My entire daytime schedule is built around nursing and pumping. Get up, nurse. Then pump. Shower. Go to work. Pump. Wait three hours, pump again. Pump one more time before I leave work. Come home, have dinner as a family. Play. Bathtime. Pump again. Watch a couple of shows. Shower. Pump again. Watch the news. Go to bed. That's my daily pumping schedule in a nutshell.
I have an entire second set of pumping gear at work. I have two pumps - a Medela Pump in Style and a Medela Freestyle. I have battery packs, I have car lighter adapters, I have spare parts galore. I have about a gazillion bottles...so many that the nanny has a hard time making them all fit in the cupboard when she does the dishes (LOL).
To say I am well equipped may be the understatement of the year.
As you learned in my last post, by the time the girls are 12 months old I will have spent two months (60 days) solid pumping and/or breastfeeding. I LOVE that I can provide my girls such a wonderful form of nourishment. LOVE it. But, it is incredibly time consuming, and it is obvious now that the girls are mobile that it takes Si's full attention and energy to divert the girls away from me for 30 minutes 4-7x a day while I am pumping. I can tell he is irritated and is ready for me to be done. After all, there are things he can't get done around the house because he can't do anything while I am pumping (laundry, mow the yard, etc. simply because I can't watch the girls while I am attached to my pump).
And I get it.
So, in 5 short weeks the girls will have hit 12 months old, and my breastfeeding or pumping days can come to an end.
But what if I want to keep going?
Bri has become a good morning breastfeeder again, and I absolutely cherish the one on one quiet time I get with her when she nurses.
Additionally, the benefits of breastfeeding may go down when they hit a year, but they don't go away. I would think it would be beneficial for the girls to have my immunity through say, cold and flu season, wouldn't it?
But is it worth THAT much time spent being married to the pump??? I just don't know.
So...now I am trying to decide whether to:
1) Stop at the girls 1 year birthday (next month)
2) Stop at the girls adjusted 1 year old birthday (November 11th)
3) Stop after cold and flu season (maybe March?)
I mean, I would love to have my body back (and wear normal bras and tanktops), but if breastmilk is still beneficial to the girls, I want to do what is best for them! If it were you, what would you do?
As always, comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated!
I will leave you with a picture of Daddy holding the girls while they (appropriate to this discussion) enjoy the fruits of my labor =)
Until next time -
Megan
