Donor Stories
About 14 weeks before my due date, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I had been experiencing some bleeding and cramps, which the doctor called normal and nothing to worry about at first. It was my first pregnancy, so I tried not to worry. But I started having contractions one night and woke up with more bleeding the next morning, so I went back to see the doctor. I found out there was a 10% chance I would deliver my baby prematurely that day. I felt glad it was such a small chance, because I definitely did not want to have the baby yet! Over the next few hours, I began dilating, and my chances of delivering quickly progressed to 100%. I was in such a state of shock that when I was first asked if I wanted to talk with the NICU staff, I said no…I didn’t want to believe we were going to the NICU!
My husband and I were just staring at each other, crying. They told us there was a 90% chance of our son living, which was good to hear, but we were very scared. Mason was born on February 25, 2016 – 14 weeks prematurely – at the exact same time I was born, 4:17 p.m. He weighed 2 lbs 2 oz and was 14 inches long. You always think that when you have a baby, you’ll be able to hold your baby, but I didn’t get to hold him right away. They immediately took him to the little station with a million NICU nurses around him, and we didn’t hear him cry! I stared at them for what felt like a long time until they said, “He’s okay.”
Mason was too premature to breastfeed, so I started pumping my milk for him immediately, knowing how important it is for preemies to get all that nutrition. I pumped every few hours and he only needed a tiny amount. After the first two weeks, we moved him to another hospital and they began fortifying my milk with a Prolact+ H2MF human milk-based, human milk fortifier for the extra nutrition he needed.
Mason went back and forth between the two hospitals’ NICUs for several months, and I was there with him every day. I asked a lot of questions to make sure I understood everything the doctors were talking about. I kept a notebook with me and wrote down what the doctors said, which helped a lot. I also kept a blog, which helped me deal with my emotions while also keeping our family and friends up-to-date. When we brought him home on June 14, we were unprepared, and also scared about Mason no longer being on all those NICU monitors.
I was still unable to breastfeed, this time because of complications from a lip- and tongue-tie condition he had. After getting that fixed, I tried breastfeeding again. In early September, he finally latched one time after weeks of trying. But the doctor said to continue pumping and using the fortifier to ensure he was getting the right nutritional content. So for now, I am trying to breastfeed a little at night to get Mason comfortable with it, even though he has already eaten enough for the day. We’re having a rough time, but we keep trying.
With all the pumping I am doing, I have a lot of excess milk, and I have become a milk donor. I started out donating directly to the hospital, but I found out about the Tiny Treasures Milk Bank through a Facebook group.
When I looked into it, I thought it was great how they use donor milk helps preemies, and I realized the importance of the human milk fortifier my own son received while he was in the NICU. I decided to do the same for other preemies…this was a chance to help them get the human milk fortifier they need like my son did.
I chose Tiny Treasures because I appreciated the way they walked me through the process on their website and in their explanations. I am excited to be sending in my first donation box next week!
Stay tuned to Elisha’s journey as a preemie mom and milk donor by following her blog: www.mightymasonupdates.blogspot.com.