800 oz of Milk On The Truck

When Little Man was diagnosed with food allergies, my first reaction was to be happy that we knew what was causing his problems and could easily fix them. My second was what the heck am I going to do with all the milk in my freezer that he can't have. Well, it took me about two months to find somewhere to donate it, get the blood test, and get all the other approvals like doctor's signatures, phone interviews, and more but I finally shipped all the milk down to the Mother's Milk Bank in Austin, TX. They were fabulous to deal with and it's a good feeling knowing that all that milk will go to help premature and/or sick babies. Milk donation is really something that should get more attention. I couldn't help but post a picture of all that milk on it's way out the door. With the dry ice, it was a total of about 70 pounds! And there's another 250 ounces in the freezer already that are safe for Little Man. I may find myself donating even more...

Sick Little Man = Extra Milk (Weekly Tally)

I haven't posted in a few days because my Little Man was really sick. He had a fever and threw up all over his dad. It was lovely. We also kept him home from daycare for a few days. It's the first time he's really been sick. Fortunately, he perked back up yesterday afternoon and we expect him to be fine this morning. While he was sick though, he was drinking about 5 ounces less milk each day so we have an abundant surplus this week. My average per day also went up for the first time in about a month. Not by much, but I'll take. And, I finally got approved to donate all the milk that Little Man can't have because of his allergies so I'm excited about that. I'll post more once I pack it all up to ship.

7/26/09-8/1/09
Total Pumped: 238.5
Total Used: 273.5
Surplus: 35
Average Per Day: 39.07

Where is it going?! (Weekly Tally)

My milk supply has been decreasing for the past few weeks and I have no idea why. I'm drinking enough, eating extra, and getting enough sleep and nothing seems to help. I've gone from 43 ounces a day to about 38. I'm still outpacing Little Man by a few ounces but it's frustrating. Fortunately, he's now eating some solid food although a few ounces of rice cereal or a veggie doesn't really have many calories anyway. But, at least we're on our way to me not being his only food source. He's doing very well so far with the food. We've tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and carrots and he sits nicely and eats very well. I've been making my own baby food which is surprisingly easy. We put a Cuisinart hand blender and I highly recommend it. Yesterday I made peas for him. I put the frozen peas in the container that comes with the blender, added some water, microwaved them, drained them a little, and then blended them. Aside from the time in the microwave, it took less than 5 minutes and made about 6 meals for him. Very easy and much cheaper than buying the little jars.

7/19/09-7/25/09
Total Pumped: 249
Total Used: 272.25
Surplus: 23.25
Average Per Day: 38.89

Rethinking Pumping as the Ultimate Weight Loss Plan (Weekly Tally)

I posted before about how I've lost more weight than I gained when I was pregnant. This is supposed to be a good thing. But, after losing another pound this week, I seem to be losing about an ounce a day for each pound I lose. My all time high was 44 ounces a day and now I'm down to a little over 39. Little Man drinks about 36 oz a day. I'm still ahead of him but this doesn't leave me with much of a cushion. I'm still pumping on the same schedule that I've been on for the past two months and I even increased how long I pump lately since I'm not getting as much but that hasn't really made a difference. So, my husband and I decided that I may just need to stay a little plump to maintain my production. Ah, the things we do for our kids.
Part of why I've been losing weight is because of the foods we can't have. Before we found out about Little Man's allergies I would eat trail mix with nuts or hard boiled eggs or gluten free cookies as sources of protein and fat but I can't do that anymore and I don't think I replaced those snacks with anything except fruit. Great plan for losing weight, not so great for milk production. We bought me whole milk (I usually use skim) and cheese to see if that makes a difference. I'll keep you posted if this week's tally goes up. Here's the stats for last week:

7/12/09-7/18/09
Total Pumped: 278.75
Total Used: 252
Surplus: 26.75
Average Per Day: 39.82

Exclusively Pumping - The Ultimate Weight Loss Plan??

Like most new moms, I worried about being able to lose the baby weight. I gained about 40 pounds during my pregnancy and have never been one to lose weight easily. Nonetheless, I find myself today weighing 4 pounds less than I did when I got pregnant. I do eat well (kind of have to given my food situation) and we go for a lot of walks as a family but I'm not doing any hard core working out right now. So, I have to attribute a lot of it to pumping. Breastfeeding is known to help you lose the baby weight but I have to think that since I pump even more than he takes, that I'm burning more calories than I would breastfeeding the old fashioned way. Most days I have a 6-8oz surplus and if it's true that you burn 20 calories per ounce of breastmilk than I'm looking at an extra 120-160 more calories. Now if I could only shrink my tummy as fast as the rest of me....

