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Bumping!

Great advice above!!

I EP'ed for a year with my first, and I'll be honest. It was a very long year, full of struggles of being a first time parent. Pumping made my life more stressful. Despite how crazy the first year was, I don't regret my decision. I am thankful that my body was able to produce enough milk to nourish my LO for a year. That being said, I don't think I have the strength to do it all over again. I admire those who EP.

All that @Charm54 said. I loved pumping! I think in that I'm a minority it was my zen time. Also DH helped with washing pump parts.

I hated EP and wanted to set fire to my pump. But I had a very specific situation. We paired a horrible nurser (aka, DD) and my very low supply. After we had to start supplementing I struggled through many visits with a LC we hired, and finally we determined EP was best.

My biggest issues were my schedule and my low supply. If I had the same schedule as my DH, it would have been much more do-able. DH works 11 hour shifts, leaving the house around noon and not coming home until after 1am. I work a "nromal" schedule from home. It made it hard to balance all the household things, taking care of DD by myself, AND pumping. Especially when she would need me and I was pumping.Horrible to sit and watch her cry and try to entertain her with a toy while I was finishing. If DH was home, he could be on baby duty while I pumped. But his schedule is the cause of MOST of my issues so hopefully that's just my burdern and not yours

I think my supply was an equal 50/50 frustration. I think if either the schedule or supply was easy it would have made it more doable. I started out getting 1-2 oz a DAY. My max at about 1,.5 months PP was almost 9 oz in a day. Then my in laws came to visit and I went back to work and my supply plummeted. However I will say that I felt pulled in so many directions that I also was finding time to pump less and less. And feeling discouraged hearing how much other people pumped in a session. (My aunt's sister told me she didn't wake up at night to pump, since she got SEVENTEEN OUNCES in the morning anyway. WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. That was like, a week for me.)

That being said, my friend who I call my "Twinner" (whose DD was 12 days older than mine) is still EP at more than 7 months. She also had to supplement too (but just barely) and built up a freezer stash while she was at it (she probably had enough for 90% BM, but fed about 75% breastmilk - daytime, with formula at night - and froze the rest). She too wants to set fire to her pump, but with her schedule and supply it was way more do-able for her.

If you have specific questions I am more than happy to ask them to her for you!!! I think that if the stars align it can be an AMAZING and very do-able option for moms.

@yin: I feel the same way! Even with just my 3 months. Unless my husband got a 9-5 job I won't be able to do it for #2. It was hard enough entertaining LO while pumping, let alone an older child and baby when we have #2. But I don't regret doing it for a second.

You can do it! I pumped until she turned 1.

I EP. My LO is 10.5 months now...I started off trying to BF and my LO had a series of issues that we just couldn't get solved quick enough--tongue and lip tie, jaw tightness from the birth process that meant she couldn't open her mouth wide enough (we went to therapy for it), and then I have flat nipples on top of that. The pain was so awful right from the get-go that I knew something was wrong and I started pumping immediately in the hospital and feeding with a spoon or bottle, as well as continuing to BF.

At 3 months, the pain was still immense so I gave up BFing totally and went to EP.

I've posted about this a fair amount before, but...I hate EPing. I honestly really, really hate it. Even though I am still doing it. First, I was very protective of my supply (even though I had a good supply) and pumped (edited for accuracy) 8 times a day, then 7 times a day (twice in the night) until she was 3 months and then 6 times (once overnight) until she was 6 months. ETA: It worked and my supply was always good, but the expense was my sleep and therefore, my sanity at times.

She's also a bad sleeper, so I was pumping at night in addition to doing her wakeups and feeding her. During my 5.5 month long mat leave, I *constantly* felt like I was ignoring her because I had to pump. Or I would try to pump when she napped (IF she napped) which meant I never got downtime for myself. Naps? Only took 1 on my entire maternity leave. The rest of the time I was pumping. She would be crying and I would have to try to sing to her (which usually wouldn't help) or make faces and we'd both just be miserable for 25 minutes until I was done. It seemed like she would poop, or get hungry, or get really fussy right as I started to pump--every time!

LO also has MSPI, so then I had to give up dairy and soy and basically change my entire shopping habits/eating habits.

Once I went back to work, I had to give up my lunch break every day to pump in a storage room with no cell service (cinderblock walls) and bad wifi. Then I had to try to squeeze in another pump some other time and was constantly walked in on, paged over the intercom, called, etc. Eventually, I started pumping in the car on the way home--but again, that means I have to give up runnings errands on my way home from work or doing things like drive through banking--I'm just too embarassed.

Once I stopped pumping at night it became *easier* and once as was back at work and didn't have to ignore my child to pump slightly easier again.

I pump now because Neocate is $50 a can and I would rather not pay $450 a month for formula when I can make it for free, even though I hate doing it. She's 10.5 months now, so the end is in sight. I'm down to 4 pumps a day. I supplement with 1 oz Neocate in every bottle now, because that's all the formula she'll take but my supply has dropped.

But looking back and knowing what I know now. I'm not sure I would EP again. It totally depends on you, your child, your supply, how often you are willing to pump. But certaintly I believe that pumping is the hardest and most time-consuming method of all the ways to feed a baby. BFing and exclusively FFing are much easier and take less time. With pumping, you have to do the time to pump, AND wash all the bottles a FF mom would wash, PLUS all the pump parts. Plus you get to worry about supply and what you eat/drink all the time like a BFing mom. You really get the worst of both worlds--it sounds so negative, but it's true!

The positives have been that my husband can feed (but he could do that if I gave formula). But I think in terms of time---the washing of the bottles and parts and the time spend pumping is still probably more than the time DH spends helping to feed LO, so....I don't know if I really count that as a "win".

One other positive is that I know exactly what LO gets. She was never a great eater and at least I know what she's getting. However, in some ways it can make you anal. If she has a day of eating less, you will see it and stress over it, whereas a BFing mom would have no clue if there are fluctuations from day to day.

Anyway, for me..when I have my next LO, my order of preference for feeding will be:

BFing
FFing
EPing

This is not to discourage you. I just want to be realistic!

I agree with @Charm54! I began Eping around 3-4 weeks, and overall it's been very good in many aspects. I think for me, the hardest thing has been when I've been alone with DS, and having to try and take care of him while pumping. And losing out on time with people, but other than that, it hasn't been too horrible. DS is now almost 9 months (!!) and I plan on pumping to get him to a year, and I'll hopefully be weaning myself down soon!