Jenevieve

By Joan D

After a tough and turbulent pregnancy, I gave birth to Jenevieve three months early on Feb. 3, 2001.

She was soon whisked away by ambulance to a distant hospital better suited for the needs of my tiny 1 pound, 12 ounce daughter. For the next four painful days, I tried to stay focused on recovering from my C-section, lowering my blood pressure and mastering the use of my new best friend-my hospital quality, double breast pump.

Even though I couldn't be with my baby, for the first five days, I was comforted by the fact that I was still "nursing" her with my precious milk. It was difficult at first. I only had two fuzzy pictures of Jenny by my bedside to look at while trying to encourage myself to produce milk. When I got home, I taped up pictures of babies in my bedroom, dressed an old baby doll in one of Jenny's too-big outfits, and played recordings of my two sons crying and making baby sounds when whey were infants. The baby recordings did the trick. Soon the little white spray that trickled down from my breast pump turned into a small river. It was a true joy to watch. I would soon have enough milk to feed triplets, but instead had a baby that could only drink 1 cc every four hours. I began to freeze the milk, eventually filling up my entire freezer.

Jenny had some tough times in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. But I'm thankful God gave me the equipment to give her the best nutritional start in life. Jenevieve spent 3 months in the hospital and came home weighing just under 4 pounds and on an apnea monitor. It would be four months before she could nurse, and I could return my rented breast pump.

At a year old, Jenny is a petite 12 pounds, but very healthy. Though she does prefer my milk from a bottle, I am determined to keep trying to nurse her. With bad advice from doctors and family members, I sadly weaned my first son at 6 months and my second at 6 weeks. I hope to keep Jenevieve breast feeding as long as I can to keep her healthy and well.