A Pumping Eulogy

My Dear Medela Pump In Style Advanced, 

You have served me well.

I really got to know you over the last year.

In fact, I spent over 900 hours (no joke, I did the math) in the last year with you.

Although my life seemed to revolve around you, I thank you for the opportunity you gave me to feed my children.

You will not be missed too much, but your time here was greatly appreciated.

Love,

Katy and the Babies

**Disclaimer - This is all about my breast pumping experience. So Dad, Kyle, and Brad and anyone else who just doesn't want/need to hear about this, no need to read on, the picture says it all!

A monumental moment just took place.

I pumped for the last time. 

I have pumped every single day, multiple times a day for the last 360 days

and man am I proud of myself for making it this long! 

When the babies were first born I was pumping every 2-3 hrs. Once they were about 2 weeks old I was pumping every 3-4 hours. That's anywhere from 8-12 times a day. Eventually I got to the point where I was pumping every 4-5 hours. Then once they became more mobile around 6 months it wasn't too easy to pump during the day because I'd have to continuously unplug to keep track of the babies, then I wouldn't produce as much, then I'd stress out because I wasn't producing enough for my babies, then the stress would decrease my milk supply and it was a vicious cycle! 

So when the babies were about 8 months old it was time to reevaluate the situation. 

In order to meet all of our needs we decided that the best option for us was to decrease the number of times I pumped and start introducing formula to the babies. So we did just that and it was one of the best decisions I made in regards to nursing. So ever since then I have been pumping just 2-3 times a day and when we're out of breast milk we give the babies formula. The babies will be one year old next week (how a year has gone by blows my mind!) and I am SO grateful that I was able to produce enough milk for our babies for so long.

I'm not writing this to get praise or sympathy, I am just really proud of myself for lasting so long because it definitely wasn't easy for me to do. It has just been a HUGE part of our life for the last year.

I am proud to say that I have survived a year of countless pumping sessions, washing bottles countless times a day, pumping in the car, pumping at people's houses, people asking "Where's Katy?" and others answering "Pumping!" and feeling like our life revolved around my pumping schedule.

I am SO grateful that I was able to even produce enough milk for our babies and that I have such a patient and supporting husband who encouraged me when I was ready to throw in the towel!  I completely recognize that I chose this option and I confidently believe that it was the best option for us, but let's just say that I am really hoping that nursing will be the best option for us when we have other children :)

Farewell my lovely pump!!!

Back to Blogging

Wow it has been a really long time since I blogged.

So much has been going on in our lives and I want to document it so I'm buckling down and am going to do lots of brief updates from the past...6 months.

Our most recent adventure is that we moved again!

After being in good old Rockford, Illinois for 8 months it was time to pack up and head to the last rotation with Marty's job.  And that rotation brought us to...

NORTH CAROLINA!!!

We got to stay with family in Indiana on our way to North Carolina and it was so nice to have a chance to spend time with them, even though it was just one short night.  Thank you Shawn and Cami!

We also had the HUGE help of Don, my father-in-law, with our move.  He flew in to Illinois and helped us pack and then drive the moving truck down to NC.  He was incredibly helpful to have here once we moved in.  He knows so much information and was able to fix things, install things, watch babies, and much more.  Then Vicki, my mother-in-law, flew into NC to help us unpack but we surprisingly got most of the unpacking done before she got here so she was able to play with the babies and help make our home a home.

We've been here for 2 weeks and have absolutely loved it.  Mainly because we can actually go outside because it's not -20 like it was for the last 3 months in Rockford.  We took the babies on a walk and I realized that it had literally been 5 months since the last time we went on a walk with them (with the exception of Christmas in Florida).  Our children have been so deprived of the joys of good weather and we are taking full advantage of it every day we've been in NC :)

We have loved it here for more reasons than just the weather though:

1. Southern hospitality - I have been called "Ma'm" numerous times already and I love it.

2. I FINALLY have a legitimate excuse to say "y'all!"

3. There are lots of great things to do here - man-made whitewater rafting park, tons of beautiful parks, hiking, the beach is 3.5 hrs away, the mountains are 2 hrs away, and I'm sure we'll discover more things.

Below are a couple of pictures from a hike we went on recently

4. Our new ward is fantastic!

That is one thing I have genuinely come to appreciate with all of our moves - that no matter where in the world you go you are guaranteed to have an automatic family in the ward that you move into.  For people unfamiliar with the LDS church, our church is organized in a way where you are assigned a specific church building/unit (or a ward) based on where you live.  That organization has TREMENDOUSLY blessed us because it helps us meet people, allows us to get involved, gives us responsibilities, and we know that people will have our backs.  On the day we moved in we literally pulled into our driveway and people from our ward were waiting with dinner for us and helped us unload our truck.  Great people have helped me get involved in a play group, people have had us over for dinner, and we have just felt so welcomed into our new ward. We have truly been blessed with the wards we have moved into throughout the last couple of years.  

5. We have a house!

We are just renting a house, but we still have that "first home pride" that comes with moving into a house.  It is SO wonderful to have more space for the babies to roam around.  And we have an extra bedroom for people to come and visit (hint hint)!  The house definitely needs some TLC but we are working hard, making it our own, and coming to love it.

This is the pic we took of our house when we were house hunting.  We're getting grass soon (yay!) and we're doing lots of other things to make it our own!

We are so grateful for this next adventure in our lives.  We have been remarkably blessed throughout this experience with the people we've met and opportunities we've had to explore different parts of the country.