Wow

Today is my baby brother's 18th birthday. I can't believe the kid's 18. He can buy things he shouldn't, and enter into careers I don't want him to *cough* military *cough*. Thankfully, he'll only use his new power to buy guns and go to college. Whew!

So my youngest sibling is 18. That makes us all adults. Although the only ones making relatively adult decisions are me and my big sister (I say relatively because I still decide to laugh when Ace farts on me), we're all legally adults now. That's crazy to think.

Another wow...

Drew and I bought a deep freezer at Lowe's to hold all of my milk. Drew counted the bottles as he was putting them in the freezer - there are over 260 of them, at 4 ounces apiece. Assuming I only filled them to 3 and a half ounces, that's still nearly 1000 ounces of milk I've made in a month. Imagine 15 2-liters of Coke. Ace is only eating a little over 8 ounces a day. The nurses say he'll be eating about 16 ounces when he leaves, but we're looking at another month there, at which point I'll hopefully be able to breastfeed exclusively. If I'm breastfeeding until he's 6 months corrected age (about 9 months actual age), which is my goal, he won't hit those bottles for a LONG time.

A question for the moms out there - how much milk/formula do babies usually eat as they get older? I don't remember my goddaughter (sweet little Ashley) eating more than 9 ounces every couple of hours or so. How much do they usually eat at 3, 6, 9 months, etc?

Another question for those knowledgeable about breastfeeding - how hard is it for a milk factory like me to increase my production if I stop pumping as often? I'm thinking about going from pumping every 4 hours to every 6, because the amount I'm producing is getting a little ridiculous, and I know he's going to want to eat more often than that when he gets home.

When he gets home... it's getting closer every day. I can't wait!