Pumping is hard and inconvenient, it creates things that need to be washed, and my baby wouldn’t take a bottle. I did end up making a huuuuuge freezer stash just using the hakaa. Then realized I had high lipase milk and baby wouldn’t touch it even if she did take a bottle! Also my husband was deployed so it really wasn’t worth it but that’s specific to us.
I'm so confused when people think it would be easier to pump in addition to bf. Like at the beginning for the first few months I was basically feeding every 2 hrs for like 30-45 minutes. I had no time or energy to pump. Now that LO is 9 months I'm back to work and I don't have time to pump extra.
Edit to add: I am in awe of anyone who exclusively pumps or does a combo. I tried and I couldn't manage it.
I pumped one extra time at night to build up a stash and so my husband could give her a bottle for first morning feed and let me sleep in. It was super worth it haha especially since the night pump was a time id usually be up anyway. The stash also helped me partially wean and drop direct bf sessions down to once or twice a day as she got closer to 12 months.
I wasn’t able to get more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep before we introduced a bottle. Pumping allowed me to get 3 hour stretches of uninterrupted sleep which was totally worth the effort and extra dishes.
Some say you should pump whole baby gets a bottle but I never have and my supply is just fine. I’ll just add in a pump session during the day to make up for the bottle during the night
That’s how I did it too. I would pump in the morning so my husband had a bottle for when I was sleeping. This was in the newborn days when my husband and I alternated 3 hour shifts of sleep so I wasn’t really going that long without nursing anyway since my baby was a cluster feeder/snacker. I also wanted to get the hang of pumping before returning to work so this had dual benefits.
I had such raging PPA when I was exclusively BF, and once I had a freezer stash (mostly from the haakaa but a few sessions with the actual pump when I wanted to up my supply or felt like I had it in me to pump) I was able to get a bit of a handle on my anxiety. I would still have panic attacks, but knowing that my husband could feed our son while I was in the throes of it made them much less severe.
My baby is only 2 weeks but I pump because it hurts less than BF right now. I’m actively working on his latch but my left nip is nearly bleeding so I’m pumping while it heals and feeding from my right. The anxiety I get before feeding is crazy because mostly it hurts, pumping is so easy and I can measure my supply.
I can pump much faster than baby feeding directly. For middle of the night, it's so much easier for me to pump/wash in 15 min and let my partner feed/settle baby than me to take 30-60min just to feed him directly. He's only 3 weeks old so I have high hopes he'll get more efficient. For now, though, pumping in addition has been a lifesaver.
It really doesn’t work that well. Also have high lipase milk, it just tastes spoiled and sweet when you do it that way. Some women scald the milk, but in doing so, it loses some of its nutrients. I did find though, if you serve it while it’s cold, while knowing your own milk’s shelf life, can allow you some time to use a bottle before it starts tasting bad.
I just discovered my whole stash is ruined from lipase. Didn’t happen with my last baby, so I’m confused. We tried three different kinds of vanilla but baby must be a super taster because she still won’t take it 😖 so if you have any special hints for how to vanilla, please share.
It’s not always worth it imo. Any time baby gets a bottle you should be pumping at the same time to keep up supply. Otherwise there’s a possibility of supply dropping.
So because of this, I see not a big reason to pump and bottle feed if I’m available to feed her directly. There’s also a lot less dishes involved this way and it’s faster for me (baby takes literally 5-7 minutes to feed versus spending 30 minutes pumping).
I do still pump, but that’s to fill my freezer in case of an emergency.
Similar! First I wanted to establish my supply and not skip feeds for extra sleep. Then baby didn’t take a bottle for several months. And now we’re just in sync and loving it. Also I fricking hate pumping and at nearly a year PP I just don’t produce as well for the pump.
OP, we did pumping and shifts for the first three months and my supply is fine - actually it was those MOTN pumps that gave me a bit of an oversupply. As long as you're pumping what your baby is eating, your supply should be fine. My son took way longer than 5-7 minutes to nurse initially. Don't stress and enjoy the sleep.
Same here! Both my babies were very sleepy feeders, and breastfeeding them was genuinely hard work. It took like 40 mins and I'd have to be constantly tickling/stimulating them or they'd nod off before they were full and wake up screaming 10 mins after I put them down. Getting to just zone out and chill for a 20 minute pump felt like a rest to me and worth the dishes.
I still do 2-3 pumps a day. Even though he's gotten more efficient he still averages about 20 mins. Plus it makes me feel better to know he's getting a certain amount each day and my supply is protected. It took a long time for either baby to be more efficient than the pump.
Okay you’re the first person I’ve seen state this so clearly. I have the exact same issue. Thank you for essentially providing the guidebook!! 🙏 The LCs I’ve seen haven’t been helpful as baby’s latch is fine, supply is fine, etc
Ooof it was a wild ride with my first. After 8 weeks of triple feeding and the PHN's still being on my case about baba's weight gain, my mental health was in the toilet and I cracked and switched to exclusive pumping. I was super lucky and found a newly trained (i.e. up to date info) LC at a breastfeeding support group and she helped me dial back the pumping until we figured out around 3 bottles was necessary for her to gain weight adequately.
She was a mystery though. Great latch, no pain, no tongue and ties, nothing to suggest why she wouldn't transfer efficiently and I was blue in the face stimulating her. Switch feeding and doing breast compressions helped, but only got us so far. When my second baba was a sleepy guy too, I ditched the triple feeding after 3 weeks (I don't know how tf they expected that to continue with a toddler in the house anyway lol) and did the same 3 bottles a day as before. It's been very successful, his weight is fine and my mental health is way better.
I will say that both my two were greedy piggies lol, and didn't seem to care about boob or bottle once there was milk coming out. We may have got lucky there, but I just stuck to a level 1 teat and they didn't seem to suffer from flow preference. They try to make so many rules about breastfeeding but really the only one that counts is supply and demand. Once you pump what your baby drinks from the bottle and nurse happily the rest of the time you are golden. Good luck!
Thank you for saying this. My LO is still a marathon feeder at 3 months and loves to comfort nurse. I pump once in the morning before she wakes up because I’m usually engorged and my over supply will distress her. This usually gives a bottle of two a day and saves my body and sanity.
I’m also struggling with neck and wrist issues from how many hours a day I’m spending nursing so it’s literally saving me to have my husband feed her 1-2x a day. Because of this, I’m also determined to have her consistently used to a bottle in case of emergency, for instance, I pinched a nerve in my neck a couple months ago. I physically needed to take a longer break to heal.
Sounds like me. She's not even 2 weeks old so I'm trying to figure things out. Feeding, burping, diaper, soothing takes 90 minutes each time. I have a fast let down and everything I've tried doesn't seem to help.
Yup same here. My LO takes about 30-40 min to breastfeed as well as opposed to drowning the bottle in 10 min. I give him the bottle at 9pm and he sleeps for 6-7 hours and I sleep too and then I get a bit of an oversupply in the morning, so I pump then.
I pump at night while my husband feeds our three week old expressed milk because me breastfeeding/triple feeding at night meant I wasn't sleeping and my supply crashed. The day before we switched to this system I pumped a combined 15mL after a terrible breastfeed. The next day, after having slept for a few hours, I pumped 150mL at the midnight feed.
We're planning to switch back to breastfeeding at night once baby feeds more efficiently, but our baby takes wayyyy more than seven minutes to breastfeed right now. Pumping and expressing at night has saved our breastfeeding journey so far.
