Lactation Foods Fit For the Whole Family

My very own creation- lactation granola bars. 

Since the twins have had some pretty major latch issues and won't nurse, I have been exclusively pumping to provide their milk. They are currently getting about 70-80% breast milk, but that changes rapidly from day to day. If I had one baby I would have more than enough! So in addition to pumping around the clock, I have been trying to increase my milk supply naturally through food. There are four basic ingredients that I have been using to do this: oatmeal, brewer's yeast, flax seed, and almonds. I have made cookies, granola bars, smoothies, and parfait, and they have all shown some sort of an impact on my milk supply. Crazy, but true! You can find any number of recipes for lactation cookies online but these recipes are the ones I use because they are fast and easy. Who has time to bake 2 dozen cookies?!

Lactation Preacher Cookies (no-bake)

So far I have noticed these giving the biggest and most obvious boost in my supply. A day without these and I only manage 2-4 ounces every time I pump compared to 4-6 ounces. Once I start eating them again it only takes a couple hours to notice a difference. 

1 stick butter

*2 cups sugar 

1/2 cup milk

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups oatmeal 

3 or 4 tbsp brewer's yeast

1/2 cup ground flax seed

1/2 cup sliced almonds, crushed

Melt butter over medium heat then add sugar, milk, and cocoa. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Boil for 1 minute then remove from heat. Add vanilla and peanut butter, stirring until peanut butter is melted. Mix in all other ingredients. Drop in spoonfuls on waxed paper and let sit for a couple hours to harden. 

Enjoy a cookie (or two) every time you sit to feed the baby or pump. 

*You can use less sugar but the cookies will not harden as well on their own. They will need to be kept in the fridge. I used 1.5 cups and they were still good but goopy unless refrigerated. 

These are very popular cookies in my family. This is what I found in the kitchen after a fresh batch had been made recently:

Someone was sneaking some cookies!

Lactation Parfait

No recipe here, but I wanted to tell you about my new favorite breakfast! I use frozen berries- either strawberries, cherries, blueberries, or a mixture. I thaw them a little in the microwave then add old fashioned oats, homemade yogurt (find my recipe here), 2 tbsp ground flax seed, 1 tsp brewer's yeast, and sugar. Usually a couple teaspoons to cover up the horrendously terrible brewer's yeast taste! On days that I don't eat either this or regular oatmeal with flax seed and brewer's yeast, I struggle with my supply in the middle of the day. It's amazing how my supply can be so fickle! 

Lactation Granola Bars

I found a recipe for honey oat bars in a cook book and it inspired me to fit it to my own lactation needs. My family loves these so much that I might need to impose a limit because I will need to make more very soon! 

1 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup honey

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups oats

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup sliced almonds, crushed

1/2 cup crushed peanuts

1/2 cup flax seed

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 tbsp brewer's yeast

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sugar, honey, and cinnamon and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Let boil one minute, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Add all other ingredients and mix well. Push into 9x13 baking dish lined with wax paper. Place in refrigerator for at least an hour. Cut into desired shapes. 

If using chocolate, these would probably be best to stay cold so they don't get so goopy. In the future, I might not use chocolate chips, although they sure do make them GOOD! You really can add anything you want to these. I thought about coconut but I didn't think it would go well with raisins. You can add dried cranberries, dried cherries, other kinds of nuts, the possibilities are endless! For lactation purposes, I would keep the brewer's yeast, flax seed, and almonds, though. I'm sure that no matter what you put in these, they will taste great! 

Note: you can find brewer's yeast with the nutritional supplements, not baking items. I ordered both the brewer's yeast and flax seed from Amazon. 

Now go ahead and enjoy these, whether lactating or not! 

Time and Money Saving Tip: Hamburger

Buy hamburger in bulk (especially if you find it marked down or on clearance) and cook it up all at once when you have a little extra time.

I browned about 4.5 lbs (which we would stretch and use for about 6 or 7 meals) and made the remaining 3 lbs into ready made hamburger patties. 

It only took about 20 minutes to brown, 20 to make 9 patties (2 meals for us), and about 30 minutes to make 2 small enchilada casseroles (which will make about 2 meals for the four eating individuals in our family). 

Divide into individual containers to freeze the remaining ground beef and the next time you want a quick meal (we like spaghetti and tacos for this), just pull one meal's worth out of the freezer! And now we have 9 meals out of 7.5 lbs of marked down ground beef. 

A Day in the Life

I start the day with a middle of the night pumping session. I drink lots of water every time I pump:

Hubby gets the kids up to give them breakfast and the babies and I snooze a little bit until he goes to work:

I pump again and eat a high protein/high fiber breakfast (usually yogurt and oatmeal):

After breakfast I make an assembly line for diaper changes:

I try to find time to do school work with my big 5 year old, who loves it! Sister likes to do some too:

Then I pump again:

And feed the babies again:

My son has become obsessed with the Price is Right so we watch it a few times a week (the TV has taken up a new temporary residence on the radiator or the piano ever since the babies were born- it is going back to our bedroom soon):

I eat a lactation cookie or two every time I pump to help my supply so every few days I have to make more: 

I pump again, and drink water, and wonder what my children have been up to all day because the living room isn't that messy:

I feed the babies again:

Daddy comes home from lunch and feeds the kids and puts the older ones down for their naps. I do dishes, which are about 90% bottles:

During nap time I try to nap while I do a "power pump," 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off for an hour. With my handy dandy hands free pumping bra-type thing I am able to rest! The babies are usually sound asleep during this time, which is a HUGE blessing to me:

After the kids wake up I try to do something fun to distract us all while we anticipate Daddy's homecoming:

Then I start supper and pray that the babies won't wake up. Daddy comes home and he is instantly surrounded with children:

I pump again (this is a picture my son drew of me in my most common state- pumping):

Then I feed the babies. We all eat dinner then clean up the living room and play room because who wants to wake up to this in the morning (minus the kids, they are pretty cute):

My husband puts the kids to bed while I soothe fussy babies. We do one more load of dishes, I pump again, we feed the babies again, and then go to bed. My sweet husband wakes up in the middle of the night to feed the babies (usually just once) and I wake up to pump twice and help feed the babies then the day starts all over! 

