End of an Era.

I got pregnant with Kate in May of 2006.

She was born in January of 2007
(and I nursed her until January 2008)
In January 2008 I found I was pregnant with Claire, so I stopped nursing Kate a few days before her 1st birthday.
Claire was born in September of 2008.
I stopped nursing Claire 2 days ago.

I have either been pregnant or nursing {without a break} for the past:

3 years, 4 months & 13 days
Which translates to:1,232 days
29, 568 hours
1,774, 080 minutes

104,444,800 seconds

That is a LONG time.
It's not long compared to Michelle Duggar, but to me, it is a long time!

To say that my body is ready for a break is an understatement.
Kevin has been so supportive for the past 3.5 years of me having random pregnancy/nursing hormones running through my body.
Thanks for putting up with me, Kevin!Am I sad I am done nursing? A little bit. I am sad this era of my life has ended, but I am also ready for my body to be my own & not have a little person rely on it, even though it is bittersweet.

I am proud that I was able to nurse both my girls for the first year of their lives.
Neither one of them has had a drop of formula.
(I am not judging those who use formula. To each her own. I am just too cheap to pay for it! And, I was lucky I had a huge breast milk supply.)
Here is my leftover supply of pumped breast milk that I am getting ready to ship off to the International Breast Milk Project.I qualified as a donor this past January, you can read about the process HERE.

Claire has transitioned very well to cow's milk & LOVES her sippy cup.

She starts squealing when she sees it!

My baby is growing up right before my eyes & isn't as dependent on me anymore.
A new era has begun for us with 2 toddlers in the house. Now, I am off to find some cabbage. I hear it helps when you are weaning. Can anyone vouch for that?

got milk?

This past Spring our church did a sermon series on "Determined to Make a Difference". It really made me think about what my passions are & what I can do to make a difference. One of the things I feel strongly about is breastfeeding. I know that not all women choose to breastfeed & that is fine, totally their choice. To each her own! But, for me, I feel that "breast is best" & I chose to breastfed Kate for a year .

During the sermon series I was newly pregnant with Claire & I had TONS of frozen breast milk in my freezer that was leftover from Kate. I nursed Kate until I found out I was pregnant with Claire, but I had also been giving Kate was drinking whole milk since she was 11 months because it was fattier than my breast milk & she needed to gain weight. As silly as it sounds, I wondered if my frozen breast milk could make a difference! I couldn't bear to throw it away and I wondered if I could donate it to a hospital or something.

So, I went on the internet to see where and if I could donate. One of the first websites I found was the International Breast Milk Project. I was inspired. Check out the website, it is great. Basically, what the International Breast Milk Project stands for...it is a non profit organization that provides donated breast milk to infants suffering from malnutrition, poverty & disease in Africa. Their vision is that every infant will have access to human milk as a first choice when their own mother's milk isn't available.

After reading their website, I decided to apply to be a breast milk donor. I am one of those women who produces A LOT of milk, so I thought I would "share the wealth" and donate my excess milk to a good cause. I started the process when I was pregnant with Claire & I finally got this email today!

Hello Melissa,

Congratulations, you are now a qualified breast milk donor with the International Breast Milk Project! By becoming a breast milk donor, you have taken a step that can directly impact the lives of infants orphaned by disease and poverty in Africa.

The population of infants we are serving may be involved in a fragile health situation & you have been qualified based on your blood work & DNA sample. We are very excited to have your generous participation.

I thought you would be curious about what happens to your milk once it arrives at Prolacta Bioscience.

• The milk will go through a drug screen, DNA match, and bacterial testing
• Once done, the milk will be pooled with other donors to make a large batch of milk
• The milk will be pasteurized to kill bacteria and viruses that may be in the milk
• The milk will be filled into bottles
• Samples will be sent for a full nutritional, bacterial, and viral analysis
• 25% will be shipped to orphans in Africa and 75% will be made into human milk fortifier and sent to US hospitals.
  

We will contact you next week about setting up the shipping of your breast milk.

Thank you for your donation,
Robin at IBMP

I am really excited to be qualified as a donor. It has been over 5 month process in order to get qualified. I had to fill out a detailed questionnaire, get letters from my doctor & Claire's pediatrician, had to put a thermometer in my home freezer, record & report the temperature for 5 days, have a nurse come to my house & draw my blood (which I had to Fed-Ex overnight on ice) and give myself a DNA swab test which I also had to Fed-Ex overnight. It was quite the process, but I am so glad they were so thorough!

So, if you are a lucky one like me & are able to produce an abundance of breast milk, I encourage you to consider being a donor to the International Breast Milk Project.