Hangin’ Up the Horns

Well, I did it. I brought my milk supply back from non-existence to pump breast milk for my girls for another 5 months…and then I was defeated by the flu.

I have seriously struggled the past few days with whether or not to quit pumping.

I was really dehydrated the first day of my sickness and only got in 1 pump over 24+ hours. When I did try to pump regularly again, my supply had dropped by half…a big deal seeing as how I have only been making enough for 2 small bottles a day per baby.

I had two options:

1. Add in extra pumps until my milk re-upped. This is freaking hard, folks. It is hard enough to squeeze in 4 pumps a day, especially on the weekends when I’m chasing after twins crawling in opposite directions. I rely on my family enough as it is and I didn’t want to add the extra burden of them helping me with the girls so I could add in 3-4 more pumps a day.

2. Quit. I almost made it to the girls’ first birthday, which was my initial goal.

Had I had a large enough supply to not need to supplement or had they still been nursing, I would have liked to have gone to 2 years. But, I’ll settle for ten and a half months.

I’d like to thank my coworker over at MommyBoots for reminding me that there is nothing wrong with me stopping pumping and that I shouldn’t feel bad about it.

While I know this, I still do have this inkling feeling of sorrow that I’m officially going to be done. It’s just another sign of my baby girls getting older…sigh!

So with all that said, this is Tinamari…hangin’ up the horns.