Projectile poo, and other topics of conversation.

I am over-producing milk at the moment, and I think this is also accompanied by a very fast let-down. This is making life difficult for Owen, but I think it explains a lot of his behaviour at the breast. He tends to fuss a lot, breaks the latch, goes on and off, bites down on the nipple and gets very frustrated. He coughs and chokes soon after going on, and also recently has started bringing up quite a lot of milk after feeds. Yesterday I also noticed that his poo was greener than usual - normally it is bright yellow. Green poo is generally an indicator that the baby is not getting enough hind milk, which can happen when you overproduce, because the baby fills up on fore milk and never reaches the nutrient rich hind milk. God, listen to me. Am I obsessive? Is the colour of poo a viable topic of conversation, I wonder? Could I bring it up at mother and baby group? I certainly wouldn’t be able to talk about it on a date… not that I am thinking about dates, I’ve never ‘dated’ and right now it’s the last thing on my mind… I wouldn’t feel comfortable with bringing a man into Owen’s life quite yet.

So, back to poo/milk topics. I can’t believe, after having sorted all the initial problems getting Owen to latch on, now there is yet another problem to resolve! Apparently this over-production often sorts itself out after the first six weeks or so, and as the baby gets bigger he can deal with fast let-downs better. So all is not doom and despair, but I feel so sorry for my little man, having to deal with yet another barrier to just enjoying a good meal!

The other poo-related worry I have is that Owen tends to strain and cry when he is having a bowel movement. Not when he actually poos - that’s kind of a relief to him I think, particularly the projectile kind. Owen’s projectile poos are quite something to witness. They have a range of between 1 - 1.5 metres and he can aim them very accurately at the household item most difficult to clean yellow poo off. My clothes, usually, or the carpet. I keep finding little spots of yellow on things! But when he is trying to poo, that’s when he seems to have difficulty, my poor little love. I wish I could do something, but I can’t think what - he’s not constipated, he just doesn’t seem to like the feeling of bowel movements. Maybe I should ask the doctor about it. There’s one person at least who I can have a poo-related conversation with!

I am going to go to bed now, as part of my routine is going to bed an hour earlier myself!