Donor Stories
Marissa L's Donor Story
"Hi there! I'm Marissa. My husband Adam and I have 2 great sons, Aaden (7) and Owen (9 months). My motherhood experience has provided its fair share of obstacles.
We are a military family who has gone through multiple deployments and countless training that required him to go elsewhere overnight to months away from home, leaving me one busy stay-at-home mom.
However, my greatest obstacle I face is when my husband is home. The boys and I get into a great grove while he's away. This house runs like clockwork: school, soccer practice, lunches, dinners and even cleaning. You name it and it's done. But when he's home all that goes out the window.
Playtime and messes take over. And while that's a great thing, it drives me crazy. I'm left scrabbling to get things done last minute. Finding balance and time for it all (motherhood and being a wife) is seriously a fine walk. I've learned so much over the 10 years of being married and the 7 years I've been a mom. And even though it drives me crazy to leave a mess or dishes piled I know that the quality time we spend together is way more important not only for me but for my entire family.
My husband is also super supportive of me pumping. Owen was born with a tongue tie and was unable to latch properly. Even after we revised nursing, it was too stressful for the both of us so I decided to exclusively pump.
And I pump like it's my job. Thank goodness because I'm not only able to feed my baby but have donor babies who benefit from my work. Pumping is hard work. There are times when we can't just get up and go like we would like.
We have to plan things accordingly and always have a backup. But because of pumping and donating I have made amazing friends in the pump community. My greatest pump milestone was helping a local mom who adopted. I helped her reach her goal of 1 year. He just had his birthday and is growing and learning new things everyday. I would like to think I helped to make a difference."