Donor Mom Ashley's story:
I began pumping with my first (now 8) in order to finish out the school year. I was blessed with an abundance of milk and as the summer approached, I looked for something to do with our deep freeze full of milk. I was grateful to hear about the Mother’s Milk Bank and happily donated our excess right as we learned we were pregnant with baby number 2, who is now almost 7 years old! Because pumping had gone so well for the first, I pumped every morning with baby number 2 as a way to have a little extra on hand and in order to specifically donate to the babies the Milk Bank serves. The second time around brought in over 1000oz and it was so nice to be donating and helping, especially when our finances were lean and I didn’t have a lot of other ways to help people.
Little did I know that this pumping experience was preparing me in big ways.
A short time later, we learned that baby number 3 was headed our way and that this baby would be blessing us in a number of ways, most uniquely coming to us with Down Syndrome. Kids with Down Syndrome often have weak oral tone and difficulty nursing. Our baby had a great latch, but would fall asleep immediately on the breast. While I was sad I couldn’t nurse him “from the tap”, I was so grateful for my history of pumping so that I could provide him with breast milk in the next best possible way. We exclusively pumped for 9 months and he had at least 10oz of breast milk for the last months of his first year. I don’t know if I would have been able to claim that victory without the experience and motivation from pumping for the Milk Bank before.
Now we are nursing baby number four and knew we wanted to pump milk for the babies who need that extra help. My plan was to pump specifically once a day, but our picky boy won’t take bottles while I work part time, so we have even more to donate! While frustrating for his dad when I’m gone, we know this milk will be put to good use for others! I’m so grateful for the chance to help out these babies and thankful for all the work the Milk Bank does. We pray that these babies grow big and strong on all the milk provided.
- Ashley
I began pumping with my first (now 8) in order to finish out the school year. I was blessed with an abundance of milk and as the summer approached, I looked for something to do with our deep freeze full of milk. I was grateful to hear about the Mother’s Milk Bank and happily donated our excess right as we learned we were pregnant with baby number 2, who is now almost 7 years old! Because pumping had gone so well for the first, I pumped every morning with baby number 2 as a way to have a little extra on hand and in order to specifically donate to the babies the Milk Bank serves. The second time around brought in over 1000oz and it was so nice to be donating and helping, especially when our finances were lean and I didn’t have a lot of other ways to help people.
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| Johnny (5), MacKenzie (8), Liam (5 months), and Keegan (almost 7) |
A short time later, we learned that baby number 3 was headed our way and that this baby would be blessing us in a number of ways, most uniquely coming to us with Down Syndrome. Kids with Down Syndrome often have weak oral tone and difficulty nursing. Our baby had a great latch, but would fall asleep immediately on the breast. While I was sad I couldn’t nurse him “from the tap”, I was so grateful for my history of pumping so that I could provide him with breast milk in the next best possible way. We exclusively pumped for 9 months and he had at least 10oz of breast milk for the last months of his first year. I don’t know if I would have been able to claim that victory without the experience and motivation from pumping for the Milk Bank before.
Now we are nursing baby number four and knew we wanted to pump milk for the babies who need that extra help. My plan was to pump specifically once a day, but our picky boy won’t take bottles while I work part time, so we have even more to donate! While frustrating for his dad when I’m gone, we know this milk will be put to good use for others! I’m so grateful for the chance to help out these babies and thankful for all the work the Milk Bank does. We pray that these babies grow big and strong on all the milk provided.
- Ashley
I'm so blessed to hear this awesome story. Thank you for sharing!
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