The Rohrbach's: December 2018

Friday, December 14, 2018

Pumping Postmortem

Just about eight and a half months after my little belly buddies birth, I have "finally" stopped pumping. I say finally in quotes because most everyone else thought my pumping journey was extremely long but once I hit my groove with it, it didn't actually feel that long to me. And I really didn't mind doing it which is REALLY bizarre to me since I wanted to burn my pump with both of my keepers at this point. I actually had a really rough few weeks when I cut pumping out - more so than after Maverick's birth. A massive hormone crash didn't help that but I think it was the official end to this journey that did it for me. But, I'm feeling more like myself again and it does feel really great to have all the bottles, bags and other pumping junk off the counter tops! I'm also very much enjoying not having to lug that extra bag to and from my office and my endless hunger has finally dissipated.

As most of you know, I'm a cow when it comes to milk production. Maverick had enough milk in his freezers (yes multiple freezers) to keep him fed for the first year of his life by his 4 month birthday. We extended my pumping agreement through 6 months and even though I cut back on pumping, I wasn't ready to give it up so I began strictly donating. Over the course of the last 8+ months I've been fortunate to donate to many families, but the last few months I got hooked up three families that were looking for an ongoing donor. If you are ever looking to donate, or need breastmilk for your own little one, check out human milk 4 human babies. It's such an amazing community full of amazing people. Some children can not drink formula (or eat food at all!) due to medical conditions, some parents are very passionate about their child drinking breast milk exclusively and can not produce themselves, are fostering or adopting and some women are over producers like me that want to help out anyway they can. FED is best, but this community is a wonderful place without judgement, if you should need/want to use it. I feel really honored to be among these women/families!!

And now some stats (mostly so I can look back later and have a record of things):

* First Pump - March 13, 2018

* Last Official Pump - November 29, 2018
(I had a few relief pumps after some scares with mastitis after I stopped pumping, probably a little too abruptly)

* Total Amount Pumped - 19,855 oz / 155.1 gallons
(Plus a little from the first week and a half where I wasn't logging)

* Total Pumping Sessions - 1,157 pumps / 16 days 1 hour and 40 minutes

* Highest Daily Output - 107 oz
(Actually it was 124 oz but that was cheating because I didn't do my last pump until after midnight so it registered on the next day.)

3-13 - 3/27 - eight + pumps a day
3/28 - Seven pumps a day
4/21 - six pumps a day
5/24 - five pumps a day
7/14 - four pumps a day
8/17 - three pumps a day
11/9 - two pumps a day
11/23 - one pump a day
11/29 - Zero

One of Maverick's milk freezers

Stats at almost 4 months post birth

Glorious Wellness room in my new office building.

4 of the 16oz of milk I had to dump because our hotel refrigerator in Vegas was cranked up way too high and it all froze solid. Whoops.

Last milk donation being picked up

Sigona/Rohrbach Cousin Photos

Cousins are the best!! Now we need to do this with Mike's side :)

Foot to the face, and still smiling!

Borrowing some of Sweet Poppy's moves

Now run free!!!

Best Nonnie and Nonno around!

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

A Rainy Version of Friendsgiving

Every year there is threat of rain on Friendsgiving. Sometimes it rains the night before and then stops, sometimes it rains late that night after the festivities. But this year we had full blown rain! Since our house is pretty small we depend on using our backyard for most events and even though Mike set up some water-proof coverings, we figured no one was going to want to eat out there. Things always seem to work out though. We had a smaller group than usual this year (by about 20 people!) so we were able to fit all the tables we needed in the house and garage. Even with 30+ people, I felt like I got to talk with everyone this year instead of having mini broken conversations throughout the night. The food spread was incredible as always, Mike's pumpkin pie ale, campfire stout and pale ale were hits and we had the added bonus of some extra time with Sarah since she spent the night. It may be one of my favorite years yet! (Even though I probably say that every year)