How to buy a smaller (non-standard) Willow breast pump flange

The Willow wearable breast pump only comes in 2 standard flange sizes: 24 mm and 27 mm. If neither of these sizes work for you, please watch the video below to learn of a hack that makes it possible to size the flange down to whatever size you need:

Even though I have breastfed all of our babies, the older I get, and the more babies I have, the more I struggle to provide enough milk for them. I think it's a mixture of being more busy, getting older, and inevitable hormonal changes. I have heard the same from several other moms of many.

With Peter, in addition to supplementing him with formula, I also pumped to help build my supply. However, traditional breast pumps are time consuming and inconvenient, which made it difficult for me to pump as often as would have been ideal.

I am excited to have discovered this hack to make it possible for me to pump much more often after the arrival of baby #11 to help establish a solid milk supply.

 Please let me know in the comments below if you have a question.

Breast milk donation

Okay, I am not talking about Ben & Jerry's here!

Before you declare me crazy, read this post, and then you have the right to call me nuts if you like. I just won't post your comments.

Like any mother of 5 young children, I have lots of spare time on my hands. NOT. Like any woman, I love using a breast pump. Very funny. Like any large family, I have lots of extra room in my freezers. Maybe once the kids leave home?

So why on earth donate breast milk?!? Honestly, because I feel bad for any baby who has to drink formula, and much more so if it's a tiny, premature baby to whom it could make the difference between life and death. My milk supply has been getting better and better with every baby, and I would love to share the abundance.

There are many milk banks out there who take donations. The sign-up process is lengthy, and you will need to have your blood checked for just about every communicable disease out there. The milk bank will cover all the costs for the tests, supply you with all necessary equipment, and take care of the shipping. You will not get paid for the milk you donate. If you have thought about donating milk in the past, you should definitely look into it. If you do, and you are like me, you want to make sure that 100% of the milk you donate goes to a cause you want to support, such as premature infants. There are other critically ill patients using human milk, such as cancer patients who can no longer tolerate food. There are also critically ill HIV-positive patients using it, but the last person I want my milk to go to is some old, decrepit queer. No, not all people with HIV are gay, but I wouldn't want to take my chances. With a newborn at least I can be sure of that.

I signed on with International Breast Milk Project. This particular milk bank ships 25% of their donated milk to critically ill infants in Africa, and uses the rest for premature babies in the US. I wonder what the person who commented on my daughter's birth announcement saying that I am overpopulating the earth because I "don't like brown people" has ever done to actually help children in Africa other than just feeling all fuzzy and pitiful about them.

Anyway... I think every liberal hippie would love me if it weren't for the fact that I am a Christian. I am a homebirthing, babywearing, "co-sleeping", non-circumcising, Birkenstock-wearing, granola-eating, make-up hating, natural medicine practicing and now human milk donating lactivist.