Overnight Pump Challenge

I exclusively pump! My first kiddo I had after 8 years of infertility. After so much intervention, I wanted a "vaginal unmedicated" birth and to nurse until he weaned himself. LOL joke was on me, be was breech and I had a c-section and he REFUSED to latch so I was scrambling on how to feed him. For the first 4 days I spent countless hours trying to get him to nurse. He cried, I cried, we all cried lol. My husband begged me to give him formula, and while I KNEW it would be okay to, my brain kept telling me not to feed him that because it could kill him (hormones & PP brain... gotta love them). I finally gave in and gave him formula at day 5. It was the first time he stopped crying. He was starving. I felt HORRIBLE. At that time I was trying to figure out my pump. It was still in the box. I didn't have a clue how it worked. I didn't have a pumping bra, didn't even know those were a thing. I spent hours daily researching and found a few pages online (pinterest) on "how to pump". So I started doing that and became an exclusive pumper. It took me MONTHS to figure (somewhat) out what I was doing. It took me MONTHS of horrible pain to realize the 24mm flange is not my size AT ALL. I made it to 9 months. My mental health was not great. I weaned and then felt HORRIBLE ans tried to re-lactate. That's when I met with Dr. Diana. She told me how to do it, but I was too impatient and quit. I had built a small stash that made it possible for him to get 1 bottle of breastmilk a day until his 1sr birthday. It wasn't what I wanted, but it was enough.

This time around, I had a better idea what I was doing. I scheduled my consult and saw her at 11 days PP with my second. She completely blew my mind when she took me from pumping 3-4 oz combined to almost 8 during our pumping session. I followed her advice and this journey has been completely different! I am currently about 15 weeks PP, I pump 7 times a day (I dropped my 8th at 12 weeks) and I make about 45-60oz per day (about 50-52 on average). My baby is 100% exclusively breastfed and I have freezer full of milk already (about 1500 oz). I will continue pumping until it no longer feels right, but for now, I am excited and empowered and educated enough to think I can make it to 1 year. I have filled my first stand up deep freezer. I have a second one I am starting on soon!!