I just want to send out a big Thank You to a fellow blogger, and follower of mine, over at
http://counterfeitfake.blogspot.com/
First, I want to say that I love this blogger. I have been following her for a while (in my world anyways, so almost as long as I've been blogging), and I can always depend on her for a good laugh. I just really love her blog.
She's been following me for a bit too, and she is great and is constantly commenting, makes me glad to know that someone is reading LOL.
Well, to the main reason for the post! She commented on my post from yesterday, and I just had to share. My post was about milk sharing again through Eats on Feets, and here is her comment:
~~~Hey, because of your post about Eats on Feets, I was able to pass info along to someone on Facebook yesterday. Now some mama in Indiana will have more milk to give her little one. Thought you might like to know. ~~~
This makes me so happy. This is the point of Eats on Feets, to hook up mama's that have extra milk with those that need it. It is such an amazing thing, watching relationships build because of these gestures of kindness. To know that something as simple as my posts on my blog about sharing helped to familiarize someone with EOF, and that person was able to spread the word. In turn, another baby gets this liquid gold!!
These are not small gestures, babies on the receiving end are able to get what their mama feels is best for them, they are able to get off of formula which is sometimes causing them problems - gastro, reflux, exczema, you name it.
Mama's on the giving end are taking the time out of their day to pump this liquid gold, and then are willing to give it away. Let me tell you, the time commitments are not small. I pump right now 3 to 4 times a day, and between pumping, cleaning up, and packing alone I think I spend an hour and a half or more every day. Then every few weeks I take another 30 or so minutes to rotate the milk so that the oldest is either what I use or donate to another mama. For me, I would be doing it anyways. I would be buying the bags for storage. I would be taking the time to pump. For someone like me with such a great supply, I don't have to cry as I am throwing overage away. Instead I outreach to my mama's. If they are not in need I go back to the EOF facebook page and find myself a new mama. It is an amazing page, please go check it out if you have not already.
I'm not here to give myself kudos, but really to remind everyone of Eats on Feets. To mention it to your nursing mama friends, or those that are talking about problems with their supply. This is a kudos to all those mama's out there that are giving, and all those mama's out there that are receiving.
I will stop pumping when Bug is 12 months. In many ways this makes me sad, as it will end this portion of my relationship with these mama's that I have come to know. The good thing is that these relationships have taken on a life of their own. We are friends now, the mama that is in my same city and I have dinner together, let our little girls play together. We enjoy each others company.
Thank you to Eats on Feets. Thank you for starting up just when I was realizing I needed to do something with all my extra milk. Thank you to those mama's that are willing to give away this liquid gold to a baby in need. Thank you to those mama's that are more than happy to take that liquid gold off of our hands and feed it to their precious, deserving babies.
Thank you Shan, for reading my blog and sharing what you have learned.
(PS - as I've mentioned before in my posts about milk sharing, I am NOT saying that formula feeding is bad, if that is what is right for you and your baby, then I am 100% behind you! This is just what is right for me, for Bug, and for those babies out there that I am able to help feed)
Showing posts with label Eats on feets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eats on feets. Show all posts
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Eats on Feets, and other stuff
I promise I'm still here! It's been crazy around here for a bit. Kev has been working, so that's been crazy.
Bug was sick, poor little thing. She had pneumonia! It's really scary when they get that sick. Luckily she didn't have to go to the hospital or anything, but her left lung was pretty full. Luckily we caught it in time and a round of antibiotics did the trick. She is a reflux baby, and it seems as though she is fighting congestion constantly because of it. I always know to give it a week. So I did. But then at the end of the week none of our tricks or meds were helping, and she seemed to be getting worse. So I took her in and the pneumonia was there! UGH. But, she's feeling SO much better now!
My mom (nana) was in town this weekend. We were having my uncle do our taxes, but he only got hers done, boo. Oh well, I'll get ours done later I guess! But it was nice because Mom helped quite a bit around the house getting things done that were in dire need of being done, and we got to see some family. My cousin has two little one's, the youngest is not quite a week older than Bug. It was so neat to see the differences between the two. My Bug has some chunky cheeks! As it turns out, just like her mama had when I was little. A family friend posted a picture of me on FB, I mighta been around 5, and Bug is a duplicate! She really is my mini me! I always knew she was, but that just made it seem that much more obvious.
