Follow Up to Night Time Routine

We've been doing the new night time routine for almost three weeks now and it's been going great! Mila is sleeping longer through the night -- 6 hours is her new record, but she generally sleeps about 4-5 hours at night, which is fantastic! Although just because she's sleeping that much, doesn't necessarily mean I am. I'm still having a hard time making it to bed at 9:30. I get to bed more like around 10:30 and then Jorge feeds her around 11:15 and she's usually asleep by midnight. And then I'm up again around 4am because my boobs are so full and I am so engorged that I have to pump! So even though she's not waking me up, the boobs are! We're making it work though.

The pumping is starting to become a bit of an issue though... she's chugging down a whopping 6 oz at that night time feeding, and she's gone as much as 7 oz. I have to pump 2-3 times just to get that much and that's just for ONE feeding! I can't imagine having to pump to get enough milk to feed her for the entire day. I can only pump for about 10 min at a time (otherwise it starts hurting) and I only get about 2oz at a time. She's an eating machine! I'm trying to build up a freezer stash so I can leave for someone to feed her while I'm out, but seems like she's eating as much (or more!) than I can pump. It's a challenge.

My goal is to exclusively breastfeed until she's at least 6 months and hopefully I can do it without having to rely to much on the pump. After 6 months you can slowly start introducing a few solids, so she won't be nursing as much. I want to continue to nurse until she's at least 2 years old, which does sound like a lot, but it's what the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization reccommends. I know it won't be easy, but I would love to be able to do that for her. Who knew this breastfeeding stuff would be so hard? It affects everything you do: from working, to leaving the house and coordinating feeding times as well as sleeping. I can see why so many people give up and go to formula. Formula does keep them full longer so they eat less and they sleep longer. And you don't have to pump all the time. But there's just nothing like breastmilk... it's so nutritious, formula just doesn't compete. Not to mention that it's free and it's what nature intended! It's for such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things... So I'll do my best to give her the best! Sleeping has gotten better, hopefully so will the feeding and the pumping.