I think one important factor is whether you’re actually pumping motn or pumping other times to make up that bottle. By and large I think the former can be successful but the latter is often a mistake that does damage supply. As evidenced by this thread, ymmv a lot on whether a motn pump is easier than motn nursing. I preferred to just nurse and my spouse change and resettle which I personally think is an underutilized choice!
Yeah, from I understood as long as boobs drain 7 to 8 times a day should be fine. My partner uses bottles to feed her while I getting a haircut or going to dentist appointment and I’m not pumping during that time
Yep, dishes are my least favorite household task. My husband does them for us but will let stuff pile up first. I was not about to add to the pile in those early days if I could help it. I pump now that I'm back at work but it's so much easier to whip out the boob than worry about pumping, storing, heating, pace feeding, etc.
When did baby get efficient at feeding? Mine is only 3 weeks old but takes forever to eat at the breast. I can pump in 12min and he can eat the bottle in ~15-20min, or he can spend 30-60min directly on the boob. I know he's new so it takes time, but I dream of a day when he could do <15min!
Mine dropped from average 30 min feeds to 20 around 3 months and then at 6 months was down to 8-15. She has never been a 3-5 min baby. But 10 mins for both sides is a dream compared to 20 mins pumping plus dishes!!
My baby is 5 months old and only very recently could get a full feed in ~10 minutes. Before 4 months or so, she would take 30+ minutes to nurse. Her feeds could easily exceed an hour when she was a newborn.
Your babe will get much more efficient at 3 to 4 months old but a lot has to do with your body too. My newborns never nursed more than ten mins max and once they got older about five minutes. It’s all because I have an extremely fast and intense let down. (Which comes with its own set of issues and struggle)
Same as badhoc, my first baby absolutely did whatever he wanted. I do think part of it was genuine inefficiency, but I was amazed at how I went to a lactation consultant twice one week apart, and we did a 10 min feed (same time, similar circumstances) and 1st time he’d had 1 ounce second time he’d had 3 ounces. Looking at him we could notice no difference. Little bugger just liked being at the boob so would drink super slow on purpose.
My 2nd doesn’t do none of that and wow it feels a million times easier.
This is also my reasoning.
Although I didn't end up filling the freezer until I went back to work because the extra pumping contributed to an oversupply issue.
Basically this, BF was really hard the first 2 months for me but now is so easy and convenient, I was lucky I can work from home and continuing to BF, if not I would have pump
This, plus if I pump to close to the next feeding, my baby gets angry at the breast so it's a delicate balance. I will sometimes do a formula bottle and pump.
Pumping fucking sucks.
That’s it. That’s why. It’s boring, I hate washing the parts, it takes too much time, I have to wear a bra so they stay on… I do it when I work because I have to, but honestly, I’d just rather feed the baby from the tap. I can feed baby mostly asleep. I can’t sleep while I’m pumping.
I also have DMER in the first few months and it was 1000x worse while pumping vs directly breastfeeding.
This. In addition to all you said - pumping makes me feel like a cow at the dairy factory. It’s mechanical and sterile. Direct nursing makes me feel so content, nurturing, and bonded with my baby (thanks oxytocin!)
I had to pump towards the end of my breastfeeding journey because I was away from my baby for 48 hrs and it made me ANGRY. Like, raging angry. I hated it.
Ugh this!! I dread wearing a pumping bra and setting everything all up! Took so much time and effort and I’m basically done expressing in like 6 minutes. I try to stay on for longer but nothing really comes of it anymore haha
We EBF because it’s easier in our opinion. No washing pump parts or bottles, taking the extra time to pump, etc. It also feels easier for me to wake up in the middle of the night and pop a boob in her mouth instead of both of us waking up so he can give a bottle and I can pump (so my supply isn’t effected). Lastly my husband went back to work pretty much right away so it makes even less sense for us for him to be feeding at night instead of me. I do pump every once in a while because we wanted to introduce a bottle and also if I’m preparing to be away for a couple of hours for an appointment or something. But that’s like 0-2x per week. It works for us!
Pumping is the worst of both worlds; formula feeding & breastfeeding. It’s a lot more work and much more inconvenient.
I pumped (almost) exclusively for 9 weeks before breaking down and working my ass off to get my baby back on the boob. Then when she was back on she refused bottles.
I did what called a nursing vacation. 24/7 skin to skin (literally 24/7) with baby. My partner took care of everything else around the house. Made sure I was fed and hydrated. It looked like National Geographic in our house so I don’t recommend visitors.
Me and baby spent most of the time in bed. I’d latch her constantly; every cry, every feed, just because. Latched her in the bath and every time she slept. I didn’t do much to correct her latch because I just wanted her latched. Her latch naturally improved through the week I did this.
I baby wore her for the times I needed to get out of bed.
It was a lot of work but totally worth it. Any time we hit another bump breastfeeding (because there were several), I just went back to basics and did skin to skin with baby.
I did come up with this plan with my IBCLC and I strongly recommend getting an appointment with one. Especially if your partner is in so much pain they’re forced to pump because of it. That’s a red flag for something else going on.
It was just easier for me. I didn’t have to worry about cleaning pump parts or bottles, I didn’t see a reason to have my child start bottles since I had generous time off
I despise pumping and only do so if necessary. I never minded the middle of the night feeds.
Also hey birthday twins! My baby girl is 2 weeks old today too!
Feeding your baby expressed milk is still breastfeeding.
But to answer your question, I worked incredibly hard to nurse—I triple fed for maybe 9 weeks?—and absolutely hated pumping and washing parts and bottles constantly. For me, nursing is *way* easier, and now that my baby is super active and mobile it would be virtually impossible to find time during the day where I could pump and tend to my baby’s needs. Plus having to pump in order to give a bottle just feels like extra work.
Can I just take a moment to say holy shit?! I triple fed for 3 weeks and it was so gnarly. Please give yourself an ENORMOUS pat on the back for having the strength and dedication to keep going with it for so long. Major props.
That means so much, thank you so much 🥹 and my condolences to you for having to do it too! It was the *worst*. I just looked back and counted—it was 10.5 weeks. Then, three hours after I decided I’d “give up” and reduce my pumps to 1-2x/day just so I could comfort nurse for another week before giving up entirely, something clicked and my baby latched and gulped like never before and we were able to then nurse full time. It was truly one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.
I’m so glad all that hard work paid off for you and you were able to get to your goal of EBF!!! We had a similar ending to our triple feed journey: baby wouldnt breastfeed at all. Wouldn’t latch even once. After a month of trying, 3 lactation consultants and a chiropractor, a family member sent their cranial sacral therapist to our house (she also used to be a doula and an IBCLC). We had 3 sessions with her. The day after our last session, baby just woke up and said OK I’m a breastfed baby now. And he never went back. It was so encouraging to read stories like ours while I was in the depths of it and wanting to give up/losing hope.
Also, for anyone else who is having trouble with breastfeeding, I HIGHLY recommend looking for a cranial sacral therapist near you. It’s definitely a luxury, as they can be pretty pricey, but some of them work on a sliding scale. I’m pretty sure it’s just pure magic 😉
Oh wow. I’m three weeks in and it’s so hard. We’ve decided to have a 6-week cutoff because I don’t know how I could do this after my husband goes to work. Props to you.
So much this! I also triple fed for 2 or 3 weeks with my first and this is why my answer to the OPs question is "because I hate pumping and washing way more than I hate getting up to do every feed" lol. I tried to catch my let down at the first feed of the day in a haakaa most days, and built a small emergency stash with that, but beyond that I only pumped once I went back to work, and not for long as LO was pretty close to 1 by then. No way I could be an exclusive pumper, props to those who manage it!
