The Milk Lady

My surro baby, Alexander, made it out of the NICU July 8th and then headed back to his home July 13th. He is doing so well and is even up to six and a half pounds! One of the issues with international surrogacy is that you can't ship breast milk (it would melt and go bad during shipping/in customs). However, I was able to pump for Alexander for the first two weeks.

Here was my final gift of breast milk before they left

And here is the last time I got to feed him

Now, anyone who has ever breastfed knows how much it sucks when you stop. Your boobs get rock hard and hurt so bad! This time I decided instead of "cold turkey" I'd slowly start pumping less and less and then finally end it. Since my own surro babe has left the country, I asked my surro group if any of them needed my extra milk.

Tomorrow, after eleven more days of pumping, I'll be sending over 3500mL to a precious baby girl who was born to two marvelous dads several weeks ago. She will be heading back to her home (also International) in about a week but not before I get to supplement what her own marvelous surrogate has been giving them since her birth.

Here she is with her Dads'

I started to get it all packaged up to ship

After this, I have eleven more days of my breast pump rental. I am down to pumping only 2-3 times a day now and by the first week of August should be completely finished. I do have plans for any milked pumped during the final days, a friend of mine is going back to work and is a little worried about her own pumping, so I'm planning on giving the milk to her and her wife to help supplement. Just call me The Milk Lady.

Pictures

Original Post from July 5th . . . I went into the hospital on Friday June 29th and was discharged Monday July 2nd. Alexander is still in the NICU but looks as if he'll be discharged in the next few days (if you can believe it!)

Here are some other pictures from his 2nd and 3rd day on earth, including a video or two . . .

Alexander's sign

In his isolette

Close-up

My first bout at breast pumping, a few hours after c-section

Getting Checked out

Feeding Alexander breast milk

One of my favorite photos

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Alexander

So the morning of Friday June 29th, Stacie and I walked into Labor and Delivery to get my "leaking" checked

About 8 hours later we headed to the Operating Room. Having my best friend with me was an amazing experience. We were only 3 days apart in our journeys so wanted to document the bellies one last time together before mine turned into a baby

The delivery team got me all set up and then Stacie joined us with multiple cameras and phones in her possession. Since my IPs were not able to be at the birth of their first child, we wanted to make sure it was well documented for them and she did an amazing job!

Here I am prepped for surgery and ready to have Alexander make his exit

The doctors got down to business and at 6:29pm on 6/29/12, Alexander takes his first breath

Here is the actual birth video

Alexander could breath on his own

but they did give him a little bubble assistance

Stacie joined Alexander to take pictures while I was taken to recovery.

About an hour later, they wheeled me in to visit Alexander

The entire time Stacie and I were texting and emailing pictures to the Dads, who were stuck in Australia until the next day.

More to come . . . .