The Boob Index

Dear reader, I was going to write you a long, melodramatic epistle about the ongoing saga of my efforts to nourish Master Peter with Mother's Milk, but I decided the tale could best be told with some good old number-crunching. To wit:

7 Number of months since I was introduced to my friend the Double Electric Breast Pump.

12 Number of weeks I tried to breastfeed.

6 Number of weeks during which Peter breastfed exclusively before refusing to go on.

5 Number of lactation consultants with whom I've consulted since Peter's birth.

2.5 Approximate cumulative number of weeks that I have spent connected to the pump.

3.5 Number of daily hours I currently spend so connected.

7.5 Approximate number of daily hours spent feeding and burping Peter, preparing and washing bottles and pump supplies, and pumping and storing milk.

1.1 Average number of daily litres of breastmilk consumed by Peter.

95 Number of bottles of frozen breastmilk recently discarded due to being past its best before date. (See image above. A similar number was tossed in May due to spoilage resulting from a 12-hour blackout, and a slightly lesser quantity will soon expire.)

Add all this up, and what do you get?

1 Mother who feels like a dairy cow, but also ...

1 Well-fed baby ;)