well, hello there...

...and welcome to my own little space in the blog world!

i'm miss t & one of my current purposes in life is to provide nutrition for my little tiramisu.  for 7-1/2 months now, i've been hooked up to a nifty machine that goes wa-ka, wa-ka, wa-ka for approximately 382 HOURS and have expressed over 48 GALLONS of milk!!  and yes, i have been counting.

the hubby was testing out some lighting gels while i was putting my milk away.  

i thought the photo turned out to be pretty funny so i decided to blog about it.  

tmi for a first post?  hahahahah

long before baby was born, i decided to breastfeed.  after all, women are adorned with special body parts made specifically for this very purpose.  breast milk is "liquid gold" and no synthetic formula can replicate the special composition of fat, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and especially antibodies that are found in it. and the best thing...there are no bottles to wash and food is just a lift of the tshirt away!

following delivery, one of the hospital's main post-partum goals is to make sure that breastfeeding is established before mom and baby are discharged.  i worked with lactation consultants (LC) and nurses for two days and believed that we had the procedure down as baby was having lots of wet and poopie diapers. however, when we went to the pediatrician's office on baby's 4th day of life, she had lost over 12% of her birth weight and we were instructed to "medically" supplement her with formula to bring her weight up asap.

i had my heart set on solely breastfeeding so the doctor's orders were a major slap in the face.  i started wondering if my boobs were dysfunctional.  and then i questioned my baby's innate ability to latch on and suck. after all, dogs can do it without a human manhandling their puppies.  no pun intended haha.  (btw, witnessing a nurse manhandling your 1 day old newborn to establish a latch is another topic in and of itself.)

anywho, i was pretty bummed that we needed to give her formula.  at least the doctor gave us some ready-to-drink samples which were really easy to use as they are premixed.  i still tried to breastfeed hoping that she would receive some valuable colostrum until my "milk came in."  i waited and waited and then later that night, my boobs started feeling really warm...and fuller...and kinda sore...and then felt like they were on the verge of exploding.  HOORAY!  the jugs were finally full!  

i attempted to get baby to latch on but she would get fussy and cry and we both got frustrated. it seemed that my boobs just weren't made for her mouth...think square peg in round circle. and, babies are extremely smart and quickly learn that the bottle is waaaay easier than starting the milk flow from the boob.  after many tries, i realized that it just wasn't going to happen and was forced to express milk using my trusty Medela breast pump.  newborns eat every 2-3 hours around the clock so i had to follow suit and pump 24 hours a day for the first 12 weeks or so. this also helps with "building up your milk supply."  i tried to get a 5 hour period of sleep when i could but strategically had to get at least 1 pumping session in between the hours of 1 am and 5 am when the body's prolactin levels are highest.  yes, milk production is a science.

the first couple of weeks were rough and all the pumping and dishwashing (bottles, pump parts, etc) started making me crazy and sad.  not only was i tired and cranky, i felt like i had no time or energy to simply hold and enjoy my baby.  but things got easier with time, and as soon as the mister and i had established a routine, my sanity was slowly reestablished.  and then i realized that "exclusively pumping (EP)" definitely has its benefits.  the mister would feed her during the night shift so i could sleep :)  and my mom was able to watch and feed her so the mister and i could do errands or go out to dinner.  and we know exactly how much milk the little is drinking, which is both good and bad since we tend to get paranoid when the quantity dips below a certain number.  

i now pump 5-6 times a day for 20+ minutes per session.  i dropped the night pump a few months ago and happily manage to get 6-8 hours of sleep per night.  yay!  these days, i express about 800-900 cc's (27-30 oz) per day.  my crowning glory is producing 18 oz in one pumping session...that's over 1 cup of milk per boob! crazy.  in the first 4-5 months, i expressed more milk than baby drank so i ended up freezing gallons and gallons of milk.  unfortunately, i've also ended up dumping gallons and gallons of milk as the freezer shelf life is only 3 months.  i wish we had a milk bank in Hawaii because i'm sure there are many preemies and other babies that could've definitely benefited from the extra milk.  oh wells.

EP is definitely a science and i'm

so why am i blogging about literally emptying my jugs on the first blog post of my life? because if all goes well, i will be doing this for FIVE MORE months.  and my plan is to blog to the tune of the wa-ka, wa-ka, wa-ka since my brain desperately needs exercise outside of the things i typically do during my pumping sessions (facebook, chat, read blogs and play words with friends).  i plan to blog about anything and everything, including things that have happened this past year that i don't want to forget.  the days are flying by and i don't want to regret a poor memory later.

if you made it this far, thank you for reading.  i promise to have some less wordy posts in the future :)