One Hundred and Fifty Ounces of Breastmilk or Bust

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about BlogHer this week—and this is going to be another one of them. (My apologies to those not attending. That was me last year, and I hated it.)

The phrase "ten days to BlogHer" keeps repeating in my head today. I think I'm reaching critical mass when it comes to nervous excitement. I spent two and a half hours last night cleaning my house, and another two hours the day before that organizing all of my son's toys. Evidently my brain thinks I'll be giving birth on the expo floor.

Despite being an utter girl about picking out outfits and jewelry (I don't feel obligated to dress up, I want to take advantage of a chance to dress cute and by cute I mean not in a nursing tank top that smells suspiciously sour) and despite my gut-twisting fear of flying and habit of sobbing while writing "in case I explode" notes to my kids and hiding them in envelopes in their clothing drawers, my biggest concern isn't fiery-death or fierce-shoes related.

My biggest concern has been accumulating enough breastmilk to feed my eight-month-old. (If you have a baby at BlogHer, beware. I may start wibbling and smooching the baby.) Though my Moose has started solids, he’s still only having one or two meals a day. I haven’t noticed a huge decrease in nursing. So I’m estimating that he’s still eating about 26-30 ounces of milk a day.

Since I’m leaving on Thursday morning at the butt crack of dawn and getting home on Sunday just after his second feeding, I figure I’ll need about 100 ounces. (The first bottle and a half on Thursday will be from my early-early-morning get-the-boobs-un-engorged pumping session.)

My old Pump In Style bit the dust near the end of my pumping with my first son. (I guess pumping three times a day for 14 months was too hard on the old girl.) Colleen shipped me her older Medela model to help me out, but I discovered that my breasts didn’t respond all that well to it.

I put a tentative plea for help out on Twitter. This time around (working at home) I don’t need to pump all the time the way I did with my first son. I couldn’t afford to buy another pump just to go to BlogHer, but I couldn’t go to BlogHer without pumping half a freezer full of milk. I started to freak out.

When Judy from A Mother’s Boutique sent me a message to let me know that she’d found me a pump, I totally squealed like a little girl. We exchanged a few emails and within five days I had a brand new Ameda Purely Yours Ultra on my doorstep.

After buying a few bras and receiving one test bra for YourMamaReviews.com, I’d learned that Judy’s store was absolutely treasure trove of pumping and nursing goodies. But I had no idea that Judy was such an absolutely saint.

I’ll be posting a full review of the pump after I bring it on my grand adventure to Chicago. Hopefully I’ll be able to share some pumping-while-traveling tips after I figure it out and consult with some other pumping mamas on the trip.

Thanks to Judy at A Mother’s Boutique, I now have over 130 ounces of breastmilk in my freezer. We’ve done a few test bottles and I’m highly relieved to say that the Moose is finally accepted them. I AM GO FOR LAUNCH PEOPLE.
When I am glomping you at BlogHer or nervously hiding or darting off to pump, you can thank Judy for sponsoring my boobies. I’ll be bringing my Ameda pump (in its cute tote) with me to the conference to pump around five times a day. The tote comes with an awesome storage cooler, but for the sake of convenience I’ll be dumping my milk instead of trying to store it and fly home with it. (I know, it’ll feel like dumping gold down a drain. However, I plan on being a bit buzzed each evening, so that milk will be useless anyway.)

A Mother's Boutique carries maternity clothing, breastfeeding clothing, nursing bras, breast pumps, slings and breastfeeding accessories. Judy blogs about breastfeeding and parenting at Mommy New and Views. Judy has also written two great articles for breastfeeding moms. She includes them with every order, but you can read them online as well: Breastpumping Tips for New Moms and Working & Breastfeeding.