I bring up Eats on Feets because my freezer became full again. So, I contacted the mama that I donate to for little S, and offered her up some milk. Turns out, her freezer was full too! YIKES! She's been doing really well with her breastfeeding, and only needing to supplement an ounce or two every feeding. I am SO happy for her! But with that being said, my freezer started to bust at the seems, so I had to find me another mama in need of donations! I had received a message back at the beginning of the year, right after I had donated quite a bit to S, from a couple of mama's. There had been one that had been working on getting her supply up, and her daughter, B, was about the same age as S. (OK, that's a lot of letters, are you keeping them all straight?!) So, I contacted her and asked if she was still in need of donor milk. She was, and was very happy that I had contacted her! It took us about 2 weeks to meet up, as she lives about an hour and 1/2 away. But, this weekend we did it. They were driving up on their way through to do a family function.
So, have I mentioned before that donating milk feels like a drug deal going down? Because if I haven't, it does.
So, we planned on meeting in the parking lot at Starbucks near my home. I told her to let me know when they were about 40 mins out, so that I could gather up the milk. She did, and so I pulled ALL the milk out of the freezer, bagged the oldest for her, but the newest on the very bottom, and the oldest that was left in the drawer of the deep freeze. This way it is easier to reach and doesn't get buried underneath the newest that I freeze daily. So, it was nice out and my mom had just made it into town. We bundled up Bug, and walked up to Starbucks.
When we were just about there, I texted her and let her know so. As we are walking through the parking lot, this man starts walking towards us with a smile on his face. As he gets closer, he waves, so we wave back. 'I wonder if that's her husband' I say to my mom. So he calls out 'Are you Mandi?' I say 'I sure am, you must be S's hubby, I'm sorry, I don't know your name!' He laughed and introduced himself, then took the cooler and one bag from my mom to carry the rest of the way to their car. When we made it, S and I gave each other a big hug. It's such an experience to do this. We gave them the bags of milk and they quickly put it in a cooler. We chatted for a bit and even laughed about how it felt like a drug deal. After all, it is liquid gold!
We also talked about how it was that some mom's could make so much milk (me) and others don't make enough. As she pointed out - at least some of us that do make an abundance are willing to donate it to those that do not! We chit chatted for a bit longer, and then she got on the road with a promise of more milk in the future.
One thing that was different about this one was she insisted on sending me some milk bags. I let her know clearly that it was not something that she had to do, as I was going to buy the bags, pump the milk and freeze it regardless. But, I also said, I wouldn't turn them down. So I got a message a couple of days later asking for my address so that she could have some shipped to me from Amazon. I haven't received them yet, but it is such a sweet thought on her part that she would be willing to send them my way to help out.
Needless to say, I cleaned out over 400 ounces from my freezer. Then I brought home all the stuff that was backing up my work freezer (oops LOL). I'll bet that it doesn't take me but another 2 weeks to replace all I gave away. Wow. Guess my two mama's will get an offer of milk at the end of the month/beginning of April!!
So, Kev and I are going to Toledo this weekend to get the house ready to rent out. The economy is so bad there that we cannot sell it (even though it's got so much going for it!!). Everyone wants to offer so much less than we owe, and the bank won't agree to take it. Ugh. So, rent it out we will do. But, of course, being a pilots wife.... we had to change our plans up. I was going to go tomorrow, but now not until Saturday. I'm taking some time off the beginning of the week to take care of things here after we get it all here. Ick. Should be fun ha ha.
Another day down, and my little bug is almost 8 months old! I can't believe it!
Here's to a happy and healthy day :-)
Emms
Bug was sick, poor little thing. She had pneumonia! It's really scary when they get that sick. Luckily she didn't have to go to the hospital or anything, but her left lung was pretty full. Luckily we caught it in time and a round of antibiotics did the trick. She is a reflux baby, and it seems as though she is fighting congestion constantly because of it. I always know to give it a week. So I did. But then at the end of the week none of our tricks or meds were helping, and she seemed to be getting worse. So I took her in and the pneumonia was there! UGH. But, she's feeling SO much better now!
My mom (nana) was in town this weekend. We were having my uncle do our taxes, but he only got hers done, boo. Oh well, I'll get ours done later I guess! But it was nice because Mom helped quite a bit around the house getting things done that were in dire need of being done, and we got to see some family. My cousin has two little one's, the youngest is not quite a week older than Bug. It was so neat to see the differences between the two. My Bug has some chunky cheeks! As it turns out, just like her mama had when I was little. A family friend posted a picture of me on FB, I mighta been around 5, and Bug is a duplicate! She really is my mini me! I always knew she was, but that just made it seem that much more obvious.
