The Ending to My Breastfeeding/Pumping Journey

My breastfeeding journey with my triplets was nothing like I expected.  My goal when I was pregnant was to breastfeed for one week and if that worked out I would try to make it to 6 months.  Little did I know that my little ones would never learn to latch (bummer) and that my body would produce MORE than I needed for my 3 babies.  While in the NICU for 12-13 days, my girls were fortunate enough to receive donor breast milk while I was building up my supply.  Our hospital is one of the first in the nation to offer donor breast milk to preemies rather than only offering formula.  Since my girls were little, even for their age, the doctors asked us to give them one bottle of extra calorie formula per day.  They did that for about 6 weeks and by that point my supply had more than caught up to their demand.  So it was solely breast milk, until about 8 months when they were supplemented with about 1-2 oz of formula per day because they were eating more than I could supply.  When they began eating more solids and drinking less milk, my supply caught up and they were only on breast milk again.

 

I was hungry ALL of the time and never felt full.  I was on a strict no dairy/no soy diet, but I still managed to eat a ton.  I ended up 20 lbs lighter than I was when I got pregnant (I call it the triplet diet).  All of my calories were going to my boobs to make that precious liquid gold for my girls.  I started off pumping 7-8 times per day, by 6 months I was pumping 6 times per day, and by 1 year I was pumping 3-4 times per day.  We had to buy a deep freezer for the extra milk. 

 

Taylor was weaned to cow's milk at 12 months old since she had no allergies.  At 12 months, I began adding dairy to my diet to make sure Sam and Mallory had outgrown their allergies before giving them whole cow's milk.  At 14 months, they were all weaned.  I continued pumping another month to wean myself and also to add to the stock pile in the freezer. 

 

In October, I was able to donate two large boxes of breast milk back to Texas Children's Hospital.  I felt like it was the least I could do to give back to the hospital that took such great care of my trio.  It made me feel so good to help out the preemies in the NICU and I'm so proud of myself for sticking to it for so long.  I also have to give much deserved credit to all of those that have helped me out with the girls along the way.  Without someone here to take care of them, I wouldn't have been able to sneak away for that 20 minutes to pump.  So I thank you all very much (and so do the preemie babies :)

 

The end of my breastfeeding journey was actually bittersweet.  I was happy to drop each and every pump since it would give me that much more time to catch up with things around the house, but it was also sad for me.  As crazy as it sounds, I will miss the sound of that pump and the feeling I got when I would feed my girls.