My Jouney to Becoming a Milk Donor - Part III

Please read Part I and Part II of this three part series first!



Once I came to the realization that Caleb would not be drinking my milk, I had to make a decision. What do I do with all of this milk? I couldn't throw it away. I just couldn't. The thought of throwing it away made me want to vomit. So what else could I do? I tried mixing it with formula trying to cover up the bad taste, but even with just an ounce of formula in a five ounce bottle, Caleb refused to drink it. That idea wouldn't work either it seemed. After reading Rebekah's post on becoming a milk donor, I realized this might be the best option.

I started researching how to donate. I called the pediatricians office, the hospital, and researched online. I found out that there wasn't anywhere in the state of Tennessee that would take my milk. The closest milk donation facility was in North Carolina. My heart sank yet again because I could only imagine how much money it would cost to pack up and ship almost 1600 ounces of milk overnight to North Carolina. I called the milk bank that week and started speaking with the caring staff member on the other end of the line. My heart was put at ease immediately.

I learned that shipping would be no cost to me, but more than that, I was at ease knowing what my milk would go toward. The employee of WakeMed Mother's Milk Bank explained to me that babies that were premature and/or sick would be getting my milk to try and improve their conditions. There are nutrients in breast milk that in spite of how hard companies try, can not be re-produced into formula. Because of this, it's in high demand by such babies. My heart melted knowing that my milk might be a part of saving a life.

I looked over at my healthy and happy six month old son and thought how selfish of me to want to keep all of this milk for him when another baby out there needed it more. I was finally at ease and the process started. While I was on the phone with WakeMed, the lady explained to me that a medical packet of information would be sent to me to fill out and that once they got that information, they would start the process of getting my milk. The lady asked how much milk I had to donate and I told her around 1600 ounces. She asked me to repeat myself! I did. She was blown away. She decided to go ahead and process some of my information over the phone instead of waiting. I guess they didn't want any chance of losing me or my milk! I answered a few questions and then a few days later I got my medical packet.



Let's just say a few trees had to die in order to send me this medical packet. It was a pretty thick packet. I got asked some of the most random questions, but I guess they all serve a purpose somewhere. No, I did not have sexual relations with anyone that lived in an African country during the years of 1978 and 1986. I'm just making this question up, but trust me that some of them were this silly.



To complete the medical packet, I had to have my blood drawn. I used to be afraid of needles, and they're still not my favorite thing, but after having a kid you sort of get over people sticking you. I mean, I had a needle the size of a drinking straw stuck in my back for my epidural, so I guess this teeny tiny one was no biggie. I guess everything came back great because I got to start the next phase! Actually shipping the milk!

I ended up having so much milk that I had three different shipments!

Shipment #1



Shipment #2







Shipment #3



A few weeks after I completed my shipments I got this nice certificate of appreciation that stated I donated 1604 ounces (even though I know it was less than that. The lady told me I donated 1555 ounces when I called after my last shipment).


So, I went from two deep freezers full of breast milk to Similac and baby food.



All in all, it was a hard thing to do. However, I know that some little baby somewhere benefited from my hard work, even if it wasn't my little baby. I'm perfectly ok with this. I encourage women everywhere to consider donating breast milk if they have the ability. It could make the difference between life and death for a very small miracle. It's sort of a funny thing. I only bought formula for about a month after Caleb made the switch. Similac had a recall of their powder formula and because of this they sent out coupons for $5.00 off any Similac formula. Let's just say I had enough of these coupons through friends and family giving them to me that I haven't paid for formula ever since. Now that Caleb is one year old, I can make the switch to whole cow's milk. Let's just say, I saved a lot of money with those coupons.....

I know God had a plan all along. His plan was so much better than mine.



"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11

R

11 Months

I have to post this before my little boy turns 1 tomorrow! I can't believe he's turning one....at all. Time has gone by sooooo fast! I'm so sorry it's taken me a month to get these few pictures posted, but better late than never! Stay tuned for pictures from Caleb's one year session with Sarah McAffry and photos from his birthday party we're having tomorrow!



