Milk Money

Blake and I have been really blessed with a great breast milk supply!

Once we established a routine, and after he was a month old, I started hand expressing milk so I could try and sleep through the night and his dad or my parents could feed Blake. After two weeks of hand expressing, I started pumping...

I pumped after every feeding. About every two hours. That was a seriously exhausting time in my life... But I adjusted. It just took a little time.

When Blake was almost 4 months, I started pumping every 4 hours so I could go back to school and work. And since then my milk supply has been golden! Blake is on one bottle of breast milk a day, IF THAT. The rest of the time he feeds off of me. Soooo...

I have a ton of extra milk.

I had to buy another freezer, in addition to the two we already have.

To stop myself from buying a fourth freezer, I looked into donating and selling my milk.

Every two months, I donate 300-500 ounces of milk depending on if I have a local family that needs to restock their supply and how much I produce. The organization I use is the National Milk Bank (nationalmilkbank.org). And they have been more than accomodating and helpful. I'll get into that later.

So I have a few families in the area that contact me for milk. We found each other on onlythebreast.com. Thankfully, I found sane, funny, and adorable families. There really are some creepers and perverts out there so if you choose to use the site, make sure you do a thorough screening of the family. If you have questions, just message me. I would love to help you!

One mom purchases 1000 ounces every two months from me. Another mom gets a supplemental stock every month. About 150-300 ounces. The other mom just 50 ounces a month. If you do the math, that's a huge butt load of milk!

Being a single mom, working part time and in school full time, I'll take whatever we are blessed with. We've been given the gift of breast milk, and we want to share it! Plus, a little extra income on the side is certainly helpful.

Yesterday, Blake's dad was able to watch him while I trekked out about an hour to meet my bulk-buying mama. We did a 650 ounce exchange at the rest area between us. Every time I do that, I feel like it's so shady. Transferring bags of milk from my cooler to her cooler and then exchanging the money. I call the transactions my "milk drops". haha! It was nice to get out on my own though, driving and taking in the scenery...

The mom showed me pictures of her daughter before she started drinking my milk (at a little under one month old) and of her now. She is a beautiful little girl and it's just so awesome seeing how I've helped a family. I always love seeing the pictures of the kids growing up! It's so... rewarding! I wish I could explain the feeling but for now, I'll stop rambling... ;-)