My very long intro

[mfulk]

Thanks to Terri for inviting me to join. I'm Meghan and I have a 4 year old daughter, a 2 year old son and we're expecting #3 in November. I was born at home and was raised in a very natural & attachment parenting kind of way. Since I've had kids I've become even more interested in natural living and we definitely practice attachment parenting. Both of our kids were born at home and this one will be as well. Neither kids are vaxed and DS isn't circ'd. We cloth diaper, although at the moment we're really enjoying having no one in diapers until the new baby arrives. We started homeschooling this month. I was homeschooled for grades 6-10 and loved it. DD slept great on her own so we didn't co-sleep. DS was a horrible sleeper so we co-slept with him for a year. With the exception of the occasional ice cream out or food at someone else's house we are very particular about what we eat. We try our best never to eat the most natural whole foods that we can. Oh and I hate chemicals in cleaning products, beauty products, etc.

I'd say my biggest problem that has come up in our attempt to live a natural life has been with breastfeeding. After our wonderful homebirth it was a devastating shock to discover that the reason DD was losing a lot of weight was because I was hardly making any breastmilk. We tried everything, and I really do mean everything, but nothing changed and no one had any solutions for us. Because I wanted her to get the small amouts of milk I made and I wanted the attachment part of BF I nursed her for 12 months with a supplemental nursing system and hypoallergenic formula because she was allergic to everything else. I hoped and prayed things would be different with my 2nd and everyone assured me they would be but it wasn't. Again, we tried everything. This time though I went through several doctors and tests to discover that I have hypoprolactinemia, some kind of genetic disorder of the pituitary gland which makes me make very small amounts of prolactin and therefore very little (like a few ounces total a day despite round the clock pumping) BM. I was blessed to discover milkshare, a website that gets moms who need breast milk together with moms who have extra milk. Thanks to amazing women from that site and some local moms our son was able to have 1/2 of his daily needs met by donated breast milk and the rest from goat's milk formula because he too has dairy issues. I nursed him for 20 months with the supplemental nursing system.

As someone who really desires to give my children the best, not being able to normally BF was truly devastating. Many times I stood in the formula aisle or mixing a bottle crying as I had to give my children food that I very well know is not the best for them. I have somewhat of a sense of peace with this pregnancy knowing that I won't be able to produce nearly enough milk. At least I know what the reason is and we've started collecting donated milk so that the baby will have BM from the beginning.

I don't know why I felt like sharing all that. My sister had a baby last year and she found out she has the same condition, she was able to find enough donors on milkshare to give her baby 100% donated milk through a SNS for 14 months. Both of us have prayed many times for things to change and asked God why us, why not someone who wasn't planning on BF anyways? We've both decided to try not to be embarassed about our BF problems, but to instead share our story with others so that people can be exposed to the idea of breast milk donation in a positive way so that maybe our experiences can help someone else through their challenging experience.

Sorry that was so long.

Meghan

[Pat]

Meghan, thank you for sharing. I'm thrilled that you were able to access milkshare! It sounds like you had such a difficult journey. And are really helping mamas learn about how they can make a huge difference in a baby's life by sharing their breastmilk!

The more breastmilk you can get those first weeks, the healthier the baby's gut. We have allergy issues here too. And I really believe it is mostly from ds receiving antibiotics at birth and confusing his gut to what is "normal" flora. Thankfully, he was able to nurse and get the probiotics and enzymes from breast milk.

Another option is kefir supplementation for the probiotic benefits. There is a lot of documentation now about probiotics and newborns.


Pat

[Terri Wilson]

Oh Meghan, I had no idea. I am so glad you joined us over here. I think you will like it a lot and fit in perfectly. I think it is wonderful that you were able to get what you needed through milkshare. I have been thinking about donating some bm myself this time around, so I will look in to that. Maybe we could set something up directly. Don't really know how the logistics of that. How is the hs going? Oh and listen to Pat about the keffir. She really knows her stuff.

[Jeff Wilson]

Welcome, Meghan. Interesting story. Good luck with baby #3.

Your challenge now is getting Chad to join.

[Francie]

Hi, Meghan! I think that encouraging people to donate breastmilk by sharing your story is a good thing. Most people probably don't know about donating it or why they should consider doing so. Cheers, Francie

[Anna]

Meghan,

Thank you for sharing your story. What you have done is so amazing! My story is a bit different but I identified with so much of what you wrote. My oldest was in the NICU for 2 months after birth, most of that time intubated. So she had severe oral trauma and never breastfed. I pumped for a year but had to start supplementing towards the end and after that and it was so hard. We had a natural birth and had, of course, planned to breast feed and the loss of that relationship was as hard as anything we went through during that really challenging time. I know the breast milk I pumped saved her life and so I am so grateful for that.

Anyway, I just identified with having to let go of what I *thought* it would be and attachment parenting without breastfeeding, which was quite the anomaly!

~Anna

[Kara]

Thank you for sharing! I never knew about those resources and I'm glad you posted that. I have twins and the demand very much outweighed my supply. :) I'm glad you shared. I hope to meet you at a future event.
Kara

[Tammy Hallihan]

Thanks for the great introduction and sharing so much about yourself. I hope we get to meet sometime!