Just call me Bessie

If there's one thing I know I'm doing well in raising this baby, it's breastfeeding. After some initial challenges (mostly me keeping up with Cayden's appetite), we're definitely in a groove.

And much of the credit for our success has to go to Mary the LC and our Tuesday BF group. The stories and tips the other moms shared have really helped me trooper through. It's just so comforting to know other moms have been there before, and it's encouraging to see the older babies as a glimpse of better, easier times to come. Many, many times I looked at another mom/baby pair in group and said to myself, "he's xx weeks. OK, I can make it to xx weeks."

So it was sad to attend our last BF group this morning. But I didn't cry until we were almost in the driveway back home. And I did get the e-mail address for Sara, mom to Carson, Cayden's birthday twin.

And now we move on to a new phase of nursing and breastfeeding, as I return to work. I've got 73 little baggies of milk stored up in the freezer -- that's nearly 300 ounces of milk, or more than two-and-a-quarter gallons. Since I'll be pumping a day behind for Cayden Monday through Wednesday, our "stash" will either last us a really long time or mean that I can slow or quit pumping earlier. That's assuming my supply holds up against the physiological change/challenge of replacing a baby with plastic horns a few times a day.

So I think I'll take the next few days off from pumping and just enjoy nursing Chicken Wing whenever possible. Because come Monday, the pump will become an integral part of my life at the office, three times each day.

Keeping up with the all-breastmilk diet is especially important to me now and through the winter, as the risk of contracting all kinds of flu is real and present. If Chicken Wing can't benefit directly from my flu shot (got it this morning), at least he'll benefit from the disease-fighting antibodies he'll continue to get en masse from milk.