Happy World Breastfeeding Week! + An Update!

Well.. hello!

I feel bad for not updating here in a month, but I have been busy. Let me show you what I've been doing..

Without getting too graphic (although they are just breasts, doing what they're made for!), that's me pumping while sitting with my laptop. I've been pumping 8-10 times per day every day since I was discharged from the hospital.

It's a LOT of work, but it is worth every minute of pumping (even at 2am!), bagging up milk, storing it, shipping it, and more. I do have to admit that compared to when I pumped with my twins, this time is much "easier" as I don't have a newborn (or two) to care for on top of it all, of course. I mean, I am still getting up during the night, as it's incredibly important I pump at least once between 1 and 5am! But it's not too difficult to get up, pump, store in the fridge, back to sleep. I really can't complain. It's helped me recover a lot faster, I think, and it's been helpful for me emotionally, I think anyway?, to know I am helping Sprout still!

Here's some of my milk shipments. Yes, I take photos of the milk before I ship it off. I am THAT proud of not only my milk, but also a proud surro mama in general! I've made just over 2200 ounces of milk so far, that's just over 17 gallons!

A days worth of milk

My most recent shipment of just over 600 ounces of milk!

Sprout is doing really well. His daddies seem very busy and very happy! I am still so so elated for them. They are a beautiful family, I think. Sprout is of course adorable, and boy, he's growing a lot. I saw some new photos of him last night and it made my heart swell. That sounds so .. silly, but it's true. It's hard not to be proud of that little guy, and also of his daddies and the amazing way they've taken to fatherhood. I had no doubts about them being daddies, and I am just reminded all of the time that I made the right choice in helping them to become fathers. I am so blessed! What a great note to go out on for my surrogacy journeys!

I have been doing well. I think what I suspected as being baby blues was actually, "My leg won't work, this sucks" blues. My leg began regaining movement and one day I told my husband I wanted to stand up sans leg brace. He immediately said no, he was just worried I'd fall, and I understood but darn it, I needed to try! He went off to the store that evening and I had my son grab my walker. I shouldn't have done it, but I needed to try it.. so I stood up and I half expected to fall on my face, but I didn't. I stood there and I then began sobbing. It may have been just over three weeks since I stood, which really wasn't all that long, but I had no warning of such a problem occurring, so no mental preparation! So, to stand up and do it myself, it was overwhelming. I took it slowly and still need to be slow here and there. I'm not running or anything really, and I need to take it easy on inclines/declines (even my driveway, which is only slightly sloped!) and going up and down stairs. But I can walk, and I am still not taking that for granted. It's so nice not having to depend on others or that darn leg brace (I'm ready to burn it!).

Other than that and pumping a lot, it's just been busy with the kids, summer, and the usual things in life.

So, I titled this post Happy World Breastfeeding Week. WBW is August 1st through 7th! I've been posting a lot of facts and such on my Twitter and Facebook and I plan on a couple of blog posts in the coming days about it as well. Look for those in the next few days hopefully..

And now I am off to bag up milk. I actually just pumped while writing this post. :)