Moo....

My nickname has been Smoo since I was 10 years old. .

There is a long story behind it, but it was shortened from Smoocher, to Smooch then to Smoo. Strangely enough, it involves no kissing whatsoever either. Needless to say, my family hasn't called me by my proper name, unless I am in trouble, since about that time. My nieces call me Aunt Smoo, although they do now know my name isn't really Smoo. But, I think I am officially ready to shorten it again...

From now on, just call me Moo.

I am breastfeeding R. I actually breastfed L up until I was about 6 weeks pregnant with R, but didn't have the energy to fight the supply drop that came immediately upon my getting pregnant (went from pumping 20 oz to 6 oz!!!). We used up our 200 oz freezer stash relatively quickly and then moved onto formula. There was little guilt involved, until L started getting sick constantly. During one particularly bad bout of the flu, the only thing L kept down for a 3 day period was the last remaining 40 oz of frozen breastmilk that we had previously overlooked in the freezer. It was like the miracle fluid.

So this time I was resolved that come hell or high water, I am breastfeeding R through at least his first year. I took to pumping right away and storing at least 5 oz in extra milk a day from the first day we got home. Luckily, I was constantly in a state of engorgement, so this was easy for me to do. By the time I went back to work 12w later, I had over 500 oz in my freezer. And talking about the freezer -- we purchased a seperate deep freezer for our basement to store breastmilk for L because it can store for longer. Why yes, we are freaks about this? You just catching on to that.

So, as it stands now, we have used exactly 10 oz from our freezer stash (I keep a close eye on it!). AND I have added an additional 50 oz to it. That doesn't include the constant flow of milk through the fridge which on any given day has more than 50 oz in it. I keep thinking to myself, well I should stop pumping first thing in the morning, although I do it for comfort now more than anything, but then I am gripped with fear that I will somehow dry up before the 12m mark and need to rely on the stash to get us there.

Needless to say, I am currently hording breastmilk. I won't even get into the fact that the breastmilk has in fact had to be relocated for a few days during an extended power outage here in NY, but suffice to say, I have some very awesome neighbors and friends who didn't mind storing frozen blocks of human milk for me!

Hello, I am MomSmoo and I am a cow.