Goodbye Madela

Today, I packed up something that has been (literally) attached to me for the past 6 months. My breast pump. And I have to say, I'm not sorry to see it go.

Don't get me wrong. I had a very pleasant breast feeding experience (even despite the hospital lactation nazi incident). I'm glad I did it and I would choose the same path again. However, as a working mom, the whole process got a bit daunting. Take the pump to work. Schedule time to pump milk during the work day, a.) to keep the supply sufficient and b.) to avoid a potentially embarrassing leaking incident. Store the milk. Don't forget the milk when it's time to go home. Freeze the milk or prepare the milk in bottles for daycare the next day. You get the drift.

Before Jack was born, I set a breastfeeding goal of 6 months. And I made it.

For future reference (in the event Drew & I do this whole baby thing again some day) here's how it worked for me. I was lucky. Jack took to nursing fairly easily and had no trouble going back and forth between bottle and breast. When it came time to go back to work, I began by pumping 3 times a day. Essentially, those were the bottles that would go to daycare the next day. As he got a little older I started pumping once in the evening as well while Drew fed Jack a formula bottle. That allowed me to build up an extra supply of milk in the freezer, and Drew to participate in some of the feedings, which he liked. Eventually I decreased my work pumping to twice a day. This worked because Jack was now eating bigger bottles, but not as frequently. Plus, I had the extra supply in the freezer. At about 5 1/2 months I decreased to pumping once a day. This is when I used up the majority of my freezer supply. Then finally, at 6 months I stopped pumping completely and as soon as the freezer supply ran out, we switched to formula at daycare. Because I gradually tapered back, I never had any pain or discomfort that you often hear about as women wean their babies.

Currently, I am still nursing once in the morning and once before bed. There are about 12 hours between the two. So far, my supply has let me do this. My plan is continue for another week or so at which time I'll eliminate the morning feeding. After a week or two of bedtime only, I will phase out the nursing completely. Again, my supply has allowed me to do this so far. If at any time it doesn't seem to be working, I will stop. After all, I've already reached my 6 month goal so any extra feedings now are just gravy, so to speak.

That was my experience. And despite my pregnancy fears about pumping (It just seemed so mechanical. And dairy farm-like.), it wasn't bad at all. I'm glad I did it. And I'm glad I'm done.

Good riddance, Madela. Until next time.