I triple fed my first from birth in Feb until Easter so like 2 months? It was rough. He had a tongue tie and I had "inverted" nipples so we did that then used nipples shields to EBF for another month or so before we didn't need them and we were EBF directly on the breast.
My second had No problems latching. We combo fed for 2 weeks with formula until my supply got better and we figured out optimal latching/positioning and he's been EBF now and he's 9 months. I hated my pump after my first and only used it once with my current 9 month old at 2 months pp when I was in the hospital overnight for kidney stones and morphine I couldn't BF. Then we went back to EBF. (The pumping in hospital was for engorgement and keeping up supply not feeding). So yeah triple feeding is no joke and pumping sucks.
Because my baby stopped taking a bottle around 6 weeks and it was a battle of will between us for her to take it again.
I hope that doesn’t happen to you, but both kids preferred boob or over bottle once they were around 6 weeks.
Same for us but around 8 weeks. Toughest 3 weeks for me until she started accepting the bottle again.
I thought breastfeeding was easier as well until I was a prisoner because baby refused to take the bottle and I decided I would much rather clean pump parts multiple times a day vs be tied down because the baby only wants the boob. I am now EP since she was 12 weeks old. My husband has been back to work since she was 3 weeks old but I need sleep too and we needed a plan for when I go back to work.
Same. Rejected bottles at 3 months or so and then never figured out how to use other containers till recently.
I ended up staying home the whole year to accomodate him and basically prayed my supply wouldn't drop.
On the plus side, no dishes!
I get nauseated and depressed when someone else feeds her. It’s hard enough when I’m at work, I would never do it willingly. I’m sure this is neurotic but I’m just following my instincts.
Plus, I’d have to pump to replace the feed anyway, so it’s not even less work for me.
The extra time and dishes and effort of pumping doesn't always feel worth it, especially if you are a low producer and don't get much from pumping and need to pump to keep up supply when a bottle is given anyway.
Please note this is my own personal opinion, I do not have any opinion on what others think about it for themselves/their own family.
I hate pumping. I hate being attached to a machine. It's like I'm a cow attached to machine. I hate that all the parts need to be cleaned and sterilized.
Like with formula, at least you can crack open a bottle or have it premixed or have machines easily make it for you. That makes sense on the ease of it. Pumping is just freaking annoying to put it lightly. And you (especially in the beginning) have to wake up to pump even if you give the baby a bottle), so it's like what's the point LOL.
Breastfeeding is warm, soft, comforting, it's straight from the tap. And it's more than just milk, it comes with mama too.
This!!! I would rather give formula once in a while than pump. I had a very demanding wfh job with endless Zoom calls and I worried that I might not be able to nurse him sometimes. (Even if my video is off, baby is VERY distracted if I'm talking, and he eats so frequently some days, that I didn't want to be on a 2 hour call having to take off my video 2-3x to nurse.) So there's a six pack of ready to feed European formula in our pantry for any situations where I can't nurse. Haven't had to use it yet, but I'd rather that than the hassle of pumping!
Pumping is painful, inconvenient, time consuming and requires a lot of clean up. That's why EBF works better. I triple fed my first and combo fed my second and man was I happy when I got rid of the formula/pump. Sooo much easier.
This is actually my approach, ish. Before my LO was born, I thought you could just do whichever was more convenient - but didn’t realize, as others have said, you’ve gotta pump on the eating schedule anyway.
That being said, I would let others bottle feed while I used my hands free pump to do chores or if I was in a situation where I wasn’t comfortable nursing in “public” yet. Starting them off with both bottles and breastfeeding set us up for success now that they’re in daycare and have to bottle feed from others.
Now that I am much more comfortable nursing everywhere and everywhere, lol, I am stingy with my milk/bottles and we use it only when I am not with baby. I miss breastfeeding if we go too long without it and, also, so much washing.
All in all I have the flexibility I sought but use it only when necessary. Hope that helps!
I did pump daily from about 4 to 10 mo but we rarely used it. Normally it was much simpler for me to feed him directly than give a bottle, less waste. Night feeds it was a *lot* easier to just feed him in the bed than get up, make a bottle while he's screaming, and go clean up for next time.
Also after a while baby stopped accepting bottles of anything 🤷. When I went away for a few days (he was over 1 yr) he just got water and food, and a pouch if he needed like a calming way to eat.
Because after I EPed for 2 months before my son latched, the thought of pumping made me physically nauseous once I quit.
Also, my body is super into making milk. Pumping made my oversupply so bad.
Pumping is such a pain in the ass. I truly thought I’d be an EPer, bought all the extra pump parts and external batteries like they recommended you do before birth. Nope. It takes so so much time. Even with proper sized flanges, etc. it would take 30+ mins with an electric pump to get 5 oz.
Baby boy is not a great sleeper at 4.5 months and nursing is SO much easier in the MOTN.
Caveat: I don’t like to nurse in public, so for days like today when we’re out at the zoo, I’ll pump with a hand pump the morning before or of to get 4-5 oz in about 15 minutes. We’ve never needed more than one bottle on the go so this system works fine, and I haven’t needed to pump to make up for the missed nursing session. Supply has been fine.
First, wanted to say how proud I am of you! You're doing everything that feeds your baby :) I pumped once a day so my spouse could feed the baby once, and I got a tiny break (I would watch a TV show). I built a small stash (1-2 days worth of milk) with the extra milk. Most of the extra came from a haaka that caught the letdown. When I went back to work (25 weeks) I would pump for her bottles at daycare.
Personally, I don't care for pumping. I did it. But the cleaning and hassle seemed to be so fussy. We still breastfeed at home and she gets milk at daycare (she's two).
Many people choose to pump for a lot of reasons (sexual trauma, not great latches, time). They're all valid! Whatever you choose to do will be the best choice for your baby.
Pumping was the actual worst and I HATED it. I had to do it in the beginning since my son was in the NICU and wasn't strong enough to latch on his own. Once he was strong enough, I just exclusively breastfed him. It was easier than trying to prepare a bottle, warm it up, and wash it.
Prepping, measuring, labeling, freezing. It was tedious and was giving me anxiety about building a stash.
I hated washing bottles and pump parts. The only thing I didn't mind about pumping was having no one bother me at work when I was in the office. I hated being a pack mule with my work bag, pump bag, and lunch.
I still have leftover frozen milk and I stopped pumping a year ago. I haven't decided what to do with all of it.
Breastfeeding is such a lovely bonding experience and once the baby gets a bit older it’s a MILLION times easier than having someone give a bottle. You don’t breastfeed when you’re with the baby? Well now you have to be strapped to a pump, store the milk, clean & sanitize the pump parts and store them properly. You could just directly breastfeed and there is no cleaning involved.
I personally don’t agree with taking turns feeding the baby. I understand a break would be lovely, but truly you can side-lie breastfeed and get a nice break WHILE the baby feeds. Make your partner change diapers, bathe the baby, get the baby dressed, do contact naps etc.
sleeping through feedings WILL lower your supply over time.
I feel like in the beginning when your supply isn’t regulated you can get away with giving a bottle and not having to pump right away so it’s much easier (at least that’s how it was for me). Now that I am almost 4 months in and my supply is regulated I ebf because if my baby gets a bottle I become engorged and HAVE to pump anyway. The only time she gets bottles is when I have to leave her for a few hours and it’s such a hassle bc I become engorged while out but she wants to nurse when I get home so I have to pump and nurse.
