It takes a village to breastfeed my baby

The last time I talked about breastfeeding on here, I left you hanging with the comment that I was going to pick up some donor breast milk for J the next day.

Well let me fill you in on what happened next.

I drove up to Warkworth to meet my lovely breast milk donor. It was, unfortunately, raining so we had to do a quick hand off in the car park of her daughter's ballet practise, without really getting to chat. I had brought some gifts and breastmilk bags for her, and she had brought a dozen bags of precious frozen breastmilk for me.

I was thrilled and figured that what she had given me would be enough to supplement J's formula at least once or twice a day until I could pick up more milk from her.

But then, once I had given J some breastmilk, I just wanted to give him more. I didn't want to intersperse it with formula, since it was already upsetting his tummy and I was nervous he was going to get reflux like S did.

So I just kept on giving him the breastmilk and hoping more would come from somewhere.

And more did.

A family friend of Paul's got in touch after reading about my supply issues here and offered to express for J. It was perfect timing as I picked up a dozen bags from her just after I finished the first lot.

And then I happened across an offer of breastmilk from another Auckland mother through the Facebook group Eats on Feets (now Piripoho Aotearoa). Her baby is just a few days older than J, so the milk she's expressing is an ideal match for him.

Between me and these three amazing donors, J has been fully breastmilk fed for several weeks now.

It has totally relieved my feelings of guilt over not being able to produce enough. I'm just so happy that I finally have a fully breastmilk fed baby.

To help keep my supply up, I made the decision to only offer J milk from me overnight. He feeds off me better when he's sleepy, because the milk comes out slowly, so he just relaxes and drinks till he nods off.

I've also taken to feeding him to sleep during the day, which is not something I did much with the girls, being a strict Babywiser. But for my situation, I've realised this is better because it's also helping to keep my supply up, and it's just a really lovely way to spend time with him, snuggling up in bed.

I love my little dude, and am so grateful to the three generous women who are helping him to grow and thrive. Thank you lovely ladies!