A Little Taste of....Breast Milk

Yes, I finally tasted it. I know a lot of mom's taste their breastmilk to see if it's still good or to assess temperature or just out of sheer curiosity. I had no desire to taste it and managed to go over 5 months without doing it. But today I had no choice. You see, my husband, who is usually exceptionally good about safeguarding the milk, accidentally left 9 ounces sitting out all day yesterday. I came home from work to find my 6am milk still on the counter at 5pm. Now, I'm pretty liberal with my milk standards and use the 10 hour rule for how long it can sit out at average temperatures. But, 6am to 5pm is 11 hours not to mention that the house was pretty hot yesterday. So, needless to say, I was not pleased to find this milk out just when I've begun rebuilding my freezer stash with allergy free milk. To cut to the chase, we smelled it yesterday and thought it was probably fine but when I went to make little man's bottles for daycare tomorrow it smelled a little off. My choices were to risk giving him bad milk, throw it out, or taste it and make sure it was ok. Like I said, I had no choice but to taste it. And you know what, it didn't taste bad at all. No wonder the kid loves it so much. Guess I could have tried it months ago!

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 42.5
Ounces Used: 36
Surplus: 6.5

Biggest day I've had in over a week. I think I wasn't eating enough when I knew Little Man had an allergy but didn't know what it was. Now I know what I can eat. Breastfeeding makes you unbelievably hungry. And thirsty. As soon as I turn that pump on, I want to chug an entire bottle of water. Nice little evolutionary feature there.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 41.75
Ounces Used: 37
Surplus: 4.75

With today's milk, my freezer stash is up to 21 oz. I did call a Milk Bank in Ohio today to find out about donating my milk but the person I need to speak to is on vacation. I wish there was somewhere local to donate it but unfortunately, there isn't. I'm coming to terms with having to part with all that extra milk since my little man has almost completely clear skin in just a few days of being allergen free and is even happier than before. I don't think I've ever seen a baby who smiles quite this much.

How I Got Here

I'm new to blogging. I've followed a few other blogs for a little while now but I'm new to having one myself. But, the new life I find myself in over the past six months needs to be documented. Let me explain. About two years ago, I finally figured out that living a gluten free lifestyle is the only way for me to feel human. It took my entire life and about 73 different doctors (all of whom missed it) to figure this out. Fortunately, I met a man who put up with me when I sick and likes me even more now that I'm well. We've been married for three and a half years. In January, we had our first child who we like to call Little Man. I planned to breastfeed him so I took the class, read the books, and learned as much as I could. I knew it would be challenging but I also knew it was the best thing for him. Well, I ended up being the woman in the hospital with two lactation consultants on either side of me and a crying hungry baby. I left the hospital with lots of instructions and techniques and most of all, pain. By a week in, I had decided the breastfeeding was more painful than labor and went to see another lactation consultant after I had spent 24 hours pretty much pumping around the clock. The LC recommended pumping a few times a day and nursing the rest. I gave this a try but the result was the same. So, when Little Man was 9 days old, we turned to exclusively pumping. I called the LC and she gave me some terrific advice to get started but beyond that, there isn't a lot of information out there about pumping so I was kind of winging it. Fortunately, it has gone very well and Little Man has still not had anything other than my milk - not even a drop of formula. Of course, women still ask me if I'm going to try nursing again. My answer is no, never. For me, pumping is pain free (most of the time), gives me lots of flexibility despite needing to pump mulitple times a day, allows my husband to enjoy feeding our son, and gives me stock pile of milk in the freezer. Not to mention that I would have been pumping at work anyway. Pumping works very well for us.

Now, about that freezer stash. My little man is a growing machine. By his first doctor appointment, he was supposed to be back to his birth weight and he had gained double what he needed. He's been in the 90th percentile for height and weight ever since. Unfortunately, he also had really bad skin in the form of ezcema and occasional rashes. At his 4 month check up, the doctor suggested he may have a milk allergy and recommended that I eliminate dairy. I did that but also added more nuts to make up the protein and about a week and a half into this no dairy, extra nut diet, he was completely covered in a rash. Since I'm already gluten free and we have a nephew with severe food allergies, we decided to go ahead and get him tested. Well, sure enough, he tested positive for nuts and eggs (but not dairy). We are now three days into me not eating these and his skin is clear and he's spitting up much less (can't even explain how much spit up we were dealing with). This means that I have 700 ounces of breastmilk in my freezers (yes, freezers, we had to buy a second one), that he can't have because it's tainted with nuts and eggs. My goal this week is to find a way to donate it. I'm thrilled that he's healthy now but I'm having trouble accepting that I have to get rid of all that milk! So, long story short, I now find myself as a gluten, nut, and egg free working mom who is exclusively pumping for a very happy little man. Join me as I figure out how to navigate this new world I live in.