Milk Lady

Tonight I picked up my very last bag of breastmilk from our generous donor, otherwise known as the "milk lady." Our awesome donor pumped an extra 3-5 ounces a day for Olivia for the past six months or so. Her baby is just slightly older than Olivia and she had an extra abundant supply of milk, so she passed on her extra to us. I will be forever grateful. I wasn't sure how I would be able to finally say that we no longer needed her extra milk, since I remember how desperate I felt way back at the beginning when I wasn't making enough and I wanted to stock up as much as I could. We could have stopped taking her milk a few months ago, but it took me a long time to feel confident about having enough. We have a freezer full of milk now, plus I have started freezing my own extra milk, now that Olivia is taking less in her bedtime bottle. I'm pretty sure we have enough to get to the one year mark without having to give any other kind of milk, which feels great. Anyway, I had a hard time trying to figure out how to properly thank our donor. I wanted something symbolic but practical and given with love from one mama to another. I actually ended up ordering a gold necklace from Etsy that had all three of her sons' names engraved on it. It was a set of three circles with a name on each circle and a special decoration on the middle one, since I was one of the midwives at that son's birth (which is how we met). I gave her the necklace tonight and she loved it! I'm so glad. It was really hard to say goodbye but I know it's for a good reason. Time to move on to the next phase. But I am so incredibly grateful for all her generosity.