Stress and your milk supply the never ending battle...

SO many times I have walked into a NICU room to talk to a mom about her LOW milk supply. I look behind her to see a small fragile baby fighting for their life. I look at the mother who is calm and concerned but does not put the two together. Sick baby= low milk supply. Why is this? Stress of course. Cortisol levels raising and constricting the milk from flowing well. I will go through the past few weeks with her: How often do you pump? What type of pump? When did you see you supply drop? Usually the answers are every 3-4hrs, during the day only...Double electric hospital grade..it just seemed to keep going down and down. I then start to talk to her about how to relax and how to bring the milk supply up. I then look her in the eye and say " this is hard, having a baby in the NICU, away from you." This is usually when the real emotions that are keeping her milk supply at bay show up. She may become teary eyed or just cry all together. Either way I think it helps to release those emotions. IF they work on their pumping and relaxation they can bring it back up.
 So how do I counteract my stress? HMMMM... do I follow what I say? Do I release my emotions? go for a run? watch a funny movie? eat comfort foods? get a massage? Of course not. Where is my Lactation Consultant that is going to help me get through a rough patch. This is very odd thing for me. I am the one who has all the answers to these questions and yet here I sit very stressed out, knowing that it is effecting my milk supply and I do nothing.
I can only say that I do have peace of mind that I know how to bring up my milk supply if it does fall too drastically, so I guess I am just waiting for it too happen. I SHOULD do extra pumping after feeds and make sure I am hydrated. SHOULD being the most important word in that sentence.
So I WILL do a few extra pumps a day and take walk and relax. After all I am only 3.5 months into a 2 year breastfeeding journey. My daughter WILL exclusively breastfeed, so I have no other options. SO I better stop typing and get pumping!!!

As the saying goes.. Don't cry over spilled milk

 So the battle between me and my pump has begun. I have now been pumping for a month at work and I went from 26 oz a day to 18 oz. does she need 26 oz a day? No... Her mama does. For my peace of mind I would like to pump as much a possible, but I can't. This is something that I have to let go of. I need to be able to be happy with what I am getting, because she doesn't need more than that. I need to not be upset when I come home to bottles with 1 or 2 oz left in them. She is a healthy growing girl and  on my days off she breast feeds perfectly.  We have had lots of fun with our two kids out and about. Going out

 is a breeze with my breast and a sling. She is happy to feed anywhere and seems to nap better on dads flat chest than my .. Well unflat chest. We r in the midst of moving and a month from today we will be somewhere else. A move is always a stressful time, I try not to let it get to me, for the sake of my milk supply.