Check my post history for all I’ve done up to this point. In quick summation I am mid thirties, never pregnant and did the no BC but used dom. Overall it took me 3 months of inducing to produce milk. I am now 3 months into actually making milk. Total time in so far: about 6 months. I am averaging 11oz per day and climbing (slowly). Here’s what I learned. This isn’t intended as advice, more as my personal experience:

• in the induction stage, there were days I could only pump 3 times. I didn’t pump at all at time until I actually started making milk. I chose to prioritize my sleep. Even still, my nipples were sore as fuck. Partly because I thought more suction meant better results which brings me to my next point:

• more suction does not equal better results. It just means sore nipples. I’m making more than I ever have before at a lower suction level and all the soreness is gone. Wish I knew this earlier… would have spared me a lot of pain.

• stimulation BEFORE dom: I spent 3 months only stimulating with a pump and tens, no dom. So when I actually started taking dom, milk came in within a few days. Dom alone won’t induce lactation… it’s the stimulation that does the trick.

• supplements: I don’t know if they are working or not. I make more than I ever have and I’m not taking any currently. It became too much to maintain, buy and keep track of. I only take sunflower lecithin (only essential when you have milk) and shatavari sometimes. In the next few months, I plan on experimenting with supplements one at a time to see what’s working or not.

• hot take: I don’t think killing myself pumping all day every day would yield better results. I pump on average 5-7 times a day and my supply is still slowly increasing.

• I power pump pretty much every time lol. So I may not be able to sustain 8-12 sessions a day BUT every time I do pump… it’s a power pump. Aka… I do 20-30 min on the pump, 10min off, 10 on, 10 off, 10 on. This is to ensure I have completely and thoroughly emptied my breasts. It’s also cuz I noticed my letdown doesn’t fully stop till like minute 30 sometimes. If I stopped at minute 20, I’d be missing out on a lot.

• suckling: I have an incredible partner with whom this has been so fun! BUT for the longest time the latch was so painful after only a few minutes. It’s like his teeth and tongue were like sandpaper. It made me sad that we couldn’t go for long session. Finally, not long ago he realized that the motion of his tongue was off… it should come from the back of it and not the tip. EUREKA! It feels so good now. Hang in there folks and make adjustments. It’s sad when people post about their partners not taking feedback or getting defensive about latching. It takes trial and error!

-weening on and off dom: I started taking dom at a small dose of 30mg a day. Over time I increased it to 90. However, because of shipping delays, I have to ween back down to 30 now and have been doing so over the course of the past 3 or so weeks. I’m weening very slowly. So far so good. Just more intense mood swings perhaps but it’s hatd to tell. I am not experiencing a drop in production even though I am taking less than half of what I did on my peak. In fact, my output is slowly growing.

-my period cycle started to really suck ever since I started. I’m typically very regular. But since I started in month one I started spotting. Then came late periods and more spotting. It kept escalating every month and this past month I was spotting pretty much every day and had one of the most painful periods I’ve ever had. I was expecting to lose my period but the exact opposite is happening so I told my doctor we’re doing bloodwork to see what’s going on.