our freezer is full!

Our freezer is officially full of breast milk (>600 ounces already). For those of you who love math, that is over 5 gallons of frozen breast milk! We have such an overabundance of breast milk that we are trying to decrease Larissa's supply. This is harder to accomplish than you'd think. Larissa has been trying to wean the supply by pumping less (less volume pumped, fewer minutes spent pumping, less power on the pump, spacing pumps further apart) but it hasn't been working. That has only led to constant engorgement, which is painful and scary (having lumps makes her feel even more out of control of her body). Even the "lactation consultant" nurse at the hospital seemed surprised by how much milk Larissa is pumping. We have been researching methods of reducing her supply. Some websites suggest drinking sage tea. The lactation consultant suggested taking sudafed every other day. Anyone have any suggestions for what does / doesn't work? Almost everything we read is about how to increase milk supply, which is definitely not our problem.

Dane has been doing well. His feedings have been at 45cc every 3 hours. Today the doctors switched him to either 45cc / 3 hours OR 60cc /4 hours based on any cues he gives about how hungry he is. Today he tolerated the 4 hour feedings all day, which is great. (We would definitely prefer for him to only wake us up every 4 hours all night instead of every 3 hours... every little bit helps!) Because of his acid reflux, we are trying to hold Dane upright for at least 20 minutes after each feeding. One of the recommended techniques is to put him on my leg with his head on my knee. This way, his head is above his stomach and there is some pressure on his stomach to help get any air out and reduce his reflux. As you can see from the photo, he really likes it. :)

Lastly, Dane is getting close to coming home! Today we were told to bring in our car seat tomorrow. They strap him in for at least an hour (preferably two hours) to make sure he doesn't lose good oxygenation while strapped in. This happens when babies slouch in the car seat, either because they are too small or it isn't fit correctly for him. So, even though we aren't planning on any long car trips for a while (our apartment is only ~5 minutes from the hospital), we can't take him home until he passes the car seat test. Hopefully he'll be break the 5-pound mark tomorrow and as he gets bigger, his chances of passing the car seat test increase. We're hoping he passes on the first try, tomorrow, so that he can come home once they say he's ready. :) If you look at the picture of Dane enjoying his bottle, you can really see how much better (and fatter - he definitely has a double chin now) he looks than the similar photo from a couple weeks ago. And look how happy he looks after eating...