Breastfeeding, Pumping, and Formula...

As of this morning, I have nursed (recorded, there is a good bit not recorded as well) 241 times with an average of 35 minutes at each feeding.  I could add up the actual times, but it works out to roughly 5.9 days of doing nothing but being a food source!

I have also pumped 698.0 ounces...that's 87.25 cups, or 5.453 Gallons!  Yes, gallons of healthy breast milk that Gabriel will eventually drink.  He has, of course, been working his way through the stash of stored milk along with the nursing, so I do not have 5.5 gallons of the stuff hidden away in my freezer.  But, I am about 10 days ahead of what he's currently drinking from the freezer (at ~20 ounces a day, I have approximately 200 ounces stored)!

Then there is the formula "issue"...when Gabriel was about 4 days old, we had to add formula to his feeding regimen because I wasn't producing milk yet (that came in on day 5) and he was severely dehydrated (something I feel could have been avoided had the hospital staff been more clear when they talked with us the first time we were there or when he was born, I feel like we got pushed out because they were busy and needed my bed for someone who didn't have their baby just yet).  We ended up using a couple of the "ready to drink" bottles and then around half of a container of powdered formula over the first four weeks.  We had to continue formula because he just wasn't gaining weight (actually started losing again) and his pediatrician threatened to hospitalize him again. He is now well over his weight loss and is somewhere close to (or past) 12 pounds!

I have so much formula "stockpiled" from what was given to us by the doctor's office, my sister, and directly from Similac!  I signed up for Similac's Strong Moms website (club, whatever they call it...) and am in total love with it.  Not only have they sent us formula coupons (I have a ton of these...I need to get them mailed out to formula-feeding Mom's ASAP), they also send me coupons for their bottles!  I currently have $8 in coupons I "need" to use...I think Santa might be bringing more bottles, lol.  Abbot (the company that makes Similac has also sent us 2 containers of formula and two 4 ounce bottles!  Even if "you" don't feed or plan to feed formula...every expectant Mom should sign up for that site!  I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all this formula now that we don't need it as well...I think I'm going to give it away to people who really need it, either through one of the new mom groups I joined or locally.  Anyone in the Spokane area need/want the half used container?  I don't think I can ship that one...