If you read my blog regularly you'll know about my ups & downs (well mostly downs) with Sofie and how I am constantly asking questions & looking for answers about why she cries every day, all day. So... my latest theory is that I have a foremilk/hind milk imbalance... which is what I always though my problem was with Sam & Juliet, but never knew what to call it. Foremilk quenches thirst, is low in fat & high in lactose & carbs. Hind milk is high in fat and is what makes them feel full. Too much foremilk causes gassines, fussiness, explosive poo, irregular sleeping patterns.... basically everything Sofie does. Both Sam & Juliet drank formula in addition to breastfeeding so my low fat milk wasn't an issue. Sofie often refuses to drink a bottle... so she is getting far less formula. Basically nothing. Soooooooo.... for the past few days I've been treating myself for this imbalance by block feeding. What is block feeding you ask? I feed Sofie from one boob for 6-12 hours and then switch. This way, the boob I'm not feeding from gets engorged and stops producing milk. Eventually the idea is that my boobs will get the message to not produce so much milk, and the less milk in your boobs the higher the fat content. To deal with the engorgement I pump just a little bit so that I am comfortable, which is not enough to signal my boob to produce more milk. So 2 things.... Today was Sofie's BEST day ever, so it just may be working... AND... from the pumping it's obvious that my milk is like water!!! I showed it to my girlfriend today and she was like whoa... your milk is watery dude. Her's doesn't look like that at all she said... her's looks like whole milk. Here's a pic of my skim....

This is just under 4oz. If you look closely you can see that at the very top there is a thin layer, which took hours to separate, that looks like whole milk. So there is VERY little fat... which is what Sofie needs to feel full.  LET'S HOPE THIS BLOCK FEEDING WORKS!!!! Today was great. Papa went golfing & Sofie & I were home alone. I was scared, I admit. I have a hard time dealing with Sofie's fussing all alone. It's something you REALLY need a break from after a while. So I thought it would be a great day for my girlfriend to come over with her kiddies to help keep us distracted. SUCCESS!  Sofie barely cried all day!! We went to the mall & hung out! It was so..... NORMAL!! We had a great day!!!

Later on, we even went to the park & climbed trees!

And did some sliding..

And some swinging!!

It was nice to feel a bit normal. I hope it lasts.

AND.... if you look REALLY closely at that last picture, you can see what else we did today!!! Yay us!!