Gametes In Love

There was a period of time when I believed that I wouldn’t be consuming any alcohol until Griffin was weaned. But as it turns out my consumption of beer is almost “prescribed”.

I, sadly, am not one of the lucky moms who produce a great deal of milk. G gets what he needs for his weight group and nothing more. I’ve tried Fenugreek supplements, the teas, the oatmeal, the extra pumping, but I gotta tell you out of all of the above what’s worked (surprisingly so) has been beer. Yeah, no joke. Beer!

Beer is supposed to help with breast milk production.  More specifically, if you want to get nerdy, the polysaccharides in barley stimulate prolactin.

Yet I don’t like beer. Tequila, wine, cocktails… yummy… but beer? No thanx! It has a bitter taste, that I just don’t enjoy.

Still, I was out with some colleagues for lunch yesterday and everyone ordered a beer, so I figured… “Sure, why not? I’ll give the “old-wives tale” a shot!” I drank half of my “lunch beer” (yes, that’s how it was ordered) and at my next pump — immediate response. Nothing miraculous, mind you, but enough for me to be able to tell. I repeated the experiment at dinner with another half a glass, and again I had some good results.

I’m surprised! I never thought I’d be finding myself consuming alcohol in the name of my child, yet here I am.

I’m not getting drunk here, to be clear, but it looks like I’ll be integrating half a pint of beer to my diet once in awhile.

Now the trick is finding out what beer I tolerate. I feel so immature really because I don’t know what to order. I just don’t really know what’s out there. Tonight at dinner, due to the lack of “menu” of beers, I ordered one based on the highlighed sign at the window of the restaurant. I got lucky, it was fine (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale if you’re curious), but I gotta study up on my beers. So, if there’s anything a beer-novice should try, give me your recommendations.