One goal I had for myself during maternity leave was to stock pile frozen milk so that when I went back to work, or Ty went through a growth spurt, I wouldn't have to stress out about having enough to give him. I went through that whole mess with Noelle and it's an awful feeling when you realize you might not have enough milk. I had a low supply with her and was constantly eating oatmeal, drinking fluids and pumping around the clock to have enough. I did end up having a frozen stash for her at one point but some days we cut it pretty close.
Needless to say, I wasn't going to mess around this time. My goal was to have 200 oz by the time I went back to work and so you can imagine my devastation when I realized that Ty couldn't have any of the milk I had saved because it had the dairy protein he was allergic to. I was just shy of 150 oz and my grand total plummeted back to the big ZERO with only 4 weeks left until I went back to work.
Just in case you were wondering how much 148.9 ounces really is, think water bottles. Think 9 of those water bottles filled to the brim. Ya, it's a freaking lot and I was sick to my stomach knowing that I couldn't use a single drop of it.
There was no chance in hell I was just going to toss it. It's called Liquid Gold for a reason and so I just kept it in the freezer. Part of me secretly hoped Ty's results would come back negative and he would be able to use it. Time marched on and there the milk sat, taking up half the of the freezer and pissing Jeremy off every time he had to dig through the frozen goods we had to pack and cram into the other part. Breast milk is only good for 3 months in a regular freezer mind you, so as the 3 month mark started creeping up, I was getting pretty panicked.
Then one night I was online at a great breast feeding support group and this article got posted
It's long, but probably the most beautiful, heartfelt article I've read on breast feeding. After I stopped bawling, I googled breast milk donation and found out that Indianapolis had a donation center, called Indiana Mother's Milk Bank http://www.immilkbank.org/ I called the next day and after several months of being screened, blood tested, false HTLV positives and more, I was approved to donate.
What an awesome feeling to donate Liquid Gold to a baby in need. Oh yes, and the hubs is happy now with all the new found freezer space :-)
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