Breastfeeding Redux

[Guest guest]

My precious little one is a month old and I've been able to successfully breast

feed. However, it seems as if my milk supply is less in the morning than it is

in the evening. He's basically eating every three hours. I'm pumping for two

feedings during the night 3ish and 6ish because I have a night nurse giving him

a bottle at those times. It seems to me that at 6 a.m. I get less milk which

is very unusual because the mornings are when most women have the most milk. The

9 a.m. .feeding also it seems as if the baby is not getting enough to eat as

he's sometimes hungry again very soon.

The lactation consultant was wondering if it was because of my thyroid issues.

She thought maybe since I take my replacement dose (T4 levoxyl 125 and small

dose of T3 cytomel .5) first thing in the morning, usually right before I start

pumping around 6 that my body has depleted its thyroid supplies from the day

before. I have lots of milk for the 6 pm and 9 pm feeding. I also take a second

dose of T3 around 2:45 pm. every day.

I go back to see my ob next week, and will have labs drawn first thing in the

morning before taking my medicine after I see her, but I want to be able to

discuss my milk supply concerns with her and being related to my thyroid dosage.

I know that T4 is has a long half life in the body, and it takes weeks to see an

adjustment in the numbers, but I've been back on my original stable dosage since

the baby was born so that's definitely long enough to tell the difference, or at

least long enough for my body to start adjusting. I wonder if I should ask her

to bump the t4 up to the next higher dosage, or if I should consider taking

another supplement of T3 in the evening or even sometime in the middle of the

night. While my ob is pretty good with thyroid issues, I'm not sure how good she

is with calibrating dosing with T3. She's pretty content with me on it but

basically because I've told her I'm never going off of it and it does me no

harm, but she is not a slave to a T4 only protocol which is good.

I know you can't offer medical advice, but most of you are much smarter than me

when it comes to dosage and other affairs that I was hoping someone might have

some thoughts as to issues I should discuss with my dr. or what I should look

for in my labs.

Thanks.