Many of you may remember that back in February I posted a plea of help to find local mama’s who would be willing to donate their precious, hard-earned and hard-pumped breast milk to my son Frankie. If you didn’t get a chance to read that post you can read it by going here: https://thepaleomama.com/2012/02/26/anymamasmilkistrulythebest/. To sum it up (although I would really recommend you reading it) I lost my milk supply 7 months ago when I had, very tragically, lost my younger sister. Despite all my efforts to save my breast milk and attempt to find a formula to use, my son lost weight, became extremely colicky, suffered reflux, and became dairy/formula intolerant. I was at a loss what to do. I was grieving the loss of my sister and trying to do all I could to find a way to feed my son. About 3 weeks after my sister’s death, a friend offered some of her frozen, pumped breast milk. I took the milk home, defrosted it as fast as I could, and fed my child. As I was feeding Frankie his first bottle of breast milk, tears came to my eyes as I saw his eyes light up when the first drops of sweet, nutritious milk hit his lips. As I said in my blog back in February, these were not tears of guilt or self-condemnation, but tears of joy and redemption. I felt like the wounds and scars that were made, because of my lack of ability to breastfeed, were slowly healed in that moment. Moments after he drank his first bottle of donated milk, I noticed how I had my little sweet and healthy boy back. He didn’t throw any of it up. He didn’t wrench his back in pain. He didn’t scream or fuss for hours after the feeding. He was happy, content, and alert!
I was so overwhelmed with the response I had to that blog post. I was, literally, drowning in emails and Facebook messages about amazing mother’s from all over the world that had milk they wanted to donate to Frankie. My husband didn’t see me for a week! I met some incredible and extremely generous mothers after I posted about how desperately we needed milk. I received emails from Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia from mother’s who wanted to send me milk. I was in tears as I responded to so many of YOU and did my best to express my deepest thanks.
Three months and two deep freezers later, I am so deeply honored to say that my son will thrive on donated breast milk way past his one year birthday!!! The burden that has been lifted by mothers who have selflessly donated to Frankie is indescribable. Words sound so cheap compared to what they have done, however, I am so deeply thankful to the superhero mother’s who have flown into my life and saved my day.
Thank you. If you had a part in nourishing my son, thank you. If you read my blog and prayed for us, thank you. If you forwarded my blog on and shared it on Facebook, thank you!