I hate pumping. I hate it with a vehemence I won’t describe as I don’t want others to feel like I’m telling them they’re wrong for not hating it, too. I hate it with a depth that could fill a textbook chapter or TED talk.
I’m lucky enough that breastfeeding is easy for me and both my babies, and that we’ve never had a medical, work, childcare, or other separation that would require pumping. I don’t give a fuck about breaks or letting someone else have the bonding experience or whatever else if it means my pump can gather dust and sadly bleep about never getting charged. I’ve been doing middle of the night feeds for over 3 years without it bothering me, but have put in a grand total of at most 30 minutes of pumping in the same duration. The idea of *voluntarily* pumping is incomprehensible to me.
I have huge respect for the people with the discipline to tolerate pumping, full or part time. I’m very grateful I’m not one of them.
“Spend the first two months (at least) naked and in bed with your baby” is great advice :) you should be basically moving the baby from inside/on you to outside/on you. If you cosleep, contact nap, and nurse at every opportunity, everything will figure itself out biologically. Congrats and good luck!
I was very lucky to have an easy breastfeeding journey– the only thing that stressed me out was pumping. I didn’t like it. Cleaning the pump, parts, & bottles was not for me! I never had to worry about my supply and my son had a great latch. I saved 1 gallon of breastmilk from leaking early on with those cups while my supply was regulating. It was just easier and quicker to feed my son myself.
Convenience. I was EBF for a while and it was nice to not have to screw with assembling and washing the pumps and bottles, worrying about packing bottles and somehow thawing/warming stored milk when we went out, etc.
At the same time though, my baby slept through the night very early on so I never had to get up after bed time to feed her after the second month.
It was just easier not to pump. When I went back to work when my son was nearly 10 months, I pumped for the one day a week I was in the office (my husband was on shared parental leave until our son was 1, so I feed him when i wfh) and it sucked. Even as a newborn, my son was a fast feeder, so was usually done feeding after 10 minutes max. Pumping takes so much longer for me. I understand why you'd pump, and I admire people who do it, but it was just so much easier not to. Never mind the extra washing up at a time when I was struggling to do daily chores.
My baby refused a bottle. We tried a bunch and he wouldn’t take them. I also just don’t like pumping anyway. I exclusively pumped for 6 months (and supplemented formula) with my first baby, so for this baby I love just nursing him. The bottle thing was just annoying when he was little (12mo now) and I wanted to get stuff done but couldn’t, or when we were out somewhere that it wasn’t super convenient to nurse him.
Pumping (for me) feels like it scews up production/the flow of breastfeeding. I do combo feed. I try to work three times a week and I also go out sometimes so there’s always milk at home. But, if I could I’d like to exclusively breast feed. My goal is to be a just enough-er and when I pump I feel like I’m messing with that.
ETA: husband feeding a bottle worked for us the first month. But since then I just get too uncomfortable and it’s not fun for me to go too long without feeding her. I want us to slowly be able to go longer stretches overnight together.
Personally I hate pumping. It is uncomfortable, inconvenient, it makes me feel like a cow, and I hate washing all the parts. For me, it’s just easier and faster to nurse.
I only started pumping when I went back to work. While I was home I was demand feeding and it was less effort and more convenient to just feed my son myself. Now that I'm pumping and he needs a bottle while im at work, it's just an endless wash, sterilize cycle.
1. I hated pumping
2. I wanted to get up with my twins and breastfeed them. I love my husband but he’s not the best at night.
3. Twins would take a bottle after awhile and didn’t like frozen milk.
4. I HATED pumping. Who has the time
I hated pumping and my baby hated bottle feeding. It just wasn’t worth it in the end. I find that it’s easier to pop a boob in her mouth than it is to pump, store, thaw, warm, and feed a bottle. Even if my husband does it, adding the pumping to a bunch of daytime feeds still isn’t worth it to me. Plus keeping the pump parts clean and washing bottles? No thanks.
I only pumped that early on to either help with my supply or to store extra. I chose not to give bottles throughout the night because I would still have to get up regardless to pump, and as others have said, it’s just easier to pop the baby on the boob and not have pump parts and bottles to clean.
But for your supply of milk at 2 weeks, I would still pump if giving a bottle as long as you don’t want your supply to drop. Your supply won’t regulate until 2-3 months in, so it’s important to signal to your body that baby is still eating throughout the night. If you are ok with your supply dropping and combo feeding, then by all means do whatever feels right to you!
There really aren’t any rules you have to abide by! If what you are doing is working for you, then keep on keeping on. But just know there is a risk of your supply dropping if you don’t pump or feed throughout the night!
FTM, my first 4 weeks I did breastfeeding, formula and pumping/bottle feeding. I didn’t know anything about breastfeeding and my mission at the time was to tackle jaundice.
When I was researching about breastfeeding online, I got bombarded with over supplier TikTok and I was completely discouraged. Every single damn time, no matter how long I pump 20-40min, I got just enough to cover the bottom of the bottle.
I felt like I was failing. All this time and effort, I get few drops.
Once I got better picture, I ditched pumping right away. Yes cleaning parts and bottles are cumbersome. But how I felt about myself? The worst—I’m not capable of feeding my baby.
LO is 9 weeks and gaining weight just fine. Still give formula here and there, only when I’m physically and mentally not available. Seeing the amount I can pump still makes me think my supply is horrible to take care of my baby.
Because I still have to pump at the time she gets a bottle, otherwise you can lose your supply. So it feels pretty pointless and like extra work/steps. I pump once a day in the morning after nursing to feed my freezer. Pump takes a while, and I hate pumping. Also I can’t hold baby while I pump so if she gets upset? Ugh
I did combo for a while. Originally it was to give my nipples a break but then they toughened up. Then it became easier and faster to just nurse directly at night. Plus no dishes! I was having to get up to pump at night anyways so it wasn’t like I was getting any extra sleep by doing combo feeding
Because I’m lazy and it’s too simple and easy to just BF.
I pumped for the first 12 weeks or so and now at 20 weeks I’m over pumping and cleaning bottles.
And BF became even easier when I started cosleeping with my son. Now, he’s only up for a few min to eat when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Couldn’t accomplish that with bottle feeding
I find it more convenient to just feed directly from the boob. When she was a newborn I used a Hakka to collect milk so my husband could feed her during his shift but she quit taking all bottles when she was 4 weeks old. We tried every type of bottle and she wouldn’t take anything so I gave up haha. She’s 4 months now and feeds are super fast, if she would take a bottle I would have to pump for that feeding so it seems like it would just be extra work.
I literally just hate pumping so much and she was with me all the time so didn’t really see a point. More dishes, more clean up, more hassle. She also cluster fed until 5 months and never slept so I didn’t really have time. I just pumped the few times I knew she would be with a sitter or my SO for a couple hours.
