Outdoor Adventurer, Alia, Donates 60,000 Ounces

“I first met my husband, Brooks, when I was in third grade. Our paths continued crossing as we grew up, and we eventually fell head over heels for each other. We have been married for 8.5 years and share three beautifully adventurous children: Tatum (5), Ellis (3) and Haylin (1).

For the first three years of parenthood, Brooks balanced being an incredible stay at home dad and full-time online student while I lived out my dream of being a music teacher. When it came time for him to start working again, I was ready for a change of pace and stepped away from the busy classroom. I began staying home with our kids and started my own business teaching small group music classes for homeschooling families. I absolutely adore the life I am blessed to be living.

Our family is always ready to try new things. All five of us enjoy traveling, snowboarding, skiing, rock climbing, playing instruments, and eating lots and lots of ice cream!

It was never my plan to donate breastmilk. In fact, I despised the idea of pumping and was dreading the moment I had to go back to work and pump while I was away from my baby. However, when my first little girl was born almost 4 weeks early, she ran into some breathing complications and was hit with extremely high bilirubin levels. While she very easily could have gone into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the hospital staff diligently monitored her and worked closely with the NICU on addressing any concerns. My pumping journey started just a day after my daughter was born, and I quickly became aware that my supply was well beyond what she needed.

A few days into our hospital stay, one of my nurses mentioned she knew a mom who donated to Tiny Treasures and was able to take her family on a dream vacation with the compensation. I couldn’t imagine getting compensated for donating breastmilk, but it was appealing. It made me reconsider my plan to stop pumping as soon as we left the hospital. As we got ready to leave six days later, that nurse handed me a large bag filled with my pumped milk and mentioned how many babies I could help with my oversupply. Holding that bag in my hand was the moment I realized how much of a difference I could make if I continued on this journey.

Going into breastfeeding, I was convinced I would make it one year and then quit. Because I was both nursing and pumping full time, I felt a commitment to the micro-preemie babies (as well as my own child) to continue my routine as long as my body would let me.

While maintaining an oversupply was never the plan, it has been such an incredible gift. If you told me when I started that I would pump an extra thousand ounces, I would have laughed. If I knew my reality would be donating almost 60,000 oz to Tiny Treasures between three babies, I probably would have passed out. But, here we are, wrapping up another beautiful journey, and I cannot thank that nurse enough for pointing me in the direction of Tiny Treasures.

Throughout this journey, I have been pregnant, breastfeeding, or pregnant AND breastfeeding for over six years without a break. But that thought vanishes as quickly as it appears because I remember how meaningful our work is as milk donors and how impactful our journey is for the micro-preemie babies.

Watching my kids fully embrace the donation journey has been the most rewarding aspect of this whole process. They are right at my toes every time I fill my coolers, and they are my little cheerleaders any time I pump because ‘the little, tiny babies are counting on you, mom!’ They know that pumping takes time away from my day with them, but they also understand that it allows us to do so many fun things together once I'm done! And, as my daughter says, ‘we want the teeny-tiny babies to grow big and strong so they can ski, just like me!’

Looking back, I truly do not know how we would have made it work on a teacher's income without the compensation from Tiny Treasures. The compensation that comes from donating milk is the only reason we have been able to dive into the fun family hobbies we absolutely LOVE doing. It has allowed me to start my business from scratch, homeschool in the way I've always dreamed of, and build our savings account to complete several projects and have a safe cushion to fall on if we ever need it. While the compensation was never an expectation, our family is eternally grateful for Tiny Treasures’ ability to give back to donors.”

* Any views, opinions, findings, assertions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are solely those of the individual. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice.