Milk Donation

At this point, I think nursing is about as good as it's going to get, which is to say, not very good. During the past week, Sterling has had roughly 15 oz of supplementation per day. One day she only had 11 oz, two days she had 17. 

Just before we left for Granny's I decided that I wanted to look for milk donors. This was a big step for me... it involved sharing the fact that I don't make enough milk with people that I don't know. I know it's not my fault (as in something that I've done), but I still feel inadequate for not being able to nurse my baby. Deciding to look for milk donors involved the heartache of actually admitting to myself that I'm never going to make enough milk for her. And it involves admitting that same thing to other people; people that I don't know at all.

Before we left for Granny's, I emailed the mom's group that I'm a part of. I also emailed a pregnant friend of mine who I know made a lot of milk with her first child. I found the Human Milk 4 Human Babies facebook group and posted there. I posted on milkshare.com. I looked at Eats on Feets (also on facebook).

Within 24 hours of posting on HM4HM, two different women had contacted me offering to donate their milk. Since then, I've picked up milk from both of them and my freezer now has probably close to 100 oz of breast milk in it. Well, it had that much anyhow. Sterling has been drinking it for the past few days, so there's quite a bit less now. 

The generosity of these women is amazing. They're taking time out of their lives to pump milk for someone that they really don't know and don't care about. In doing so, they're providing something for my baby that most people can't. They're giving her a chance to experience all the health benefits that come from breast milk and not from formula. I'm extremely grateful, but at the same time it makes me feel a little bit sad every time I make her up a bottle filled with milk that's not mine.