Pumping Some Iron (and other nutrients)

Mandy is a champion mother. She's been a very faithful mother producing milk for her little one on a very regular basis. The lactation consultants at the hospital have been extremely helpful in teaching us what we need to know about nursing and pumping in a hurry, especially since she was signed up for the breastfeeding basics class in October. I thought it was crazy when she told us Mandy should pump every two hours, especially since setup, pumping and cleanup takes at least 15 minutes to a half an hour each time. That's 25% of your life! But Mandy has been a real trooper. Oh, I should mention that they told us we don't have to wake up every two hours, she can go up to 5 hours without pumping overnight. Last night she hit record numbers with a whopping 150 mL. At this rate our freezer at home will fill up in record time because we're clearly going to have an abundant supply. Don't get me wrong, that's a huge blessing, and I think can be in part attributed to the lactation consultants who have helped ensure a positive pumping experience. So now we're looking into getting a deep freeze. Also Mandy suggested we could try selling our extra on the black market. (I'm not even making that up.) Unfortunately we don't have room for a full sized deep freeze and you can't sell bodily fluids on eBay. So I guess our options are running low. We're also learning more and more each day how her breast milk is the best food for Ellie's little tiny digestive track. We learned that her breast milk even has different antibodies than a full term baby's mom. God's creative genius never ceases to amaze. We are constantly reminded of his grace and thoughtfulness through all of this. Mandy is feeling very good about pumping because it's helping her cope with not being able to take care of Ellie 24/7. But she really is contributing and the nursing staff reminds her that it is the most important things she can do for Ellie right now. End of post. Deleted paragraph: (unrated) So this might be too much information, but well, let's be honest ... this is a team effort here...so Ben was with me when I produced my record 150 mL ... he was so excited for me. And we were in such amazement because the last pumping she ranged around 30 mL ... So he was cleaning up the bottles and said, "Honey I was just thinking, we are so breast ..." CLEARLY, he meant blessed ... but well, that obviously was on the mind :)