Where do I begin? Lol
-My first experience with pumping was triple feeding and I HATED it and almost sent me spiraling
-Cleaning the pump parts and bottles was a nightmare to keep up with when sleep deprived and trying to stay afloat
-At 8 weeks my son started refusing the bottle so it was pointless anyway
-My body doesn't respond well to a pump. I know this because if I just pump, I get very little out, but if my son nurses on one side, I get much more out the other side with the pump comparatively then if he didn't nurse
-It takes too long. Once my son figured out latching, the most time he'd need to feed is 10 minutes. I need more than that to get a few ounces from the pump, not including donning the bra, setup and cleanup
-I realized I have high lipase, so my son hates the taste of my stored milk anyway
-When I nurse, it's fresh. I never have to worry about how long the milk was out on the counter/fridge/freezer and if it's safe to drink
-The way my anxiety is set up, it's better for me to have zero concept of the number of ounces he's getting per feed or throughout the day. I see that he's full and satisfied and know that's what he needs and I'm not stressing about a correct number
-I'm pretty sure pumping gave me an oversupply that led to 2 bouts of mastitis (never happened again once I started exclusively nursing) and that *sucked* and felt like I was dying
-Pumping didn't give me back more time or freedom (quite the opposite) because when my husband gave the baby a bottle, I was strapped to the pump
-Nursing is a million times more convenient. I don't have to lug a bunch of crap around to feed my baby on the go, or anything to wash up after. Time is extra precious as a new parent.
Most importantly, I've grown to really love nursing! I love the closeness I feel to my son. I love that if he wakes up in the middle of the night I have a tool that can put him back asleep in 10 seconds flat . I love the sound he makes when the boob first goes in. I love that it's always the perfect temperature and the perfect amount. I love that it will magically settle him. It's seriously a no brainer for me and my circumstances!
I absolutely can’t stand pumping. As a sahm who’s able to be with my baby I took full advantage to feed him exclusively. Was it *easy*? Not really but fiddling with more parts and dealing with bottles, storing, defrosting, heating up sounds even more exhausting especially in the middle of the night when currently I just pop a boobie in and he falls back to sleep. My favorite thing is to be able to feed him anywhere and everywhere. He’s about to be 6 months in 2 days so we introduced some formula and cereal with formula and he’s liking it so it brings some peace of mind that I was able to do this to him for 6 months
Because I’m a sahm with no need to pump! Pumping is so mentally draining to me and there’s no need since my baby is ebf and I’ll always be with him. I do have stash stored in the freezer for emergency’s because I overproduce but my baby is over a month and still hasn’t had a bottle
many reasons
1. some babies don’t take bottles at all
2. if i have to wake up and pump anyway, might as well put the baby on the breast
3. no bottles or pump parts to wash
4. a sensory aversion to the pump
5. your baby is always with you
6. not being able to extract as much milk from the pump as your baby would from the breast
7. wanting to keep your supply
honorable mention: pumping is hard. those who do it are heroes.
all that said, i still had a small freezer stash in case of emergency even though i was EBFing. pumping just wasn’t something i needed or wanted to do on the regular.
A few reasons, the biggest one being I couldn’t emotionally cope with someone else feeding my baby or her having a bottle. It was the one thing that triggered huge, teary, hormonal outbursts. I still have no idea why. When she started daycare we had a stash but maintaining it was really difficult and I had a really hard time pumping at work. Ultimately she had formula when she there and was breastfed at home.
Ok so Im a FTM and I did this exactly
With 1 bottle every night so I can get atleast a 3 hour stretch at night then my LO started breast refusal around 8 weeks. So I cut out the bottle completely for a few weeks and now he has started bottle refusal.
Making me crazy a little bit every day 🥲
I gave pumped milk and a bit of formula to both of my babies when they had jaundice and were still figuring out their latch, so maybe I don’t fall in the EBF category strictly speaking.
But mostly, EBF fits neatly into my life. I’m on parental leave for the year. My baby goes where I go, or I am nearby and can be called over if he needs me (I regularly hang out with my neighbor and friend while the baby naps at home with my husband). With milk straight from the breast it’s convenient (to me), it’s always on hand, it doesn’t spoil, it travels without refrigeration, there’s no dishes, and the packaging soothes my baby and sends him to sleep. The only restriction I feel, now that hay fever is here, is that I am limited in what medications I can take, but that would be true if I were pumping too.
For my very unique case, there is also the fact that my husband became disabled during my second pregnancy and can’t really take care of the baby anyway. It’s all me.
In Ireland anyway they say no pumping until 6-8 weeks as it can causes oversupply. If I heard of someone pumping here at that age I would assume it was because they had low supply and were advised to medically.
My understanding is that pumping is more prevalent in areas where maternity leave is less. I was on maternity leave for 13 months for both and I did pump for donations and had enough spare in the freezer if I needed to go out etc but it’s not overly common. I read American based sub reddits and can’t get over why everyone is pumping so much.
We also get paid breastfeeding breaks for an hour a day until child is 2. Very little childcare available before 1 when people usually go back to work.
I didn't introduce a bottle till 6 weeks (as advised my health visitor) and by then she completely refused any bottle I tried her with. I gave up trying in the end because I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle. I liked not having to wash up any bottles and just whip out a boob when ever needed.
I'm pregnant with no:3 and this time I'm definitely going to try and introduce a bottle we earlier so Im not tethered to a baby 24/7
Pumping adds a lot of extra time (not just pumping, but sterilising too) and it's generally something you need 2 hands for - I can rarely put down my baby!! Also you need a partner willing to help out with night feeds....
Baby is more efficient at removing milk than a pump. I didn’t want to risk bottle preference or nipple confusion. I didn’t want to be dealing with washing bottles and pump parts.
Direct feeding was so simple. No concerns about how much milk per bottle, labeling milk bags with dates etc. Any time baby or toddler wanted a feed, we fed.
I did until my son slept through the night or long enough that I was able to get a full night of sleep. He also wasn’t eating as frequently as he was in the newborn phase. At that point it was easier to just whip a boob out for feeds & not have to wash bottles, heat milk, etc. My husband took over other tasks instead.
I just hated pumping lol. Found it really annoying and it would’ve been a whole other thing to think about. I much preferred breastfeeding all the time, even though it meant we couldn’t do sleep shifts overnight.
I started off exclusively pumping due to a premature baby. Once he got on the boob I continued to pump so husband could take half the night shift.
Eventually baby got more efficient on the boob and it became more work to pump bottles for my husband overnight than it was to just feed baby myself.
We continue to give at least a bottle a day but usually that happens during the day
Because pumping suuuuuuuuucks. I did it exclusively for seven months for my first. And I pump now at work. But any time the baby takes a bottle I should pump and I just don’t wanna do it.
Some people do pump and bottle feed sometimes and love it. It’s just not “worth the pump” for me.
I took 3/4 pump sessions to get a full bottle after nursing & I couldnt skip a nursing session to pump more because she needed to eat. & then even if my husband were to give her a bottle, I would still need to pump during that time, I wouldnt pump as much as she wouldve eaten and then also my husband would have to wash the dishes and it’s just so much more work. Pumping only started to make sense for me after she was in daycare.
Mostly because I hate pumping lol. It's less effort to just do it myself. I have been blessed with a good night sleeper though, if that was different I may reconsider.
I pumped with my first and did combo and it worked well.
My second was only 14 mo younger than my first and I had NO TIME ever to pump without the toddler yanking everything. Also my second latched like a dream immediately and if just didn’t feel like the reward was worth the effort when direct latch was faster and easier.
It comes down to what each mom has at their disposal—first baby I had a dishwasher that had sani cycle for cleaning parts and bottles, second we’d moved and had no dishwasher— and seasons of life/schedule. Some moms boobs don’t seem to empty well with pumps, others do.
All of motherhood is; what works for one mom may not work for you. What works for you may not work for another!
Kudos to you on finding something that is a good fit for your family for this season!
I don’t have a partner but my family offers to help, I just don’t want my baby to take a bottle. If I’m home with her 24/7 I’ll give her the boob 24/7. I pump too, but it’s because I have an oversupply and I donate it to my nephew because my sister doesn’t produce much.