I bring up Eats on Feets because my freezer became full again. So, I contacted the mama that I donate to for little S, and offered her up some milk. Turns out, her freezer was full too! YIKES! She's been doing really well with her breastfeeding, and only needing to supplement an ounce or two every feeding. I am SO happy for her! But with that being said, my freezer started to bust at the seems, so I had to find me another mama in need of donations! I had received a message back at the beginning of the year, right after I had donated quite a bit to S, from a couple of mama's. There had been one that had been working on getting her supply up, and her daughter, B, was about the same age as S. (OK, that's a lot of letters, are you keeping them all straight?!) So, I contacted her and asked if she was still in need of donor milk. She was, and was very happy that I had contacted her! It took us about 2 weeks to meet up, as she lives about an hour and 1/2 away. But, this weekend we did it. They were driving up on their way through to do a family function.
So, have I mentioned before that donating milk feels like a drug deal going down? Because if I haven't, it does.
So, we planned on meeting in the parking lot at Starbucks near my home. I told her to let me know when they were about 40 mins out, so that I could gather up the milk. She did, and so I pulled ALL the milk out of the freezer, bagged the oldest for her, but the newest on the very bottom, and the oldest that was left in the drawer of the deep freeze. This way it is easier to reach and doesn't get buried underneath the newest that I freeze daily. So, it was nice out and my mom had just made it into town. We bundled up Bug, and walked up to Starbucks.
When we were just about there, I texted her and let her know so. As we are walking through the parking lot, this man starts walking towards us with a smile on his face. As he gets closer, he waves, so we wave back. 'I wonder if that's her husband' I say to my mom. So he calls out 'Are you Mandi?' I say 'I sure am, you must be S's hubby, I'm sorry, I don't know your name!' He laughed and introduced himself, then took the cooler and one bag from my mom to carry the rest of the way to their car. When we made it, S and I gave each other a big hug. It's such an experience to do this. We gave them the bags of milk and they quickly put it in a cooler. We chatted for a bit and even laughed about how it felt like a drug deal. After all, it is liquid gold!
We also talked about how it was that some mom's could make so much milk (me) and others don't make enough. As she pointed out - at least some of us that do make an abundance are willing to donate it to those that do not! We chit chatted for a bit longer, and then she got on the road with a promise of more milk in the future.
One thing that was different about this one was she insisted on sending me some milk bags. I let her know clearly that it was not something that she had to do, as I was going to buy the bags, pump the milk and freeze it regardless. But, I also said, I wouldn't turn them down. So I got a message a couple of days later asking for my address so that she could have some shipped to me from Amazon. I haven't received them yet, but it is such a sweet thought on her part that she would be willing to send them my way to help out.
Needless to say, I cleaned out over 400 ounces from my freezer. Then I brought home all the stuff that was backing up my work freezer (oops LOL). I'll bet that it doesn't take me but another 2 weeks to replace all I gave away. Wow. Guess my two mama's will get an offer of milk at the end of the month/beginning of April!!
So, Kev and I are going to Toledo this weekend to get the house ready to rent out. The economy is so bad there that we cannot sell it (even though it's got so much going for it!!). Everyone wants to offer so much less than we owe, and the bank won't agree to take it. Ugh. So, rent it out we will do. But, of course, being a pilots wife.... we had to change our plans up. I was going to go tomorrow, but now not until Saturday. I'm taking some time off the beginning of the week to take care of things here after we get it all here. Ick. Should be fun ha ha.
Another day down, and my little bug is almost 8 months old! I can't believe it!
Here's to a happy and healthy day :-)
Emms
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Eats on Feets
I started to write this blog back on 2/9/11. Needless to say, I have been crazy busy. So here it is LOL.
Well, for the third time yesterday (2/8/11) I donated milk to a mama who BF's but doesn't make enough. I think I donated a couple hundred ounces yesterday, and that was after donating around 600 ounces the other two times. All 3 times I have donated to the same mama. Her sweet little daughter, S, is younger than Bug, but it is SO great knowing that I can share something with her little one that she cannot fully give herself.
Why would I donate one may ask? Why would someone use donated milk another may ask? In many parts of the world there are still wet nurses. What is so different? Yes, this mama and I found each other online, but that is it. We have met in person, I do not charge her for the milk, in fact, I ask for absolutely nothing in return. The feeling that I get being able to give another baby breastmilk instead of that baby having to drink formula is an amazing feeling. The first time we met, we met at Starbucks. Bug got hungry while we were waiting. So, as I sipped on my (decaf) tea, I NIP. Mama walked in to see me nursing Bug. I think that even helped make her feel comfortable, that much more a guarantee that Bug was getting the milk that I was sharing with S!
