiting for
the Christmas holiday, which is probably why she didn't want to start
until later.

However, her body and her instincts seem to be racing ahead of herself.
Her milk is definitely in, although she suspects the amount is
miniscule. I gave her a leaflet about Egnell-Ameda pumps (recommended by
an adoptive mum from the Net) and she is going to hire one to see which
suits her. I think she would feel happier about using the pump,
particularly for feeding in public.

She was worried about the night feeding, but we discussed the
differences between night feeds with bottles (both you and the baby have
to be alert and awake, to avoid the risk of choking, plus you have to
heat up the feed etc) and bfing (you can nurse lying down, while you and
the baby are half-asleep). She told me her current regime is to give 4oz
every couple of hours. The baby sicks up about 3oz of it. It could
actually be easier for her even if she pumps rather than nurses,
especially if the baby can take the EBM better than ABM.

I will post later to keep everyone uptodate with developments.
--
Anna (mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995 and Alice, born 11th Sept 1996)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna