Tuesday, May 1, 2012

My Other Relationship

I have another relationship. Don't worry, Jenn knows. We have been together for almost one year. We meet every morning around 8am and every evening around 9pm. Last summer, we spent a lot of time together. We would rendez-vous up to 8 times per day. As the months rolled on, our meetings became less frequent but we would never go a day without seeing each other at least twice. I will admit that sometimes I would prefer to skip our dates but the guilt and the physical (yes, physical) pain that I would feel would be far too great. 

My other relationship's name is Medela Freestyle. Medela is a pump. 

For those of you who have found my blog in recent months, I'll give you a quick back story. Neither of the girls could latch when they were first born. Fortunately, Teagan figured it out after about one week. Quinn, on the other hand, would scream bloody murder at the sight of the boob. She was crying. I was crying. We were both frustrated and stressed. As a result, I pumped. I pumped a lot. Despite my stress, my desire to give the breastmilk was the strongest emotion of all. In between feeding Teagan and pumping, I continued to try to breastfeed Quinn. After many visits to several lactation consultants and weeks of perseverance on both of our parts, she got it!

I continued to pump for the girls' bedtime feed. Prior to Quinn mastering breastfeeding, Jenn and I had established a nice little bedtime routine. The girls would be in their pjs with the lights dimmed and relaxing music playing in the background. A baby lying across each of our laps drinking a bottle of warm, pumped milk. This routine has become a wonderful end to our day. 

While I love our routine, I am thinking about ending my relationship with my "other other-half." If you've pumped, especially if you do it regularly, you will understand why. It can be a pain. The pump is like a medication that I have to take. If we are out at night (a rarity these days!), I feel like Cinderella come 10pm-ish. My boobs start to get sore because I'm an hour past my evening date with Medela. 

My plan is to work on transitioning the girls to nursing at bedtime. Quite honestly though, I'm not sure how to make this transition. My body is also used to two pumps per day, as well as the four times I breastfeed the girls throughout the day. I know that it will adjust.

Anyways, part of me will miss my dates with Medela...ok, maybe it's a very small part. We've been faithfully committed for a long time now. Dear Medela, I think that sporadic dates will be better for our relationship. I will never forget the gift that you allowed me to give to my babies. 

6 comments:

  1. medela looks like she has a soft touch.
    -sophie

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    1. She's lovely, Soph. Let me know if you'd like me to introduce the two of you.

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  2. I pumped for 7 months for our triplets. I nursed while they were in the NICU but at home with no help during the day I couldn't do it. The boys were barely patient enough for me to bottle feed each of them, nursing just took too long. I was determined though to give them breast milk & therefore pumped every 3 hours for 7 months. I quit then because I wanted to spend more time with them & less time with Medela :o) The boys had become very active & because I made so much milk it took me 45 minutes to an hour to pump & I was often having to cut it short to tend to somebody... I cut back by waiting until I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore & then pumped. I also quit emptying myself out, just pumped a little more than enough to be comfortable. It took about a month to completely wean completely.

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    1. I am so impressed that you were able to pump for 7 months for 3 babies! I remember feeling torn when I was pumping a lot too -- on one hand, I wanted to give them breastmilk but on the other, I wanted to actually spend time with them!

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  3. Our 'break up' was bitter sweet...I wish you the best of luck with your transition!

    - Kate

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  4. I was so happy to ditch the pump!!! I did the same thing - weaned myself off pumping. I weaned Paityn at 13 months and that was bitter sweet. Weaning the pump was just plain sweet ;)

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