It is busy and hectic but I LOVE IT!! 

Encouragement for Moms

As I've had some time to reflect on life with twins and two other children, I have realized some very interesting things about God's undeniable love for me. Of course I am no expert in motherhood, only having been a mom for 5 years, but I would still like to encourage those who are scared, overwhelmed, and having trouble trusting in God's perfect plan for their lives.

When I found out I was expecting twins, I was TERRIFIED! I know myself and know that I get overwhelmed very easily. I really started to question God and why He would choose me to be a mom of twins, especially when I already had two other kids, one who was barely a year old!! I did not know how I would be able to juggle being a good wife and mother, taking care of the house, and maintaining my already fragile emotions well enough to avoid falling into a pit of depression. I remember asking God in tears why he chose me to have this life when I am so weak!! At times I would allow myself to feel God's peace. He would remind me through His words from the Psalms, "Be still and know that I am God," and His words from Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you, plans for a hope and a future. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you." I would read these words and be comforted. But at times I still had a lot of fear of the unknown. I wanted to trust God but really struggled with letting go.

Then our twins were born. I was so happy and yet so scared! But you know what? I made it through the first week. Then I made it through the second week by myself with the twins. Then I made it through my first day with all four children by myself. I asked for God's help and encouragement, and He gave it to me. Now the babies are two months old and we are doing well! I remember thinking that having twins would be good for me because it would force me to get my act together. I can see now how correct I was! But it wasn't me getting my act together. I could not have managed without God's strength (and the help of so many amazing family members and friends). I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "I don't know how you manage!" But I am here to tell you that I don't manage! If I did not ask God daily for His help, I would be sitting in a puddle of tears on the floor, unable to function. God has enabled me to not only survive the day, but to be more organized and keep the household running as well. It is not necessarily clean or tidy, but my children are well cared for, I can get supper on the table, and I can get us in and out of the house in one piece. I have my moments of feeling overwhelmingly ill-equipped to be doing this job and I know that I will have many more. There are days that I am on the verge of tears all day. But with God's help, I am doing it, which is honestly more than I thought I could handle.

God has also blessed me with an amazing army of helpers. He placed people in my life who are kind and willing to take time out of their busy lives to help us out. I have been reminded numerous times that God did not intend for any of us to do this alone. He created families and communities to come along side one another and lift each other up. I am so thankful for these people allowing themselves to be used by God to bless our family.

God has shown me time and time again that He loves me and He has a plan for my life. I have seen His divine intervention in my life many times and I can see it now, in the way that He has provided a way for me to manage my handful of blessings.

So I encourage mothers, no matter how many children you have, to stop thinking in terms of your own strength, or what YOU can handle. Because I guarantee you, if you try to do it on your own, it will be much more difficult. Let God be your strength, for when we are weak, He is strong. Let yourself be overwhelmed with His love, not your circumstances.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

She Chose JOY

It is difficult to express the emotions that I feel about the passing of one of my dearest friends. But I can say that she has left behind a beautiful legacy. Countless people have been touched by her story of pain, healing, and great joy in her Father in Heaven. This excerpt from her last blog entry (almost a year ago) pretty much sums it up:

One of my greatest heroes, someone whose wisdom I respect and glean all I can from, has taught me this very important clarification to the well-known verse 1 Thessalonians 5:18. It's great advice for life, these three instructions in verses 16 through 18: Rejoice always. Pray continually. And here's the kicker a lot of us don't like: Give thanks in all circumstances. The important clarficiation is, he doesn't write, "Give thanks FOR all circumstances." He writes, "Give thanks IN all circumstances." 

One of the simplest ways I remember this is from a story I saw once about a forest fire. The forest was just decimated. The wildfire had burnt everything green and beautiful away. The wildlife was gone. It was a beautiful sanctuary turned ugly. And then the focus turned to a little green bud, shooting up out of the ground. New life after a tragedy. Fresh, hope-filled spring coming up through the ashes of heaviness. No one would stand there and say, "God, thanks for the wildfire that ruined this landscape and killed the life that was here." That would be crazy! But obedience to 1 Thessalonians 5:18, and learning to live in that flow of noticing the praise-worthy things, and expressing gratitude for them -- that person would stand up and say, "God, this forest fire made my heart sink. But I see this flower springing up from a silent, lifeless forest floor. And it lifts my spirits, and makes my heart leap. Thank You, God, for this beauty in spite of the ashes."

We all face seasons and experiences in life that are so hard, so sad, so gut-socking and painful. But, our greatest power is our power to choose. Whether your life up to this point has been a nice coast, or it's been a tooth and nail gritty fight to survive, I challenge you to choose gratitude. "Give thanks IN all circumstances." 

I thank God for bringing this beautiful lady into my life and for using her to teach me to choose joy. Please pray for her husband and young daughter as they navigate this time of mourning.

I also encourage you to check out this awesome song, Joy, by Rend Collective and praise God IN all circumstances. Our joy comes from Him!