For Girls' Eyes Only

Hello ladies. Today I want to talk to you about breast pumps. If you aren't interested in breast milk and don't want to hear how I think I broke a world record in milk production today, then you can scroll down and read about a blanket binding I sewed yesterday.

I heart my Lansinoh double electric breast pump. If you're in the market for one, this one's the one to buy. My son won't latch on to the breast, so I have to pump the milk and feed him in a bottle. I really don't mind because that means my husband can partake in some of the middle-of-the-night goodness. I just jab him in the ribs, tell him it's his turn about three times, and voila, he's up and at 'em.

Today I slept in a little later than normal. I didn't get up until 8-something, and I hadn't pumped since 10:30 PM. About 11 hours of not emptying the breast is not a good thing. They felt like bricks. I think I could have broken a window with them. I couldn't pump right away either because Joel was hungry and crying, so I had to feed him first. Then I realized the pump parts had been rinsed last night but not washed thoroughly. By the time I started pumping, it was 9:05. In twenty minutes, I had pumped 12 ounces. 12 ounces in twenty minutes has to be some kind of world record, people. And that's not even taking advantage of the fact that I have a double breast pump. I broke a part the other day so I can only use one flange, so I can only pump one breast at a time.

Speaking of broken parts... I got on their website, and the part I broke was 90 cents. I about fell out of my chair with disbelief. But don't worry; they made up for it in shipping and handling. They wanted over 7 bucks to ship something just a little bigger than a quarter. I decided to buy several extra parts for the pump just in case I break or lose something else. I ended up buying five bucks worth of parts, and the shipping stayed the same.

Just in case you're totally enthralled with breast pumping and would like to see graphs on my progress, you're in luck. (Yes, I am one of those moms). Below is how much I have pumped each day for about the past month. Each color represents a pumping session. You can see that lately, I usually have pumped only four times a day. I figure if I am getting the right amount of milk in just four pumping sessions, why pump more?



The other graph is how many ounces my son eats in a day (what's going on with that sixteenth day?). During the first month of his life (not shown), I had to give him more formula, however as you can see, he barely needs to eat formula at all now. I am still using the free sample cans, though I am on the third and final one. (Luckily my sister-in-law gave me two, and my hospital gave me one so I have plenty).


Ok, as promised for those of you who just want to read about sewing... another blanket binding project. My mom kept all my thirty-year-old blankets, however they were in sorry shape. She gave me four big boxes of my and my brother's baby stuff when she found out we were pregnant, but alot of it needed a facelift, like this striped blanket below.

I didn't know that they actually sell blanket binding already made until about a month ago when I thrifted a bag of vintage sewing stuff, and several packages of it was inside. Woot, woot! That made it a heck of a lot easier, and it turned out so much better than the one I did a few months back.

Here's some of the blanket bindings I got in that thrifted bag o' goodies.

The finished product.