moo

My current completed project: milk (WARNING: if the words "breast milk" or "pumping" offend you, than come by another day). Remember my got milk post? Well, I just (and I mean just) met that ridiculous goal I had given myself; once Lucas hits 9 months, he will remain exclusively on breast milk, yet no longer be nursing. Lets go back in time, shall we? In January, I decided to pump enough for Lucas to have one bottle per day from 4 months of age to 6 months of age. 60 bottles pumped in 30 days. The first of February came (Lucas' 4 month mark) and I was grateful for having pumped so much; Lucas wasn't fond of the transition into rice cereal at first. He needed to be prompted to swallow, hence the bottle. In February, I decided to pump enough for Lucas to continue to have one bottle per day from 6 months of age to 9 months of age. 91 bottles pumped in 31 days. The first of April came (Lucas' 6 month mark) and I was grateful for having pumped so much; a bottle for lunch gave mommy a little more free time (that was spent pumping. imagine that). In March, I decided to pump enough for Lucas to have four bottles per day from 9 months of age to 12 months of age; the BIG project. 368 bottles pumped in (an amazing) 76 days. Today was my last day. I AM a cow. Before you try to do the math on how much I pumped per day with that last one, let me say that I started in January with pumping 4 - 6 ounces per day. Nothing big. Average. With a LOT of water and fenugreek (lactation supplement), I increased pumping by a couple ounces every several days. In the end, I was pumping about 26 - 28 ounces per day (Sarah, I know that is like one sitting for you, but you had freakin' triplets). I know I am about to lose your interest in this post, so let me just share the stats with you.

Milk Storage Stats

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I have pumped enough for: 242 days

Number of storage bags used: 518 bags

Number of ounces pumped: 2,478 ounces

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-breast milk for mixing with whole milk- (I call it "maintenance"; to be completed over the next 9 days)

I will pump enough for: 12 days

Number of more storage bags: 48 bags

Number of more ounces: 105 ounces

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GRAND TOTAL

-254 days

-566 bags

-2,583 ounces

Just to give you a visual of how much milk I have pumped:

20 Gallons, give or take a glass. Disgusting, huh?