R

My Jouney to Becoming a Milk Donor - Part II

Please read Part I of this series of posts before reading this one!



It was just me and my sweet boy that day at home. I had sat a days supply of breast milk out from the deep freezer so that it could defrost overnight, as instructed from my breastfeeding class. I warmed the milk before Caleb's first bottle and settled in for the first meal where my "girls" were free! The excitement I felt at this very moment was indescribable! Now I could just pack a diaper bag with as many packages of my milk as Caleb needed and head out into the world and become a part of society once again! Traveling to see family would now become so much easier because I didn't have to stop along the way to pump, no more sterilizing the (what seemed like thousands) breast pump equipment, no more packing the breast pump on our trips, no more crying baby while I pumped. Today was the day!



As I turned the bottle up for my little darling to drink, I realized all of my hard work had finally paid off. Until he refused to drink it. "Huh," I thought. "Maybe he's just not hungry right now." I dump the bottle and try to comfort my crying child. I don't know why he's upset! He has a clean diaper, he's had a nap, he doesn't seem to be hungry. I guess he's teething. I don't know.



Feeding hour comes around again and I get the second pouch of breast milk out and ready for Caleb. He acts like he's starving! He grabs the bottle, yanks it to his mouth and as soon as the milk hits his tongue he screams bloody murder and won't have anything to do with it! Now, I know it's not the bottle. Caleb had been getting my breast milk through bottle feeding for quite some time now. So what was it? The nipple wasn't clogged, the milk was warm, he was hungry....what was going on? I decided to make sure the milk wasn't ruined. It shouldn't be though. I followed all of the milk pumping and storage guidelines down to a T. I unscrewed the nipple from the bottle and took a big sniff. Oh my goodness. It smelt rancid! What was wrong with my milk?!? As any great and wonderful mom would do.......I tasted it. Yes, I tasted it. Don't judge me. It tasted like soapy, metallic-like, and just pure disgusting. No wonder Caleb didn't want it! Oh well, I must have just messed up that package of milk somehow.....right?



I go and get another bag. Open it, smell it......same thing. I do this again and again. All of the milk smells ruined. I panic. What now? What's going on? Why is this happening? What did I do wrong? I can't tell you how many questions I had popping into my head at that moment. I did have formula at the house because Caleb drank one bottle of formula at night to help his hunger during the night, so I just fixed a bottle of formula and Caleb drank it like he was starving to death! I called Jason. I told him something was wrong with my milk and I didn't know what. That night we did some research and this is what we found out.



I have what's called, Excess Lipase. After getting home, Jason got on the computer (and if any of you know Jason, he can find ANYTHING on the Internet!) and did some research. He found several things, but this blog called Simply Rebekah was the most helpful. Rebekah had the same issue as me! After reading several of her posts, I had a better understanding of exactly what was going on. Basically, I produced too much Lipase causing my milk to smell soured after 24 hours (even if it's frozen), even though it's still nutritionally acceptable.

Read more about her explanation of Lipase HERE.



On this mom's blog, she had several posts about her milk and how she ended up donating it to a milk bank because her daughter wouldn't drink it. While I was reading these posts by Rebekah, my heart sank. It hit me in those moments, that Caleb wouldn't be receiving the benefit of all of my hard work. I know that sentence is short, but the impact it had on me was tremendous. You can't understand until you've gone through it, but let me try and help you out. My heart was ripped out of my chest. Tears welled up in my eyes and once I started I couldn't stop. MONTHS OF HARD WORK! Months of listening to my newborn cry for his mommy but she was pumping because she loved him. I told him this over and over while I was pumping, both for his benefit to hearing my voice, but also for my benefit of reassuring myself I was doing the right thing. It felt like a death in the family. I had spent God knows how much money on pumping supplies, a deep freezer, and not to mention time spent away from society and my family! I had given up everything to provide for my son and it was taken away from me in one single blow. All the benefits I had learned about a baby receiving breast milk for the first year were running through my mind. Now he wasn't going to have those benefits. What the heck was I supposed to do now? All I could do was cry. And cry I did. A lot.

