Milkin It

Last week I took an inventory of my breast milk. Wait, let's back up to why I did that.

Last week I had a consultation for LASIK. I've had glasses/contacts since I was in 3rd grade and I have 20/400 vision. That means what I see at 20 feet from an object someone with 20/20 vision would see the same quality 4 football fields (400') behind me. Both of my parents had it done a few years ago and they said it was life changing. I finally made the decision to do it and got all the way through the appointment and ready to schedule surgery when they asked me if I happened to be pregnant or breast feeding. I was struck down, I had no idea how your hormones could mess with your eyesight. So now I will have to wait until I've been done nursing for 6 weeks.

 

So that, coupled with my recurring mastitis made me think about when I planned on being done breastfeeding.  I decided to sort and take inventory of my frozen milk to see how long it would last.

Sadly, this 1,059 ounces would only last Adler about 5 weeks.  So I made the decision to keep going until he was as close to a year old as possible.  Dr Austman told me that she was very happy I had made it this long and if I really felt the need due to the mastitis that it was OK.  I'm glad I have a Dr that totally understands the emotional side of breastfeeding!  Well the very next day I was hit with I believe my 11th round of mastitis.  If you've ever had it you are cringing right now.  I've you've never had it I'll just tell you I'd rather recover from a c-section again.

 

I'm getting off topic!  OK so some people on Facebook asked how I got to have such a big stash.  With Asher I was seriously lucky to have 6 ounces frozen at one time.  With Adler the SMARTEST thing I did is when he started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks I set my alarm and got up at 2 AM every single night and pumped.  This all came from my middle of the night pumpings - about 3 months worth.  It solved a couple of problems.  I was waking up in the morning terribly engorged so it relieved that and also gave me milk that he didn't need to stockpile.  I totally recommend everyone do this.  When you're used to getting up in the middle of the night anyway it really isn't that big of a deal.  I would get up and either read or check Facebook while I pumped and got anywhere between 8-16 ounces a day.

 

I can't tell you how proud I am of my milk.  Sometimes I have to go open up the deep freeze and just look at it.  :)