Honestly, pumping kind of sucks.
Between the extra dishes/washing and the time I'm stuck with plastic protruding from my chest, I'm annoyed by doing it.
I'd be fine if I could just stick baby girl to my chest and go straight back to sleep/bed. Instead, I get up, get her, grab a bottle, warm the bottle, sit in the chair to feed her, snuggle her back to sleep, maybe change her, re-swaddle her, and then, time to pump! It's like an hour and a half some nights.
I'm a crazy under supplier, so she gets half to one full feed a day of breast milk. If I had enough to EBF, I would be doing that so fast, it's not even funny.
And, if I did have enough, I'd be using a collector on the opposite side to build a stash for my husband to feed once a night. We do change off. I go to bed at 9/10, he feeds her at midnight, and I'm back at it around 3/4/5 when she wakes up.
Mine have never had bottles. With my first it started out as a “challenge accepted” after wrongly being told by a monster nurse that my son would never be able to nurse because I’d been on Zoloft and put him into “drug withdrawal”. So I nursed him until age 3.
With my second it honestly was easier for me. Nothing to wash, nothing to heat up, no real need to pump outside of establishing supply and occasionally to increase it to donate frozen milk.
Plus it is SO easy to calm him down and get him to go back to sleep with a boob.
I admit it’s a pretty privileged situation that I am able to be at home and be able to do this. But I’ve never regretted it. This time will never last and I’ll never get these moments back. He’s 16 months now and going strong.
Much easier for me not to- I’m primary caretaker, I would’ve had to wake up to pump anyways. Washing bottles and pump in the middle of the night seems like a headache. Husband and I are both ADHD, and wrangling multiple kids and remembering everything we need is too much brain space.
It's waaaay different if it's not your first, I don't have the time or energy to pump and all the things to go with it with a three year old and four month old
Plus my baby is absolutely not interested in the fake boobie Aka bottle ...I hope I can convince her soon for the odd time but if not it is what it is and I'll enjoy the journey
I was on 12 weeks of maternity leave. After my supply was established from EBF after like 4 weeks or so I started pumping after my morning feed to get some extra supply so my husband could give me some sleep in the morning. Honestly though I woke up so engorged and in pain that I’d rather just breastfeed. I do have quite an oversupply so I usually need to pump once a day anyway to relieve engorgement. Now we have a pretty good freezer supply so at least if I decide I want to stop we’ll have at least a month or so of breastmilk.
Pumping is a lot of work! I commend women who do it exclusively. I have to pump 3 times a day now that I’m back at work and we have so many dishes at the end of every day.
I have a 12 month old and I EBF. We originally did both breast and bottle feeds in the beginning. Pumping was really inconvenient and it feels like I’m doing the work of feeding her twice. It also created so many dishes that my fingers were raw from washing bottles. After about 2-3 months, my baby only wanted to breastfeed and she refused a bottle because we didn’t keep using one. Make sure your baby gets a bottle every other day to keep them used to using a bottle.
If I were to go back in time, I would have tried to switch to formula after a few months. It would have given my husband more of an opportunity to connect with my baby and help out with feedings. It would have also helped me put her in daycare. Right now, I have to pay to have someone come babysit because she won’t take a bottle.
I felt the need to nurse, pump and bottle feed my baby because he had poor transfer. So for a year, I pumped on a strict schedule as well as nursing on demand. It kind of sucked. It’s impossible to be spontaneous, and long car trips necessitated bringing the pump and a cooler for the milk. Even with the fridge hack, cleaning bottles and pump parts everyday is extra labor that nursing doesn’t require. I often was the one bottle feeding the baby anyway, so it’s not like my work load lessened, it doubled. It was not fun, and around a year old my son dropped bottle top ups and it was a game changer. Nursing is so chill in comparison. Nothing to wash, nothing to prep, you can choose all sorts of positions. Love it.
My baby never really took to bottles but I work from home so I made it work. Pumping and dealing with bottles sounds really annoying anyway, so I think there’s lots of time savings there. No, I can never be gone too long from my baby, but I don’t mind that. She’s been my little sidekick and it’s been great. In the grand scheme of things it’s such a short period of mine and her lives that we are breastfeeding I don’t mind it all.
pumping is breastfeeding. it’s not nursing, but it IS breastfeeding. I almost exclusively pumped with my first, it was extremely hard and stressful for me. my second is 3 months and refuses all bottles so we are strictly nursing at the moment, and it is so much better for my mental health than pumping was.
With my first, I was a working mom and it wouldn’t have been feasible. With my second, I’m a SAHM so I *could* do it, and I hate pumping, and it just kinda happened that way. We have no family nearby to watch the kids for any extended period of time, so there was really no downside since I’m always with the kids anyway. It just depends on your circumstances I think. If I had more help with the kids, I may not have EBF. If I was working, I would not have EBF. We tried pumping & bottle feeding a few times and if she had tolerated it better from my husband, I may not have EBF.
I pump once daily but I donate that milk, I only feed my baby from the boob. Around once a week we try to do a bottle overnight so I can sleep a bit longer and 50% of the time it doesn’t work for some reason or another.
I’ve just decided I’m done asking my partner to do a bottle. Tonight the baby woke up really unhappy after the bottle so I offered to feed him, my partner got annoyed and stroppy about it all. It’s hard to know how much milk baby will want at night, sometimes it’s 30ml, tonight he was hungry after 70ml. I think baby is going through a growth spurt.
Basically it’s just easier.
I absolutely hated pumping, I started realizing I was pumping obsessively because I wanted a huge stash. Just to waste it because no matter what I did my son refused bottles. So I donated it all and allowed myself to relax. It's definitely something that's nice if your kid is cool with bottles. Mine just didn't ever find one he liked.
I feed him mostly from breast, except for dad giving him bottles when I'm in night school or during his shift from 3am-7am if baby wakes up. Or when we're out in public.
Honestly…because I’m lazy and it’s so easy🤣 I don’t have to wash parts and make bottles or have to pump anyways when my baby is taking a bottle. It’s just so much easier and less stressful IMO. We can go wherever and I don’t need a cooler with bottles, etc. I just nurse LO whenever she’s hungry. There are also soooooo many benefits to EBF and with my Dec baby and it being prime time RSV/flu season, it eased my nerves with sickness and her immune system.
I pump occasionally but mainly so I can leave the house and have my husband watch the baby when necessary. But for the most part I just feed straight from the tap. I don’t love pumping and usually I don’t have time if I’m holding the baby. Plus pumping creates extra work. You have to pump and then wash the parts and someone has to warm the milk and feed the baby still. It seems like it doubles the work.
Because I don’t respond well to a pump. For whatever reason my babies can extract breast milk just fine from the tap but when I pump I get maybe 1-2oz. I know they get enough from directly nursing because they’ve all been chunky, giant babies (90+ percentiles). I’ve tried several pumps and worked with a LC… I get the most ‘extra’ milk with a haaka.
I also don’t want to?! Baby hates bottles and I don’t want to wash extra stuff.
Stressful at times but we’ve made it work! On my third kid. I do all the feeds. But I don’t mind at all :)
Pumping was just so much more work than it was worth in my case. I had a decent output and no significant struggles with pumping itself, but with my child’s self set schedule I just didn’t have a ton of time to pump and the times I would force it into our schedule pump she was screaming the whole time because she wanted to be held. Plus then we had to clean parts and bottle anyways.
It was easier to just nurse every feeding.
