With Evie I managed to feed her breast milk right up until the day she turned 6 months old with help from the freezer stash I had developed. I got pregnant with Lex when Evie was only 4 months old and the pregnancy greatly affected my supply. Originally I had planned to breastfeed for a year. I also had major problems trying to pump for her prior to getting pregnant. I just didn't have the hang of timing it to get the most milk into a freezer stash. I also worked 9 hour days and pumping that much is just not the same as feeding a baby directly. It hurt my supply big time.
Lex received breast milk until he was 10 months old. I had also planned on breastfeeding him for a year but because I had enlisted into the Guard again I was leaving for OCS right after he turned 10 months old and I wasn't able to pump at all while I was gone. I was much more emotional about having to stop with him than I was with Evie because this time it was my choice to stop and I was choosing a job over feeding him the way I had intended.
This time, I WILL make it to a year. There's no reason (as of right now) why I shouldn't. I'll at best be working part time and the rest of my days will be spent with Sophia. The longest I will spend away from her are my 3 day weekend drills at Camp Ripley. The first one is coming up in September. As of today I will have 200 ounces of breast milk stashed in our extra freezer. I can't believe it! In the grand scheme of things it's really only just under 7 days of milk but I've never had a freezer stash so large. By the time I go out of town in September I may be close to 500 ounces saved up!
I do have to admit to feeling a bit like a dairy cow, though, with being hooked up to the pump 2-3 times a day in addition to feeding Sophia, lol.
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