It's finally paying off!

All of my pumping is finally paying off!
I just hit the 22 ounce mark a couple of days ago so I thought it could be time now to feed him directly off the boob and guess what!?!?! he finally got full on nursing! It all happened cause I had no choice but to nurse him when I forgot to bring a bottle for him to mass this morning. He was fine in mass but after we went and bought breakfast and went to the park to eat and play. Well Nate got hungry so I took him to the car to nurse and he was full and happy, it was amazing! Then from there I said to myself, "I can do this, I'm gonna try to nurse him all day" and it went well! I know a baby can suck out more than any pump so thats why I was fine with hitting the 22 ounce mark and nursing him. I'm not sure how much more they can suck out but I'm hoping its at least a half ounce more cause I'm averaging 2.75 ounces every 3 hours when pumping and he eats 3 ounces at each feeding. Now I've gotta work on making more to freeze and store for the future.
Also, Naty knows how much my BM means to me and this morning I woke up so engorged cause I went about 10 hours without pumping last night cause I felt awful yesterday. Because of that, I was able to pump out 8 ounces this morning, well....I left my BM on the counter and totally forgot about it so I had to throw it out and it was upsetting. Naty seen me throwing it out and said, "aaawww babe I'm sorry," that made me feel loads better cause he felt sympathy for me and knows what it means to me. It also shows how important the BM is to him.
Tomorrow Nathaniel will be 8 weeks but not considered 2 months till saturday on the third. We're having alot of ups and downs with him these past 8 weeks. I seems that every time the weekend rolls around he doesn't feel well. He's having stomach and crying issues. He started off fussy friday and was a little worse on saturday and today he slept most of the day. I took advantage and slept with him for 5 hours. I know I went 2 hours passed his feeding time BUT I didn't care, I wanted him to rest cause if he wasn't hurting, I was happy! When I decided to wake up and feed him, he did NOT want to wake up, he was so tired, poor little guy. He's wide eyed right now with Naty on the couch so we'll see if he sleeps again. I love that little guy and it breaks my heart when he cries, I hope this passes soon.
As for the big kids they're totally in love with him and the crying doesn't phase them. They don't get upset or tell me to shut him up (like I would tell my mom about my sister! LOL) they're always concerned and LOVE him to pieces.

Still Pumping away...

Pumping still sucks (literally, LOL) but I'm still doing it and my supply is steadily growing. I'm doing everything possible to increase my supply and as hard as it is I think of the benefits and thats what keeps me going. Nate can easily nurse now with NO problem but the problem now is my supply. He eats about 24oz. a day and I make about 13oz. a day, so I'm still behind and as he grows he'll be needing more and I pray my supply eventually catches up to him.

I started with 0.5oz of BM mixed with 2.5oz of Formula and now I'm up to 2oz. of BM mixed with 1oz. of formula on MOST feedings and at night and early morning he gets 3oz. of full formula to be able to freeze some of my milk. I freeze one 4oz. serving of BM a day and so far I have 11 bags of 4oz. in the freezer. That supply is for the future, when I eventually decide to stop pumping (hoping to reach 6 months) or when Naty decides to take me somewhere ;-)

I really thought pumping would make all my worries and stress go away but it's kind of added to it. But I will NOT give up, this is for Nate and as time goes by, it gets a little easier. Last night was one of the most satisfying times of this whole breastfeeding/pumping/formula feeding frenzy when Nate woke up hungry (he's been sleeping through the night and last night he woke up hungry) and I was able to BF him and he was satisfied, I was nearly in tears. I could not believe that I satisfied him to the point that he was full and satisfied, that would be my wish to ONLY BF but hopefully one day. Oh and then I realized...LOL...that I was only able to do that because I didn't do my late pump and I was full from that. But now that I know how it feels to ONLY BF and satisfy your baby I want it much more. Someday :-)