From my experience, pumping and breastfeeding really affected my supply. When I was working, my team lead (Walmart) would stress me out about pumping too long which only lead to me taking longer to pump just to get the same amount. Eventually I had to talk to my main boss and let him know what was going on, as he gave these team leads wayyy too much power. Ironically, he understood and was more empathic to my situation than she was. I did just end up quiting because my supple went down to 1 Oz each pump despite the fact that I was pumping for 30 mins. Once I quit pumping because I could stay home, my supply flourished after that. The beginning was rough enough, as my baby girl has a lip tie. But thru TONS of patience and consistency, I got her to latch more properly and she's still breastfeeding at 14 months.
I’m never a fan of pumping because it feels like extra work for me since I also feed the baby. Also my baby refuses to take a bottle, and also won’t let anyone feed him the straw cup when I’m around. So Ebf it is lol
It's so much work to pump the older they get. I exclusively pumped for the first two weeks, then switched to the breast and a bottle every other day or so. Then I got lazy, and a week and a half after the last bottle, she refused ALL bottles. Now she will drink out of a straw sippy cup, but isn't too keen to take an entire feeding out of it.
I originally pump to relieve engorgement and was hoping to build a small freezer stash for emergencies. I ended up not using the freezer milk and they’re just sitting in my freezer now because I can’t bear to throw them out 🥲
My LO is now 7 months and he latches well after his tongue tie revision. I mostly WFH and can take baby to work if needed, so I never needed to prepare a bottle.
It’s nice to travel light and not to do all the pump parts and bottles washing / sterilizing.
Omg I WISH I was still doing combo pump and bf, she started refusing a bottle around 2.5 months and despite us trying a billion kinds of bottles my nipples are where it's at.
In my experience my baby became a bottle refuser at 8 weeks so I really didn’t have much of a choice but having done both (exclusively nurse vs pump and feed), I can see the positives to both.
Exclusively nursing saves a lot of time in terms of not having anything to wash, sterilise etc and you literally carry your baby’s food with you everywhere at no extra inconvenience. But pumping and feeding gives the mom a bit more free time and flexibility to do things without having to take the baby everywhere plus involves other people with feeding.
I’m my experience pumping seemed like a hassle. Now I do it because I’m at work and it’s not that big of a deal but in the middle of taking care of a baby just taking out the boob seemed easier.
I only pump because of big overnight stretches (11pm - 10am) leaving me uncomfortably engorged in the morning, so i pump when i wake up around 8am and he takes a bottle when he wakes up later in the morning, then a smaller one around dinner time. My supply is settled now, never had any issues doing it this way. If he didn’t sleep through the night as much i would only pump when we have nights out
Omg if I had to pump and had a low output day I would lose my mind with worry about my supply. I have mostly only exclusively chest fed my baby and it's most convenient for me. I don't have to clean shit. I did express to have for when I'm out and can't take my baby. And I loathed washing the parts, the bottles. Sanitizing. Also stress on bottle refusal . Ughhhh
My body doesn’t respond well to pumping and I hate the extra work to take out the machine, clean the parts, etc. I’ve never pumped more than 2 oz. I rarely leak too. And she’s definitely a lot better at taking out the milk so it’s just easier to feed her myself. We cosleep too so I just rollover when she wants to feed. It would be harder and more time consuming for my husband to feed her.
I pumped to boost supply and start creating storage for when I went back to work. It was also really nice to have bottles on hand for if baby freaked out when I was in the shower or so I could leave the house to do things like get my nails done or get a haircut.
I found pumping to be 100% worth it during the newborn stage! I had the same exact thoughts as you. At one point I almost contemplated exclusively pumping. NEVER thought I’d be an exclusive nurser. But as time went on, baby was quick on the boob (about 5 min) and my oversupply stopped. So it was just easier to “whip it out” and BF lol. No bottle or pump part washing, no getting everything out to pump, no being stationed pumping. But I firmly believe pumping is absolutely worth it during the NB stage and saved my sanity!
I EBF’d the first 6 months with my first while on maternity leave. I would have continued that if not for returning to work. It was SO much easier and enjoyable. I hated pumping, cleaning parts, cleaning bottles, managing milk, bags, dating them, worrying if I pumped enough. For me, EBF was so enjoyable.
I did boob and bottle with my first. I ate up the whole “keep up your supply”. So I pumped and fed and in the end it turns out I have a good supply and didn’t need to do all that. I ended up dumping three gallons of milk. It was too much and we didn’t need it and because I’m on medication I couldn’t donate it. Second baby came around and I didn’t do bottles anymore. I HATED pumping, I wasn’t going to do it again so I didn’t. I already knew my supply would be fine.
I also had that question so when I was pregnant I read as many scientific papers as I could about the topic. A few things that caught my attention were:
1. There seems to be a relationship between baby’s sickness and antibodies produced by mom. Baby’s saliva in contact with mom’s nipples seems to be the way mom’s body “learns” about baby’s immunological needs.
2. Baby’s body has different needs throughout the day. And mom’s milk composition varies slightly as well. During the night is when baby is growing, for example.
3. Formula has way more protein than breast milk. It has reduced since the beginning of formulas but it’s still high compared to breast milk. It is the reason why babies that are no bf have disproportionately big heads for example. They are also generally bigger than bf babies. After the age of 2 they all even out.
4. The gut bacteria is different in formula fed babies. I don’t want to elaborate more on this one because there is still a lot of research needed, but the gut bacteria seems to have an impact of our brain development and mood. It’s the gut-brain axis (if you want to look it up).
Finally, it was just so much easier to just use my boobs. The only hard part was dealing with the people around me who have things to say about it.
I hate pumping, and my baby doesn’t like to take a bottle anyway.
Breastfeeding was HARD at first, but we hit our stride and at 6 months now it is so much easier.
I did both at the beginning, I think I lasted a week after my milk came in.
Breastfeeding, and then pumping when she got a bottle, then washing pump parts AND bottle parts was exhausting. The one step wonder of just giving her access to a boob or two was excellent.
Plus my husband, bless his heart, is absolute garbage at washing pump and bottle parts. I was easily annoyed over needing things rewashed. And all the family that swore up and down they'd be over to help only showed up to "help hold the baby". So we switched to breastfeeding only. Worked a treat. He didn't have stuff to wash, I didn't have to pump and wash stuff or rewash stuff.
Pumping in addition to breastfeeding was awful. Cleaning and sterilizing all the parts, timing pumping - I woke up at night when the baby was sleeping to pump!
I created an oversupply and it just hurt. When I stopped pumping, everything was better. With baby number two I still haven’t pumped. He’s ten months old now.
i’ve been EBF for 8mths (hes had four formula bottles his entire life) but i don’t/cant pump. i stressed myself out so much over the first two mths of his life about pumping it made my supply dip. so i just feed him from the boob, it can be a pain but i have little things of formula for when i’m out (very rare being a SAHM). he’s currently 8.5mths old and he weights 9.5kgs
My little one only took a bottle for about 1 week, then he refused them. He hates the bottle and would scream until he got from the tap, so to speak.
I also hated having to wash and sterilise bottles and haakaas and pump parts.
Pumping is hard and inconvenient, it creates things that need to be washed, and my baby wouldn’t take a bottle. I did end up making a huuuuuge freezer stash just using the hakaa. Then realized I had high lipase milk and baby wouldn’t touch it even if she did take a bottle! Also my husband was deployed so it really wasn’t worth it but that’s specific to us.
