It doesn’t send me flowers, write me love letters or poetry, and it certainly doesn’t call me to tell me it’s thinking about me, but still, it seems like I just can’t stay away from it.
Because I want what is best for Fiona, and the best thing for her is to get breast milk at every feeding, and she can’t fully nurse yet, I have to pump and store milk. I pump 7 times a day, every day, starting between 5:30am and 6. I used to get up at 4 or 4:30, but it was taking too large a toll, so instead, I get up a little later. I don’t need an alarm, my breasts wake me up by becoming engorged and very uncomfortable. I then pump again every two to three hours until 11:30pm.
My freezer no longer contains anything other than milk, and occasionally a pint of ice cream. Every few days, we take milk to the hospital, where they tell us that they really don’t need it yet, but will store it for us anyway. This is because Fiona is only now eating 50mLs per feeding (that’s almost two ounces) but I can pump anywhere from twice to six times that (depending on the time of day). Usually, a pumping session yields three to four ounces of milk. There is always one that will yield between 5 and 6, and sometimes 7 or 8 ounces.
I have become a dairy.
To aid me in my bovine pursuits, I have my trusty, temporarily rented (until insurance forks over the money for a new pump), hospital grade Ameda Elite double electric breast pump.
It’s piston driven and weighs only 6 pounds! If you were to purchase one of these puppies, you would need to shell out $800. Or you could save your money and buy a nice new laptop or smallish flat screen TV. But if you get it from Ameda online, you can get a free gift! (I think I’ll skip it.)
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