Darn Google

Warning: Boys, you probably don't want to read this (I think I have one male reader.... Kevin). I use the term breastfeeding about 16 times!!!

I have been so lucky (that combined with a lot of hard work) with a plentiful milk supply. Those Mom's out there, know what a blessing that can be. I have never found breastfeeding easy however. With Evan, we struggled for 13 long months. That boy never enjoyed it. He always wanted to look at something else in the room, and it was too boring just to look at my face for a whole 20 minutes straight. I guess this was foreshadowing for toddlerhood. Now he also wants to do anything but eat as well. With Drew I began pumping when he was only a couple of hours old. I pumped every 2 hours around the clock while he was in the NICU, for at least 3 weeks until I backed off to every 3 hours. When I got him home, he never latched on very good so I always had to continue pumping and offering a bottle in addition to nursing. When our home was hit by the flu in January and he stopped eating for a few days and I became extremely dehydrated, I went back to pumping every 2 hours around the clock to get my supply back. I decided not to nurse him anymore but to strictly bottle feed my milk. The result: I now have a massive supply of milk and have donated thousands of ounces to the local milk bank. Another great benefit, I am about 13 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight. I know...I suck. You are thinking... why is she bragging.... shut up already. But keep reading.

So last night, I googled how many calories you burn for each ounce of milk you produce.... and darn it if I am not burning between 1200 and 1800 calories a day just producing milk. So that's why I have been eating like a linebacker!!! I am totally bummed though. Because in the back of my head I was hoping maybe my metabolism just shot through the roof for some unforeseen reason, and that even when I stopped nursing, I would keep the weight off and still eat whatever I want! So unless I start exercising like mad and drop my caloric intake by about a thousand calories.... the weight is coming back people. I just wish I wouldn't have read that, because I kind of like eating whatever I want and now it's going to be even harder to stop breastfeeding (or pumping) in a few months. Guess I will enjoy it while I can and be so grateful for having enough milk to feed my baby and other babies too (my milk has supplied two other babies getting milk from the milk bank since September, 2009)!