Time to CELEBRATE!!!!!!!

Celebrate!!!!!!Celebrate!!!!!!Celebrate!!!!!!!Celebrate!!!!!!! At least for me...I am FINALLY done pumping!

This pump has been a permanent fixture right next to my couch for almost 11 months. Avery will be 1 on April 10 and I have enough breast milk stashed in my freezer to last until she is almost one. There was a time when our designated freezer in our garage was completely full of milk. We bought it a few months before I had Avery with intentions of using it for food storage but as a result of her long stay in the NICU a change of plans was in order. I guess you could say it was still used for food storage...for her...however I like to call it liquid gold(makes me feel better about the whole situation.) At one point I had nearly 2000 ounces stored away. One day we were having a family dinner at my house and my dad went to put a roast in my freezer(thinking there would be plenty room) and gasped as he opened the freezer and said "HOLY COW that is a lot of milk" which I heard him say from the garage-he wasn't kidding(I've kind of felt like a cow now for about 11 months.) Needless to say we had to do a little rearranging to make room for the roast.

This is our freezer in our garage. As you can see it is pretty empty except the bottom shelf which is what breast milk I have left. All the shelves used to be completely full of breast milk.

For those of you that might be a little confused...Avery got so used to being bottle fed in the NICU that she refused to breastfeed when she came home. After numerous attempts I just gave up hope and kept on pumping. I was also concerned about her weight gain(came home at 4 1/2 pounds) so this way I could at least see how much she was eating. I really wanted to feed her breast milk until she was 1 because I did for Maddy and she needed it even more due to being almost 3 1/2 months premature. I averaged pumping 5 times a day for 15 minutes each time. If you do the math that is 1 hour and 15 min. a day-plus all the cleaning, storing, etc. Then after all that I still had to feed it to her which takes a long time as well. So I'm complaining and venting a little because I feel I deserve it. So my breast pump got it's pink slip today and will hopefully have a nice looooong rest(knock on wood.) This is also the first time I haven't been pregnant or breastfeeding or both for three years. So now I have to find a way to celebrate...any ideas?