I’m Lindsay and I never planned on owning a baking business and for sure never planned on being the baker. My pride and joy “mini MOO” was born in January 2012 and I knew that day I couldn’t leave him to go back to work. I made many financial sacrifices so I could be home with my son. I immediately became very involved with La Leche League and other breastfeeding groups locally. At that point I started baking Lactation cookies for group get-togethers and moms in need. Moms that tried my cookies raved about them and continually told me I should sell them. I appreciated the support, but declined as I wanted to soak up every moment of mini MOO’s life.
In 2014 right after mini MOO turned 2, I took a batch of bars to a friend who had just given birth and she told me again that I should start a business selling them. I went home that morning and decided it couldn’t hurt to try….I came up with the name “MOO n Cookies” and went online to see what I needed to do. I registered with the state of Arizona home baking program and took the food handlers exam online. Next I applied for a business license. When all the formalities were done I created a business page on Facebook. Within hours I hit 100 likes and got several orders! My first day I had over $100 worth of orders. I set a goal of making $50 a week and surpassed that on day 1! MOO n Cookies has been open since 2014.
MOO n Cookies has grown and surpassed all my imagination. Throughout the process of growing my business mini MOO and I have seen many changes in our lives, includin
g my divorce and becoming a single mom to mini MOO. My home has now become more business than home, and my company is projected to help over 5000 moms this year!
I love what I do, even though it’s not what I planned; it is amazing and allows me to help breastfeeding moms all while being home with my son.
My nursing journey:
After 29 hours of labor I ended up with a C-Section an
d insisted that they not take mini MOO out of the operating room. As soon as we got back into our room mini MOO latched on! He did awesome for the first several days. On day 2 he had dropped 9.5% of his birth weight so I pushed discharge so they wouldn’t push formula. We headed home and mini MOO was still doing great. My milk came in late in the afternoon day 5 and then mini MOO wouldn’t latch. I was devastated and called a local IBCLC who came out and got him latching. It took him 4.5 weeks to get back to birth weight, which was very stressful, but we did it without any formula. I nursed constantly. I was also pumping each feed at that point because I didn’t know any different. I ended up with almost 1000 oz in my freezer and a baby that would not drink from a bottle. I donated that milk and stopped pumping. We nursed exclusively for the first 8 months of his life. At 8 months we began baby led weaning but still nursed 12-15 times a day. When Mini MOO was 3y 10m old he was diagnosed with a posterior tongue tie. When he was an infant I consulted several physicians and lactation professionals asking about a tongue tie and was told over and over that he did not have one. It was quite a surprise when the ENT found it and clipped it. The ENT was shocked that we had sustained such a successful breastfeeding relationship even with the tie! I was determined and would not let anything get in our way. Mini MOO self weaned in July 2018.