Don't get me wrong, I am not downing on formula. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it! I am just so happy that I can breastfeed, and even happier that I can help another mama that wants to exclusively feed breastmilk. In her case, they tried supplementing with formula and it gave S a lot of gastro problems. Since they have been supplementing with my breastmilk they have gotten rid of all of her gastro problems! That is amazing!
We get so many tests when we are pregnant, and this other mama knows that. I have been honest with her all around. Yes, I was drinking one cup of caffiene a day. Now I don't everyday, but whatever. Yes, I will have a glass of wine after Bug goes to bed sometimes. But you know what? I don't pump again until morning! One glass of wine is out of my system in about an hour, especially considering how much water I drink. So, if I'm not pumping until 8 hours later the wine is LONG gone. Don't forget that there are many theories that a glass of dark beer or wine at night actually help your supply! Yep, I take Zyrtec for allergies, and Fenugreek to make sure that I remain a crazy milk making mama. I still take a prenatal vitamin and a DHA supplement. She knows all of these things and is comfortable with them. Why? Because I breastfeed my own Bug. Bug is growing healthy and strong from my milk. If I can help nourish S, and make sure that she grows healthy and strong and is not in pain from gastro problems, why wouldn't I?
Forever I will know that I have helped a little one get what her mama feels is best for her, in her specific situation. I have had other options to give to other mama's, but this mama and I have a relationship now. I will give to her until she no longer wants it or has no more room for it. Then, and only then, will I offer my overstash to another mama.
On that note, I think it's about time to text them. My deep freeze is full again, I have no more room. Ahh the joys of sharing. The feeling of contentment knowing that I am doing right.
Oh yeah, it's about time to pump :-)
Well, for the third time yesterday (2/8/11) I donated milk to a mama who BF's but doesn't make enough. I think I donated a couple hundred ounces yesterday, and that was after donating around 600 ounces the other two times. All 3 times I have donated to the same mama. Her sweet little daughter, S, is younger than Bug, but it is SO great knowing that I can share something with her little one that she cannot fully give herself.
Why would I donate one may ask? Why would someone use donated milk another may ask? In many parts of the world there are still wet nurses. What is so different? Yes, this mama and I found each other online, but that is it. We have met in person, I do not charge her for the milk, in fact, I ask for absolutely nothing in return. The feeling that I get being able to give another baby breastmilk instead of that baby having to drink formula is an amazing feeling. The first time we met, we met at Starbucks. Bug got hungry while we were waiting. So, as I sipped on my (decaf) tea, I NIP. Mama walked in to see me nursing Bug. I think that even helped make her feel comfortable, that much more a guarantee that Bug was getting the milk that I was sharing with S!
Don't get me wrong, I am not downing on formula. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it! I am just so happy that I can breastfeed, and even happier that I can help another mama that wants to exclusively feed breastmilk. In her case, they tried supplementing with formula and it gave S a lot of gastro problems. Since they have been supplementing with my breastmilk they have gotten rid of all of her gastro problems! That is amazing!
We get so many tests when we are pregnant, and this other mama knows that. I have been honest with her all around. Yes, I was drinking one cup of caffiene a day. Now I don't everyday, but whatever. Yes, I will have a glass of wine after Bug goes to bed sometimes. But you know what? I don't pump again until morning! One glass of wine is out of my system in about an hour, especially considering how much water I drink. So, if I'm not pumping until 8 hours later the wine is LONG gone. Don't forget that there are many theories that a glass of dark beer or wine at night actually help your supply! Yep, I take Zyrtec for allergies, and Fenugreek to make sure that I remain a crazy milk making mama. I still take a prenatal vitamin and a DHA supplement. She knows all of these things and is comfortable with them. Why? Because I breastfeed my own Bug. Bug is growing healthy and strong from my milk. If I can help nourish S, and make sure that she grows healthy and strong and is not in pain from gastro problems, why wouldn't I?
Forever I will know that I have helped a little one get what her mama feels is best for her, in her specific situation. I have had other options to give to other mama's, but this mama and I have a relationship now. I will give to her until she no longer wants it or has no more room for it. Then, and only then, will I offer my overstash to another mama.
On that note, I think it's about time to text them. My deep freeze is full again, I have no more room. Ahh the joys of sharing. The feeling of contentment knowing that I am doing right.
Oh yeah, it's about time to pump :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)