I was bound and determined that I was going to pump enough milk or nurse to feed the boys when I found out that I was pregnant, and my determination only became stronger when they were preemies since I knew that breastmilk was the best thing for them. Well, nursing two fragile babies in separate incubators in the NICU proved to be both challenging and taxing on my body, so I decided to exclusively pump and give the boys only bottles of milk that I pumped. It went great and I was shocked that I was able to produce so much milk for those sweet boys, and I set a goal to give them my milk for at least 3 months. Three months came, and I decided that I could do it for a little bit longer. I had experienced mastitis, lost hours of sleep, missed out on events bc I had to be home every 3 hours, and sacrificed all that I could to make it happen, but I wanted to keep going. In case you haven't caught on...I like a challenge ;o)
The boys are now rolling over back to front and front to back and it is getting pretty funny to watch (especially Carter). It has also made me realize how CRAZY it is going to be once these sweet boys are mobile! So I decided to wean myself and slowly introduce supplementation of formula with the boys and they have done AWESOME! They are still getting a bottle of breastmilk each morning and will continue to get that through milk that I've frozen, but they are almost completely on formula now and are thriving.
I know they say that breastmilk is the best thing a mom can give her baby if she is able, and I can't say how awesome it was to have Jared in my corner on that as I sat behind the pump for 3.5-4 hours a day....yes, 3.5 to 4 hours every day which is over 24 hours a week! That is a lot of time for a Mom of two that doesn't have a lot of time in the first place but it was something that I wanted to do and to sacrifice for the boys. I think it would be completely different if I was able to strictly nurse, but the four hours on top of the time it takes to feed them (45minutes every 3 hours) has put a lot of stress and strain on me and I'm REALLY looking forward to having that extra 4 hours to spend with these sweet babies and interact with them and to be able to help them as they roll around and not be attached to a pump.
Soooo....GOODBYE PUMP and HELLO WORLD!
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4 comments:
"Kara likes this" :)
(and yes, I realize I spend too much time on fb...)
Way to go Janet!! You should be very proud of yourself.
I'm exclusively pumping this time, too (mainly due to the jaundice that is STILL hanging around)....and I can say it is MUCH harder than to nurse because it is like feeding twice everytime you have to feed once (and I only have ONE baby). It never fails...when I sit to pump...Griffin chimes up (even if he was dead asleep when I started).
Glad the formula is working well for the boys!!
Miss you!!
You have given them a fantastic start and should feel really good about that. Kuddos to you for doing such a good job.
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