Dear Ellie,
In the photos above, that's about 2/3rds the breast milk your mother has banked for you. Overall, its filled 3 big freezers top to bottom. Apparently, this is what it takes to feed a baby your size for about 3 months. The reason we have so many reserves? To put it simply, your mother is a one woman dairy. A mammal that would inspire envy in any cow, if they knew such an emotion.
Early on she set quotas for herself and then pumped extra if she didn't meet them. About a month ago, her milk makers even started producing so fast that she didn't know how to stop them. We thought they might start shaking or vibrating or explode or something. It sort of reminded me of Scotty from the old Star Trek series: "Captain! We canna go on much longer like this! It'll tear the ship apart!"
Your mother pretends to be modest about her boobs in the "lactation station" (where all of the women pump) here at the NICU. As waterfalls of white mana pour from her mammaries, other women look on teary eyed at their own measly 10 milliliters. She'll give them advice and try to comfort them. "Don't feel bad, you'll get there," she says, but in her mind, I knows she's also thinking: "Forsooth, I hath vanquished thee, knave!"
At any rate, because of your mother's innate competitiveness, you have a virtual mountain of milk to consume. I'd say you have quite a climb ahead of you. With any luck, if you too have the grit and determination of your mother, you shouldn't have a problem. One bottle at a time, Ellie. What was that Confucian saying?
"The baby who moves a milk mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
remind me not to eat the ice cream at your house!
ReplyDeleteJessica B.
If Ellie doesn't finish, there are people that would pay big $$ for that!
ReplyDeleteGood old craigslist.
The breast milk black market. Indeed.
DeleteCan't wait for mashed potatoes when I come home to visit in August. But seriously I think that all the breast milk Ellie has been able to down has probably improved her success significantly.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to pour it all into a tub and have Ellie swim around in it like Scrooge Mc. Duck. They do call "white gold" around these parts.
DeleteLol...omg that is truely impressive. I can't imagine her finishing all that because I'm sure there will be plenty of "fresh" stuff available daily on tap, right?
ReplyDeleteBtw, photos of my little biracial darling are up on my blog: http://aboutplanb.blogspot.com
I think it is rather cool that these two babies are so close in age: Gauri was born at 37 weeks, and is almost 2 weeks old today.
Oh, you have a blog! I'll have to start a blog list myself on a sidebar and add you. Stork Stalking. Clever. Yes, from the looks of your blog, we have both been dealing with some hefty infertility treatment/problems for some time and (at last!) have our little ones. I guess gestationally, they are only a few weeks apart, sheesh,
DeleteGauri and Ellie, best friends forever. We can send them off to grad school together.
Lol well, if you plan to blog longterm, a sidebar is a very good idea. On the topic of collecting blogs to follow, if you want to find micropremie blogs, let me know.
DeleteIt would be very cool if these two girls ever meet someday..not too many half Indian half Caucasian babies around... I wonder if that is something they would bond over!
It's a curious detail, but apparently there are quite a few "anglo-indians" from the old British Raj days. I joked that people will probably just think that Ellie is hispanic, ha.
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