Breastfeeding

AW: 1 Year!

We made it! My LO is 1 today and I've met my original long term goal of 1 year of breastfeeding :)

From the moment I found out I was pregnant with this baby, I knew I wanted to breastfeed longer than I breastfed my first. (About 6 weeks). In the hospital, I was able to nurse within 30 minutes of delivery. She latched great right away, and though we had to supplement with a couple of formula bottles due to her low blood sugar and a slight delay of my milk coming in, we went on to have a successful nursing relationship, without supplementation past the first few days.

I made my first goal six weeks, then 12 weeks (my maternity leave), then 6 months and a year. I was fortunate not to have any major breastfeeding difficulties, no thrush, mastitis, etc. I was extremely stubborn about letting nothing get in the way of non-stop on demand breastfeeding those early weeks/months, to establish an adequate supply. We did battle a major supply dip and daycare overfeeding, when I returned to work, and I worked hard for every single bottle of milk I pumped. I fought like crazy to make sure the overfeeding stopped.

Pumping for the past 9 months at work has been probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I've never had a great place to pump and had to deal with the challenge of finding the space and time to pump, this became especially difficult at 8 months when I changed jobs and went from a shared office (which was sometimes mine alone, when my coworkers traveled), to a cubicle at the new job, and a real lack of private space to pump. Throughout the whole duration, I had to pump many times in my car. I've spent many nights power pumping trying to get an extra ounce or two to make the 12 oz I'd need for daycare the next day. I plowed through my 50 oz freezer stash in no time, unfortunately.

This board has been tremendously supportive. I've come to know and respect many of you and appreciate the advice and support and even the "tough love" I needed to continue on bad days where I thought it was over. One of the best pieces of advice I have received and made my mantra is "Never Quit on a Bad Day". There have been so many "down" moments where I thought I just could not go on, and I would remember this wisdom and it would get me through.

I'll need your support more than ever now, as I worked toward a new goal- 2 years. We are working through the early stages of a probable dairy allergy. I've been dairy free for about 2 weeks now and our plan to transition LO to WCM at a year, with occasional nursing as long as we both desired, as been modified. We see the pediatrician this week for the 12 month well baby, and I'll talk about our options then, but it looks like I may not be hanging up (or throwing out the window) that pump as soon as I'd hoped. I'm thankful to be able to provide breastmilk for her still, while we are dealing with this hiccup in our plans.

So, thank you all for letting me share my success today, and thank you all for your wisdom and advice this past year!! For those of you still in the middle of your goal journey, keep up the great work, it is so worth it!
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Re: AW: 1 Year!

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  • Congratulations! I too was disappointed to not be hanging up the pump at 12 mo. I ended up going a few more months, which in the grand scheme of things wasn't too bad. GL!
  • @rocknrollfriend‌, was your extended pumping also due to food allergy?
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  • @casey78‌, we will get through these "extra" challenges together!
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  • Thanks, everyone!
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  • @rocknrollfriend‌, was your extended pumping also due to food allergy?

    Sort of. He hadn't outgrown his MSPI by 12 mo so I wanted to keep sending my milk to DC. He was also still nursing a lot so I probably would have been pretty uncomfortable without pumping during the work day!
  • @rocknrollfriend‌, was your extended pumping also due to food allergy?

    Sort of. He hadn't outgrown his MSPI by 12 mo so I wanted to keep sending my milk to DC. He was also still nursing a lot so I probably would have been pretty uncomfortable without pumping during the work day!
    Good to know! I was originally planning to just bring my pump for a few days and see how it went. I've been down to 2 pumps at work for about a month now and had been gradually pushing them later in the day in prep to drop them. Now, I think I'll have to pump at least once. I'm comfortable sending her with 1 sippy of breastmilk, and 1 of milk alternative. Just hoping that the once daily pump and the morning, evening, bedtime and (unfortunately) overnight nursing will be enough to maintain some supply for her.
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  • RDK24RDK24 member
    Congrats! 
  •   Just hoping that the once daily pump and the morning, evening, bedtime and (unfortunately) overnight nursing will be enough to maintain some supply for her.
    It should be.  Just nursing 2-3x/day total was enough for my supply for DD until after I got pregnant (and she doesn't actually seem to care that there isn't much milk left even now). 

    Congrats on making it to the easy part!
    Thanks @theresat858, I definitely consider you one of the experienced veterans around here and I can't tell you how many times you've encouraged me not to give up, whether it was to me directly or via other posts where people were facing similar issues. I really want to just drop pumping all together. But, I'm terrified my supply will just tank completely and I won't have nursing to fall back on if soy milk/other milks stop working out for any reason.
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  • What an amazing job you did! Congrats!
    TTC since 10/2008  RE consult 6/2010 Dx:Unexplaied IF

    Failed multiple cycles of Clomid+TI and Clomid+IUI

    3/2011 inj+IUI #1 BFP. 4/2011 missed m/c. 

    Fall 2011 inj+IUI #2&3 BFN

    Jan/Feb 2012 IVF#1 BFP 2/23  EDD 10/31/2012 ~~~ Halloween ~~~

    Our IVF miracle, Baby Boy M, arrived on 11/8/2012!
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  •   Just hoping that the once daily pump and the morning, evening, bedtime and (unfortunately) overnight nursing will be enough to maintain some supply for her.
    It should be.  Just nursing 2-3x/day total was enough for my supply for DD until after I got pregnant (and she doesn't actually seem to care that there isn't much milk left even now). 

    Congrats on making it to the easy part!
    Thanks @theresat858, I definitely consider you one of the experienced veterans around here and I can't tell you how many times you've encouraged me not to give up, whether it was to me directly or via other posts where people were facing similar issues. I really want to just drop pumping all together. But, I'm terrified my supply will just tank completely and I won't have nursing to fall back on if soy milk/other milks stop working out for any reason.
    Nursing 3-4 times a day kept my supply up enough for DS once I cut pumping at work. And if he's eating a good variety of solids and drinking water, he should still be getting the nutrition he needs even without your milk or a milk alternative. Nursing overnight will probably do a pretty good job of keeping your supply up too. :)


  • @rocknrollfriend‌







     
    Just hoping that the once daily pump and the morning, evening, bedtime and (unfortunately) overnight nursing will be enough to maintain some supply for her.

    It should be.  Just nursing 2-3x/day total was enough for my supply for DD until after I got pregnant (and she doesn't actually seem to care that there isn't much milk left even now). 

    Congrats on making it to the easy part!

    Thanks @theresat858, I definitely consider you one of the experienced veterans around here and I can't tell you how many times you've encouraged me not to give up, whether it was to me directly or via other posts where people were facing similar issues. I really want to just drop pumping all together. But, I'm terrified my supply will just tank completely and I won't have nursing to fall back on if soy milk/other milks stop working out for any reason.

    Nursing 3-4 times a day kept my supply up enough for DS once I cut pumping at work. And if he's eating a good variety of solids and drinking water, he should still be getting the nutrition he needs even without your milk or a milk alternative. Nursing overnight will probably do a pretty good job of keeping your supply up too. :)


    Thank you! That is good to know! She does eat a good variety of solids, she's not picky at all, thankfully. Having to get a little mire creative with the whole dairy free thing, but so far its going ok!

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