more working and breastfeeding

This guest post is written by Katy. Katy is a 19 year old mom to 5 month old Lexi. She’s married to her husband, Ryan. I actually met Katy by donating milk to her through Eats on Feets – Texas. This is a great post by a young mom who goes above and beyond to make sure her human baby gets human milk! 

Lexi and Katy

I had lots of trouble breastfeeding at the beginning. I still don’t know the exact reason, and when Lexi was a week old I began pumping mostly and attempting to feed on the breast as often as I could. She would cry and be frustrated every time I brought her to my breast. After two weeks of pumping she finally latched on right and got full off me. From that day on we were able to breastfeed successfully. That was the first challenge!  Next I had to find a new job because I quit my old job before having Lexi. I have always been a server so that is what I looked for. I got a job at Chili’s when Lexi was 10 weeks old and would be working no more than 4  days a week. Since Lexi was 5 weeks old I had been pumping once a day to build up a stash, I unfortunately was only getting 1/2 an ounce to an ounce at a time. Then my La Leche League group said thats normal so it made me feel better. I wouldn’t be pumping while working because it would be such a burden. I was so afraid my supply would drop. At the beginning I did notice a drop in supply especially when I would get home pump and barely get 2 ounces and not be able to replenish even half a bottle when she ate three while gone. My freezer stash was starting to dwindle down. I was only working 3 days a week though so I could just get enough to stock back up on my days off. I found pumping at night gave me much more than during the day. Right after my supply started to drop I looked into getting donor milk to help. This is how I met The Gnome’s Mom, she kindly gave me some milk to have on hand in case I can’t keep up. After a month of working my supply came back great!  I have a pretty good system down now with my pumping. I would pump once a day to avoid oversupply in days off after Lexi’s first night feed. I can now get 3 ounces from that pump. Then when I get home from work I pump immediately and usually get anywhere from 4 to 6 ounces. It’s a lot harder no doubt between always making sure there is enough milk and missing my sweet girl so much. But it’s worth it so I can buy her all the things she needs.

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