Why Manage My Milk?

Now, I am a working woman, so pumping was always going to be a part of my story.  I had already worked with my insurance company to obtain my free pump, but I wasn't too worried about learning much because I would be home with my baby for 6 weeks before I returned to work and figured I had a lot of time to learn later.

Fast forward through a somewhat scary delivery that resulted in a C-Section, a 6-hour stay in the NICU, lack of support in post-delivery due to a positive COVID test, and a baby losing lots of weight... I felt BEATEN DOWN.  After weeks and weeks of trying to nurse, with only an increase in the amount of pain I was experiencing, I found myself avoiding nursing and just providing my son bottles from the milk I had pumped because I was not experiencing the same level of pain when pumping.  Eventually, I found that I had unexpectedly begun Exclusively Pumping and started doing my research.

While there was some information out there, I didn't feel like I knew where to start or how to proceed.  I also didn't see many examples of moms who had actually done it and been successful.  I eventually created a system that WORKED and that made me feel successful.

So now, here I am, with an almost 15-month-old healthy little boy and an incredible amount of information in my head about how I made this work for my family.  I am choosing to be done with my exclusively pumping journey when my son is 18 months old: in 100 days.  I'm choosing to use this time to create a place where I'm hopeful that future mommas can come to see an example of someone who not only made Exclusively Pumping work but enjoyed it.

Thanks for being here.

-Jessye