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

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 41.5
Ounces Used: 36.5
Surplus: 5

Not bad.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 40.5
Ounces Used: 36.5
Surplus: 4

Have a cold. Need sleep.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 43
Ounces Used: 37
Surplus: 6

I had to pump an extra fifteen minutes during my morning session at work today and I still got less than I usually do that time of day. So, after work I went to Babies R Us and bought new membranes (the little white things) for all of my pieces. I have 3 sets of pump parts so fortunately the membranes come in a pack of 6. It seems to have made a difference because I got more at my nighttime pump than I've gotten in probably a month. Hopefully I stay up around 43.

Today's Tally

Well, really yesterday and the day before.

7/6 Ounces Pumped: 40.5
7/7 Ounces Pumped: 41.25
7/6 Ounces Used: 36
7/7 Ounces Used: 37
2 day Surplus: 8.75

I panicked a little last night because the pump was making a strange noise and didn't seem to have it's normal suction. I checked the tubing and made sure everything was plugged in but it was still having issues. After I pumped for 35 minutes and stopped it, I noticed that the white membrane wasn't all the way in on one of the yellow pieces so I fixed that and pumped a little longer. At least the pump wasn't dying! Now I'm going to replace all the white membranes. I haven't done it in a while and I'm wondering if that's why my supply has been down.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 40
Ounces Used: 35
Surplus: 5

Not to be greedy, but I want my 43 ounces a day back.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 41
Ounces Used: 35
Surplus: 6

I ate a ton today (July 4th picnic and then barbecue) so I was hoping my pigging out would translate into a lot of milk. That didn't pan out. Oh well, still had 6 ounces left over.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 40.75
Ounces Used: 35
Surplus: 5.75

I moved my mid-morning pump up an hour because we had a friend coming over. I think it hurt my supply a little bit.

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....

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 42.25
Ounces Used: 36.5
Surplus: 5.75

Funny how obsessed you become with ounces when you're exclusively pumping. Just figured out that I've pumped 5,890 ounces since Little Man was born and he's used 5,049. That means he's had 315 pounds of milk. Wow.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 42.25
Ounces Used: 36
Surplus: 6.25

Today was a rough pumping day. I usually get about 8.5oz at my late morning pump and I was only at about 6.5 after my usual 25 minutes. I kept going for another 15 minutes and only got to 8 total. Then, when I pumped again in the afternoon, I noticed that I had a spot that really hurt so I kept pushing on it and ended up getting about 9.5 but I did go about 5 minutes longer than usual. All said and done, I got close to my usual amount but spent way too much time pumping. Hopefully tomorrow will be clog free.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 39.75
Ounces Used: 35.25
Surplus: 4.5

Slow day. About 3 ounces less than usual. Not sure what's going on.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 42.5
Ounces Used: 35.5
Surplus: 7

Back to my usual amount.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 41
Ounces Used: 36.5
Surplus: 4.5

My timing was a little off today and I had another clog this morning so it's not surprising that I'm down a little bit. Hopefully tomorrow will come back up.

Summer Summer Summer Time

That's my ode to Will Smith. Today we took little man to the pool for the first time. The water was way too cold for a baby but it was nice to get outside and he was fascinated with all the people and noises. And of course he looked adorable in his swim gear. I, on the other hand, was pretty uncomfortable in my swim suit by the end of the day since I pushed my afternoon pump back an hour so we could be out longer. Worth it though.

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 43.5
Ounces Used: 35.5
Surplus: 8

Up a little bit. Always a good thing :)

Today's Tally

Ounces Pumped: 42.5
Ounces Used: 35.5
Surplus: 7

I had a clog this morning that I had to massage out so I was down about 2 ounces first thing in the morning. Seems my body made up for it later in the day which is good news. I'm already back up to 35 ounces of allergen free milk in the freezer plus a decent amount in the fridge.