I’ve never made an update post, but today I’d like to share what has been a mixed journey for me.

I have never been pregnant or lactated before. I started inducing in January this year.

In January I pumped 6-10 times per day. No domperidone or supplements. I was on progesterone for something else and I think this helped. I saw a lot of breast growth in January and had a few milky drops from one side by the end of the month.

In February I pumped 6-10 times per day and started on goats rue and shatavari. I no longer needed the progesterone. I didn’t see much progress in February - a couple more occasions of milky drops and my breasts started feeling different, more dense.

In March I started the Newman Goldfarb protocol. I took one tablet of Yaz per day. The first week I took 10mg domperidone, three times a day. In the second week I increased to 20mg, three times per day. I did occasional pumping only. I saw a lot of breast growth over this period.

After 10 weeks on the protocol, in the first week May, I stopped the Yaz and increased my domperidone to 20mg, four times per day. I started a combination of pumping and hand expressing.

In the first week, I expressed a total of 1ml.

By day 9, this increased to 1ml per day.

In the first week of June, on day 24, I had my first spray from one side. This was a very exciting day!

A few days later, on day 27, I increased my dom from 80mg per day to 90mg per day. On the same day I expressed a total of 2mls.

The next day, day 28, I had six milk sprays in a row!

By the middle of June, day 34 of expressing, I was producing a total of 2.5mls per day and getting pretty tired of very little progress. I was also getting tired of taking domperidone and the frequent script refills.

During this entire period I was also looking for an ABF partner and just had no luck. So this was getting really hard too.

On 19th June, 5.5 months into my inducing journey, I decided to stop. I stopped taking domperidone and stopping pumping.

It took two more weeks for my milk to dry up down to 1-2 drops only. My breasts deflated a bit, leaving them soft and much less plump than before.

Given the emotional and practical challenges I faced during my journey, I was very surprised to find how much I missed inducing. I missed the feeling of pumping. I missed having full, plump breasts. I missed the nurturing aspect and I really missed having milk.

So, 5 weeks after stopping, I started again.

This time around I am not using any medication or supplements. Just pumping as much as I can during the day, depending on my schedule and workload. I don’t wake up to pump overnight, sleep is very important for me.

So, it has been 3 weeks of round two so far. Just this weekend I changed my pump flanges from a regular 16mm spectra flange to a 17mm silicone insert in a 24mm flange. I was finding my nipples were being pulled over halfway into the 16mm flange and often just getting stuck and not moving much after 15-20mins of pumping. I used to feel nothing in my nipples during pumping, only a tingling, vibrating feeling around the base of my nipples and into my areola.

I’ve been trying to be diligent about pumping but it still didn’t feel as if my breasts were being ‘emptied’. The insert feels way different and actually really really good. I’m currently tossing up between wearable cups for my spectra or Lactek baby motion flanges. I also use the Night Owl V2 wearable out and about, this was actually what prompted me to look at different options for my spectra because I felt the wearable was doing a better job.

So now I’m 3 weeks in and determined to keep going. I really want full, milky boobs. I am trying to just take each day as it comes, do my best with pumping and reminding myself it could take months before I see any real supply happening. I haven’t seen any milky drops in a few days now, only a teeny tiny amount of duct fluid from both sides.

This time I have decided not to start domperidone again. I will consider supplements in the future. And currently looking for a nursing partner again too.

So that’s my story. I’m hoping sharing my experience could help someone else with their inducing journey. If you got this far, thanks for reading!