Please read about Rebekah's experience HERE. She explains it really well also.



After reading Rebekah's post (above), it got implanted in my brain about becoming a milk donor. But how does one start this process? I have so much milk! I told Jason that I would never throw all of that milk away. If it came down to it, he would have to because the thought of just throwing it away made me want to throw up. I'm not kidding. So, I started doing some research the next day. My heart was broken.



To be continued...

R

My Jouney to Becoming a Milk Donor - Part I

Disclosure: In this post, I will be discussing breast milk. Yes, I just said "breast." For those of you that are already squirming in your seats, grow up. Breast milk is a part of how God made a woman and it's perfectly natural. This post is important to all the new moms or expectant moms out there. You're welcome to not read this post if it freaks you out, or you can choose to become a mature adult. It's your choice.



Somewhere in mid-September 2010, I had succeeded in delivering my letter of resignation as a part-time employee of a Medela breast pump. I had pumped enough breast milk for my little darling to have nothing but until he was a year old. This equaled out to be about 20 hours of pumping a week. I know some of you need to pick your chins up from the floor after that bit of information, but it's true. I pumped and I pumped and I pumped. Why? Because I love my son. I knew that breast milk was the best source of nutrition for him and I was able to provide it. I'm not against people that choose formula over breast. Everyone has their reasons, but I didn't have a reason not to choose breast milk for my baby. I'm blessed to be able to be a stay-at-home mom and so I had the privacy of my home and the constant connection with my child in order to provide.



I'll be honest with you though. Pumping that much was tough. There were many days I cried,... a lot. You see, my dear Caleb has reflux. He's had it since he was a few weeks old and so after he eats, he has to be held up for at least 30-45 minutes. He was eating, for a while, every two hours since he wasn't gaining enough weight in the beginning. But even after that, he was eating every three hours, so not a big change. So, here's the rundown.....I would feed Caleb and this would last about 15 minutes. Then, I would hold him up for about 45 minutes. Then, I would get all of the pumping gear out and ready and pump for about 20 to 30 minutes (all the while, usually listening to Caleb cry because he wanted me to hold him). For those of you that are great at math, you'll notice that this leaves me with about 30 minutes before Caleb was due to eat again. In that 30 minutes, I was lucky if I got to eat anything myself because I still had to clean and disinfect the pumping equipment. I would usually just try to eat while I pumped and listened to a screaming kid. Relaxing, right? You know how they tell new moms, "sleep when they sleep?" Those people were never in my home. Sleep? Who has time for that?



This process continued for about 5 1/2 months. I was sleep deprived, exhausted, trying to adjust to being a mom, and forget about cooking, cleaning, or time for my husband or family. I got to the point where all that my prayers consisted of was asking for strength and patience. At one point, Jason and I took Caleb to one of his doctor appointments and the pediatrician told ME that I looked pale. She told me I probably needed more iron in my diet and said to go eat a big cheeseburger or any red meat that suited me. I was thinking, sleep would help, but I digress.



By God's grace, I got through it and finally met my goal of having enough milk for Caleb (about 1600 oz) saved up in our deep freezers (yes, we have two. We had to buy a second one when we ran out of room in the first one....). Medela ended up having to send me a new pump because I wore the first one out in just a matter of a few months! It was still under warranty, so I got a new one. So, a new pump and new deep freezer later, I finally achieved the goal. I wanted to do this because, again, I love my son, but also I wanted to have freedom to go out and do whatever it is people do before they have kids. I didn't want to worry about Caleb needing me for food, but I also wanted his food to be breast milk. I didn't have a choice but to pump like crazy. The sooner I reached my goal, the sooner I could go out and see the light of day.



That day in September, I put the pump away and got out the first bag of frozen milk for my little man.

To be continued...

R

Why Windex is Profitable

R