On Monday, with William reaching six months of age, I reached a milestone as well, six months of breastfeeding and pumping (with supplementing with formula). I’ve blogged and said aloud that my goal is to get him to his first birthday with at least some breast milk each day. There are days when that seems easy and days when that seems hard.
Most work days I do my first milk pumping before either Candy comes over or I take him to day care. If he happens to wake before I start or after, I’ll end up doing both. Even though it’s double work, I love being able to feed him, especially when it helps soothe him right back to sleep like it did on Wednesday.
One of the hardest things for me is that I still can’t pump more than 10 oz when away from him on even the best day. Yet some days even pumping 5 oz at work can be tricky and once in a while impossible. Some days the first pump of the morning is especially productive, 3 oz is my record, yet even when that happens, I can still pump less than 10 oz for the day as happened with the day I took these.
On weekends I feed William directly as much as I can, so I’m pumping out less milk then. On a great Friday I pump out 10 oz (or close to it and finish up Friday evening or even the first pump on Saturdays) and freeze them. If all goes perfectly, they are used for daycare on Wednesdays. Yet, I often have to defrost them sooner for Monday or Tuesday usage.
I’ve been told by many sources that when William starts solids in theory he will sleep through the night more. While that would bring more sleep, it would also be less feeding times, and in theory less milk. So far he’s had these two sources of food (separately) for most of his solid meals. He’s had one night where he woke up only once and the others it’s been two or three times.
I don’t know in a month from now or two or in six how much my milk production will be. While it’s possible it could decrease as he potentially sleeps through the night, I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to give him some breast milk even if it’s just a bit till I hit my goal.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 