Amish You

Holy Packages, Batman.

We have received many packages the last few days ... a new high chair, ritzy baby cereal with pre/probiotics for Thomas (surprise, they sell it at Target..), books bought on Amazon, our last Dinner of the Month for the 2011 year ... but on Tuesday I was watching for the mail carrier.  And when he parked his truck outside my door and started to walk toward the stoop I leaped from my chair and met him at the door.  I knew it was coming - I had known since Saturday!!  My sister Margaret had shipped me ...

... donuts!

Not just any donuts ... but red velvet cake donuts ... glazed and powder sugar coated!  Cake donuts are my weakness.  Red velvet cake, now that's like a luxury item (why? i'm not sure) you only see at weddings and special events it seems ... so when I was chatting with Margaret last week and she was telling me all about her red velvet cake donuts ... I must've been drooling and oo-ing and ahh-ing over the telephone to the point of gluttony, because she decided to send me some. In the mail. =)

 Amish you, too, Margaret!!

.......

In other news, it has finally begun to feel like wintertime.  We've gotten a boatload of snow, a bit of rain, and a bit more snow.  Thomas and I sprinkled seed out on the sidewalk last week to feed the birds.  My little feeder doesn't drain well enough to keep the seed fresh, so we ran an experiment by just sprinkling it outside for them.  Each morning we enjoy spotting the bird-prints in the snow.  It's so sweet to notice them outside..!  Thomas has also enjoyed watching them from his sunny spot, perched in his high chair.  We went to our bi-weekly Breast Feeding Support group on Wednesday this week to weigh Thomas and visit with other moms, answer questions and pose questions of our own ... I was in shock to see that Thomas has gained 2 pounds over the last month..!! His typical weight gain is about 3-4 ounces per week ... so to pack on that much weight in a month is shocking!  Go Thomas!

Thomas is donating some of his boob milk to another baby in need.  We found a facebook group for Indiana that is organized by the website Human Milk for Human Babies (hm4hb), an alternate to the Human Milk Banking of North America organization I had contacted in December that said I didn't have 'enough' milk to donate ... and quite informal, as well.  I would definitely recommend the Human Milk Banking of North America organization to moms with a deep freeze who are willing to hop / skip / jump through a few hoops to donate 100 oz. or more, because I think it goes toward helping babies that are in the most need, as opposed to HM4HB that is not regulated by need, but rather a first-come / first-served basis.  A mom-friend of mine from the WTE June 2011 moms group I am a member of recommended HM4HB to me when I mentioned my desire to donate and denial from the milk bank ... she even provided me with the link to the Indiana facebook group! Wow. A facebook group for donating/acquiring breast milk!  Following her comment, a few other moms piped up about their positive experiences with the organization.  Ryan's only comment was regarding protection from liability ... which I suppose is a real risk, but considering the positive feedback from my mom friends, I went ahead and posted -

"Northern Indiana mom - I have about 3 gallon bags full of 3-5 ounce Medela and food-grade freezer bags available for donation. My LC (lactation consultant) and LLL (La Leche League) leader said it would probably be fine to use freezer bags and I have fed the milk frozen in freezer bags to my own child since freezing."

In less than 24 hours I had three women contact me asking when they could pick up my milk ..!! Wow.  I can't imagine feeding Thomas another woman's milk, personally, but it feels so good to be able to help a woman and her baby fulfill their wishes for breast milk.

I should note that I do have nearly (if not over) 100 ounces of breast milk in my freezer.  It's sort of a problem, because it's becoming difficult to store food in our freezer around it's bulk ... hahah ... but it's nice to have in case of emergency ... but we haven't had any of those emergencies, really, since September ... and since breast milk freezer bags (such as the Medela / Lansinoh brands) are so expensive, I eventually started to freeze milk in regular freezer bags.  They thaw super fast, which is convenient, and they are significantly less expensive - 50 for $4 compared to 20 Medela bags for $10!  This choice was the primary reason the Milk Bank would not accept the majority of my "stash."  I toyed with the idea of pumping and freezing everything I pump for a month in Medela bags, then going through the freezer temperature verification process with the Milk Bank and completing their required blood work to verify my health as well as Thomas' ... but in reality, I haven't been pumping as much as I was because Thomas has been waking a lot in the night (growth spurt? teeth? both?) and nursing back to sleep ... so in the mean time, it feels great to be helping a woman in need, and to have a few women in my contact list who may be interested in milk should I build up my stash, again!