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
why not just nurse morning and night? skip the pump altogether? i've commented before. we are just a few weeks behind you -10/24/10. and i feel the same. i have a girls weekend to vegas planned for 12/1 as my incentive and motivation that i have to wrap it up. i don't pump - just nurse. but i am really feeling these last 2 months speed by as i wrap up one of the most precious gifts on earth.
ReplyDeletei can say though - on the other side of it - i have an 11 & 9 year old - and life doesn't skip a beat on the other side of nursing. life is still as touching, close and special with your baby(s). i remember it hurting at the time. knowing in my heart "tonights the night". ugh.
make your own decisions. welcome to motherhood. i know that once we made every decision and stuck to it, life on the other side of the decision was just fine.
Zoe - thanks for your wisdom! That's exactly the voice of reason I was looking for. Someone who had been there, done that, and could tell me what to expect! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteNursing only would be brilliant, but I only have one baby who will nurse from me at this point. I feel that I would be leaving her out if I went to breastfeeding only. It's not a bad thought though. . .that's how it would happen naturally with weaning anyway. . .
Not looking forward to "tonight's the night" at all!! Good luck momma! And have a great time in Vegas!!!
I only had one baby that would breastfeed either. That's a big big part of the reason why I quit. But I agree with Zoe- breastfeeding or not, you still get those sweet quiet moments with your babies. And while, yes, they still get benefits from it, I don't think its a lot... Or at least, not nearly as much as the BF Nazis want you to believe. My two have been on formula only (now cow's milk) since 3 months and they are healthy and happy. Don't feel bad- you nursed twins for a whole year! That's more than most of us can do!
ReplyDeleteI think YOU go as long as you can. I think its crap that Si is frustrated and I don't get it. WHat about moms who have 2 under 2? OR, moms who tandem nurse. OR moms who have 2 under 1??? I mean then you have a toddler who is running around like a psycho path and a baby. And then in not so many months you have a toddler running around like a psycho path and a baby who is crawling and pulling themselves up like banshee. So what? You only get to breastfeed your first child the longest so that life is easier? I really don't mean to belittle the situation. Or minimize it... I had one child to worry about. But I had many other struggles to make up for the fact that I only had one. I know its a sacrifice. And that doesn't seem to do it justice.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is - its a drop in the bucket. Whether you stop today, October, November or March - its a blur in time. You have to pick what is best for your family not what is most convenient. If that's using the freezer milk - great! If its pumping longer - great! If its nursing the one who will nurse when she nurses and letting your supply drop - great! Its not all or nothing for me. But I know you have said that.
I will say - when I stopped... when I was forced to stop - it was gut wrenching and I felt as if I was grieving a death. Does that make ME a freak? And that was 11 months of an uphill battle.
I guess I just want you to really think this through. Don't stop because Si is frustrated. Stop because YOU are ready. Because if you are pressured into it, or aren't ready, you run the risk of feeling like I did. And I still get so sad sometimes. Would you feel resentful? When I stopped nursing Adam, after 3 weeks he spiked a fever of 104.7. Do you know how guilty I felt? I stopped and BAM he's sick? Like really sick? First time ever sick.
I like what Zoe said about skip the pump and nurse when you can. That's what I did my last month of nursing. I just wanted to enjoy it. But I've mentioned that before and you said you were all or nothing. And that's more of a compromise. But it was nice.
I think you should rethink "all or nothing."
Love you.
First of all, hot damn. Congrats to you for keeping up all that pumping! WOW. That's a lot of work, not just pumping, but cleaning all the freakin equipment and the bottles too.
ReplyDeleteMy girls nurse and get bottles (formula, I am a lazy ass and did not keep up with the pumping), it's about 50/50 at this point. It's been this way for about 3 months or so. Over the next few months we'll probably phase out bottles but I'll keep nursing and wean them from that in a much slower fashion over the course of the next year. In your situation I think I'd scale back the pumping and perhaps just nurse Bri and give Liv the pumped milk. I agree with the other commenters - there are many opportunities for those tender, one on one moments with Liv. But, I also agree with you that there are some benefits for them through the winter.
Hugs. Whatever you decide it will be the best decision for you and your family!!!
PS - The pictures of the girls are sooo adorable. I can't believe how much they've grown!!! Nearly a year of twins... (for both of us!) It blows my mind!