A lot of the times when people think about compliments a new or relatively new mother would like to hear, they immediately think of things like, “you look great!” or “you don’t even look like you had a baby!” — so in other words, things surrounding their appearance, weight, or weight loss. While I have been fortunate enough to get a lot of compliments just like these about my overall appearance and weight, what I actually really like hearing are things around my pumping and breast milk for my baby. When our nanny first started working with us, she kept on complimenting me for my strict pumping schedule and always being on track, plus my output, which she thought was crazy high. To this day, she still makes comments about how she cannot believe I am STILL pumping so much milk.

But the compliments that don’t initially seem like compliments that I might appreciate the most come from Chris. This morning when I woke up, Chris had already measured out Kaia’s milk to get the first bottle feed ready, so he had done some milk consolidation in the kitchen. When he came back into the bedroom and we exchanged words, he said, “Your pump last night was really fatty.”

That was like music to my ears. I immediately perked up, like a dog whose ears shoot straight up when their owner is in sight, and started grinning from ear to ear. Mmmmm, fatty milk. I’m still producing fatty milk for my baby to drink at over 11 months postpartum. I’m so proud of my body and what it has accomplished for my Kaia Pookie, my little Pookster.