Help?

Aiden

My son will be 4m tomorrow (2/19) and is currently exclusively formula fed.

He came 5 weeks early in an emergency c-section and after delivery, I had life threatening complications. I was transferred to a hospital 45 minutes away from the hospital my son was still at. I went through kidney and liver failure and though I was “awake,” the doctors said I was technically in a coma because I wasn’t lucid. (I don’t remember much of the first 2 weeks of my son’s life.) I was diagnosed with Acute Fatty Liver of Pregnancy (AFLP) which is a rare and serious liver disorder.

The first 2 days after my son was born, we tried pumping so my parents or husband could bring the breast milk to my son (I say we, but it really was the nurses doing it all for me because, ya know, comatose 🤷🏼‍♀️). My husband knew that I wanted to breastfeed so him and my mom helped the nurses as much as they could. But I didn’t really produced anything, so they made the decision to stop pumping and let my body focus on healing itself.

Now, 4 months later, my liver numbers are all back to normal (PTL 🙌🏻) and I feel healthy enough that I’d like to start the process of relactating by pumping.

My goal right now isn’t necessarily exclusively pumping - my son has 5 bottles per day and I’d be okay with swapping 2 or 3 of those with breast milk. And who knows, maybe over time we can get to exclusively pumping? I’m just trying not to get my hopes up too high because I know this is will be a difficult journey. I’m most worried about having to adjust my diet for my baby.

I’ve looked into it and I have an appt scheduled with a lactation consultant, but I come to you ladies looking for support and advice. So... what words of wisdom can you offer me? In regards to diet changes? Pumping schedules? Increasing (bringing back) supply? Anything would help really!

Thank you so much in advance!