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