Key success factors

I think that with any challenge, one of the key factors to success is surrounding yourself with supportive people. Breastfeeding is something I've really been struggling with the past week. More specifically, pumping. My return to work seems to have perfectly coincided with a growth spurt for Jack. Just when I'm trying to get adjusted to "full time" pumping, he wants to eat more and more. Thankfully I had built up a pretty good freezer stash of breastmilk, but it still discouraged me to have to start depleting it so soon.

This morning I was basically ready to call it quits all together. I actually brought my pump to work just in case, but had pretty much decided just to stop cold turkey. Well Pete convinced me to give it a few more days and that if I didn't have enough milk that some breastmilk and formula was still ok. So I pumped this morning and got 8oz...wow that is double my normal. Then I did it again after lunch and got another 7oz, then 4oz more in the afternoon. Between this and and encouraging email from Meg, I decided to have a better attitude about pumping.

My goal now isn't 1 year, my goal is tomorrow. I need to take this one day at a time and decide what works for me and Jack. My job is pretty demanding and I am lucky to be able to nurse Jack even twice a day, but we'll make it up as we go along. Thanks to everyone that has supported me with breastfeeding, especially the advice from Claire, Jamie, Meg, and my Mom. You all inspire me and remind me that breastfeeding can be enjoyable, but also understand some of the frustrations and challenges.
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