Why Manage My Milk?

Story time: I'm pregnant and planning for life with a new baby alongside my husband, Blake.  We're scared out of our minds, but excited about many things, too.  The one thing I'm most excited about?  Breastfeeding.  Like, physically nursing and working with my newborn to connect and bond in such an intimate and special way wherein I provide nutrition, antibodies, time, and love.

I purchased a reclining glider chair and set it up in the corner of the nursery.  I created a snack/drink station next to it and stocked it up with healthy treats and multiple water bottles to be refilled and available for the amount of time I planned to spend skin-to-skin with my child.  It was my favorite part of the room.  I was prepared.

Now, I am a working woman, so pumping was always going to be a part of my story.  I had already worked with my insurance company to obtain my free pump, but I wasn't too worried about learning much because I would be home with my baby for 6 weeks before I returned to work and figured I had a lot of time to learn later.

Fast forward through a somewhat scary delivery that resulted in a C-Section, a 6-hour stay in the NICU, lack of support in post-delivery due to a positive COVID test, and a baby losing lots of weight... I felt BEATEN DOWN.  After weeks and weeks of trying to nurse, with only an increase in the amount of pain I was experiencing, I found myself avoiding nursing and just providing my son bottles from the milk I had pumped because I was not experiencing the same level of pain when pumping.  Eventually, I found that I had unexpectedly begun Exclusively Pumping and started doing my research.

While there was some information out there, I didn't feel like I knew where to start or how to proceed.  I also didn't see many examples of moms who had actually done it and been successful.  I eventually created a system that WORKED and that made me feel successful.

So now, here I am, with an almost 15-month-old healthy little boy and an incredible amount of information in my head about how I made this work for my family.  I am choosing to be done with my exclusively pumping journey when my son is 18 months old: in 100 days.  I'm choosing to use this time to create a place where I'm hopeful that future mommas can come to see an example of someone who not only made Exclusively Pumping work but enjoyed it.

Thanks for being here.

-Jessye