milksharing saved my life !

As a first time mom, I naively expected to be able to breastfeed effortlessly because it is a natural thing to do and all my relatives had no problem doing it. I was unaware that I had insufficient glandular tissue that would prevent me from producing more than 15oz a day at my peak when I was pumping up to 14 times a day and feeding/supplementing at the breast 8-10 times. No joke I was spending all day hooked up to the pump or baby.
The overall exhaustion, emotional trauma, inadequacy and terror at seeing my son barely gain weight from week to week overwhelmed me. I had several total meltdowns a week, sometimes more than one in a day. I measured every mililiter and cried if a drop went astray. I was in hell for 4 and a half months until I found milkshare and my donor.

I posted to milkshare and found a continuous donor only 50 miles away who made exactly enough each day to meet the minimum  24oz on average daily between us both. Iwould pick it up every 3 weeks and bought all the bags she wanted. The donated milk was the most beautiful, happy, insanely wonderful thing that could have happened to me at this time, let alone how it effected my son's health. From the first day of supplementing with real milk, my mind began to heal and I slowly came to grips with my sad reality and was able to mourn and de-stress for the first time since week one of BF.
She donated until my son was 13 months and at that point I was able to just breastfeed on my own what I did have. My life was changed by her generosity and magnitude of her commitment. My son grew healthy on her milk and mine... she helped raise and nourish him and she saved me from hating myself for the rest of my nursing experience.

I breastfeed happily for the next 20 months because I was given confidence and support from her milk.

DONATING HEALTHY, RAW, NOURISHING, HUMAN MILK TO WOMEN AND BABIES WHO NEED IT IS THE MOST AMAZING THING YOU MAY EVER DO FOR A STRANGER OR LOVED ONE. EVERY DONOR IS  BOTH A SAINT AND SAVIOR.

IF YOU CAN SPARE, PLEASE SHARE, WE REALLY CARE!

Update 2-22-15
After trying every natural and physical and mental way to improve my chances of exclusively breastfeeding my second son born August 2014, I was unable to produce enough again, though I slightly improved to 18oz a day. A few months of formula supplementing later, my wonderful donor mom for my first baby called and told me she had a baby the same month I did and was now in the same position as before, with extra milk to donate. I cannot communicate melt elation and gratitude, my thanks to God...she provided us with 3&1/2 months of milk before she stopped working and stopped pumping her extra milk. That equalled over 4 gallons of breast milk! Our family had again been blessed by her and milkshare as we watched our new baby grow and advance in his abilities due to this wonderful gift!

Again I encourage everyone to donate if they can-it's such a beautiful and amazing gift and for us who receive, we appreciate and can begin to mentally heal/destress when we have such support for our beloved children.

I'm experiencing the same type of low milk supply issue as you. It's called lactation failure. It is an extremely hard thing to go through physically and emotionally. I have posted on this site and am currently seeking a donor. I hope to be as lucky as you. I'm really happy that it worked out for you the way it did!

This is so much like my story. I was devastated that my first baby didn't grow with only my milk. I too thought it was supposed to be natural and easy. Unfortunately I had to switch to formula at 2 months old. My second I had the same issues despite EVERY effort on my part to increase supply. He wouldn't take formula though so we were thankful for a generous friend who got us started with milk sharing. My last baby (#5) had 13+ milk donors. And now here I am with a 3 week old and a 3 month old adopted son and again don't have enough. But mentally and emotionally it is much easier now. I just wish I could find donors this time!
I admire you for maintaining your own supply for so long! It's so hard to do both nursing and supplementing. You are an inspiration to me. I've always wanted to nurse for a year + but have never made it past about 7 months. Of course, having babies back to back didn't help with that. But now that I'm on my (presumed) last baby I really want to stick with it as long as I can. I love nursing!

Thank you to all those wonderful moms who donate their excess, pump more to make more to donate, and share their time and precious milk with those of us that want to give our babies all that we can nutritionally. Thank you for your selfless gift!