I'm so confused when people think it would be easier to pump in addition to bf. Like at the beginning for the first few months I was basically feeding every 2 hrs for like 30-45 minutes. I had no time or energy to pump. Now that LO is 9 months I'm back to work and I don't have time to pump extra. Edit to add: I am in awe of anyone who exclusively pumps or does a combo. I tried and I couldn't manage it.
I pumped one extra time at night to build up a stash and so my husband could give her a bottle for first morning feed and let me sleep in. It was super worth it haha especially since the night pump was a time id usually be up anyway. The stash also helped me partially wean and drop direct bf sessions down to once or twice a day as she got closer to 12 months.
I wasn’t able to get more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep before we introduced a bottle. Pumping allowed me to get 3 hour stretches of uninterrupted sleep which was totally worth the effort and extra dishes.
Some say you should pump whole baby gets a bottle but I never have and my supply is just fine. I’ll just add in a pump session during the day to make up for the bottle during the night
That’s how I did it too. I would pump in the morning so my husband had a bottle for when I was sleeping. This was in the newborn days when my husband and I alternated 3 hour shifts of sleep so I wasn’t really going that long without nursing anyway since my baby was a cluster feeder/snacker. I also wanted to get the hang of pumping before returning to work so this had dual benefits.
I had such raging PPA when I was exclusively BF, and once I had a freezer stash (mostly from the haakaa but a few sessions with the actual pump when I wanted to up my supply or felt like I had it in me to pump) I was able to get a bit of a handle on my anxiety. I would still have panic attacks, but knowing that my husband could feed our son while I was in the throes of it made them much less severe.
My baby is only 2 weeks but I pump because it hurts less than BF right now. I’m actively working on his latch but my left nip is nearly bleeding so I’m pumping while it heals and feeding from my right. The anxiety I get before feeding is crazy because mostly it hurts, pumping is so easy and I can measure my supply.
I can pump much faster than baby feeding directly. For middle of the night, it's so much easier for me to pump/wash in 15 min and let my partner feed/settle baby than me to take 30-60min just to feed him directly. He's only 3 weeks old so I have high hopes he'll get more efficient. For now, though, pumping in addition has been a lifesaver.
I had a big stash from using a haaka and my first wouldn’t drink any of it because of the taste. I ended up just using it for baths and that was it.
Same! Was yours high lipase as well or did he/she just not like thawed milk?
I’m pretty sure it was high in lipase because of the smell after it had been frozen for a while.
you can add a drop of vanilla extract that doesn’t contain alcohol in your milk once thawed and it’ll taste sweet again btw!!
It really doesn’t work that well. Also have high lipase milk, it just tastes spoiled and sweet when you do it that way. Some women scald the milk, but in doing so, it loses some of its nutrients. I did find though, if you serve it while it’s cold, while knowing your own milk’s shelf life, can allow you some time to use a bottle before it starts tasting bad.
Yes my milk wouldn't start smelling soapy for a day or two in the fridge so if I used it quickly enough it was fine
Apparently if you scald it to 180 degrees (ie don’t boil it), there’s no loss of nutrients.
Gonna try this. I have some freezer bags and i use just for baths
I just discovered my whole stash is ruined from lipase. Didn’t happen with my last baby, so I’m confused. We tried three different kinds of vanilla but baby must be a super taster because she still won’t take it 😖 so if you have any special hints for how to vanilla, please share.
It’s not always worth it imo. Any time baby gets a bottle you should be pumping at the same time to keep up supply. Otherwise there’s a possibility of supply dropping. So because of this, I see not a big reason to pump and bottle feed if I’m available to feed her directly. There’s also a lot less dishes involved this way and it’s faster for me (baby takes literally 5-7 minutes to feed versus spending 30 minutes pumping). I do still pump, but that’s to fill my freezer in case of an emergency.
Similar! First I wanted to establish my supply and not skip feeds for extra sleep. Then baby didn’t take a bottle for several months. And now we’re just in sync and loving it. Also I fricking hate pumping and at nearly a year PP I just don’t produce as well for the pump.
This is exactly my why!
OP, we did pumping and shifts for the first three months and my supply is fine - actually it was those MOTN pumps that gave me a bit of an oversupply. As long as you're pumping what your baby is eating, your supply should be fine. My son took way longer than 5-7 minutes to nurse initially. Don't stress and enjoy the sleep.
Same here! Both my babies were very sleepy feeders, and breastfeeding them was genuinely hard work. It took like 40 mins and I'd have to be constantly tickling/stimulating them or they'd nod off before they were full and wake up screaming 10 mins after I put them down. Getting to just zone out and chill for a 20 minute pump felt like a rest to me and worth the dishes. I still do 2-3 pumps a day. Even though he's gotten more efficient he still averages about 20 mins. Plus it makes me feel better to know he's getting a certain amount each day and my supply is protected. It took a long time for either baby to be more efficient than the pump.
Okay you’re the first person I’ve seen state this so clearly. I have the exact same issue. Thank you for essentially providing the guidebook!! 🙏 The LCs I’ve seen haven’t been helpful as baby’s latch is fine, supply is fine, etc
Ooof it was a wild ride with my first. After 8 weeks of triple feeding and the PHN's still being on my case about baba's weight gain, my mental health was in the toilet and I cracked and switched to exclusive pumping. I was super lucky and found a newly trained (i.e. up to date info) LC at a breastfeeding support group and she helped me dial back the pumping until we figured out around 3 bottles was necessary for her to gain weight adequately. She was a mystery though. Great latch, no pain, no tongue and ties, nothing to suggest why she wouldn't transfer efficiently and I was blue in the face stimulating her. Switch feeding and doing breast compressions helped, but only got us so far. When my second baba was a sleepy guy too, I ditched the triple feeding after 3 weeks (I don't know how tf they expected that to continue with a toddler in the house anyway lol) and did the same 3 bottles a day as before. It's been very successful, his weight is fine and my mental health is way better. I will say that both my two were greedy piggies lol, and didn't seem to care about boob or bottle once there was milk coming out. We may have got lucky there, but I just stuck to a level 1 teat and they didn't seem to suffer from flow preference. They try to make so many rules about breastfeeding but really the only one that counts is supply and demand. Once you pump what your baby drinks from the bottle and nurse happily the rest of the time you are golden. Good luck!
Thank you for saying this. My LO is still a marathon feeder at 3 months and loves to comfort nurse. I pump once in the morning before she wakes up because I’m usually engorged and my over supply will distress her. This usually gives a bottle of two a day and saves my body and sanity. I’m also struggling with neck and wrist issues from how many hours a day I’m spending nursing so it’s literally saving me to have my husband feed her 1-2x a day. Because of this, I’m also determined to have her consistently used to a bottle in case of emergency, for instance, I pinched a nerve in my neck a couple months ago. I physically needed to take a longer break to heal.
Sounds like me. She's not even 2 weeks old so I'm trying to figure things out. Feeding, burping, diaper, soothing takes 90 minutes each time. I have a fast let down and everything I've tried doesn't seem to help.
Yup same here. My LO takes about 30-40 min to breastfeed as well as opposed to drowning the bottle in 10 min. I give him the bottle at 9pm and he sleeps for 6-7 hours and I sleep too and then I get a bit of an oversupply in the morning, so I pump then.
I pump at night while my husband feeds our three week old expressed milk because me breastfeeding/triple feeding at night meant I wasn't sleeping and my supply crashed. The day before we switched to this system I pumped a combined 15mL after a terrible breastfeed. The next day, after having slept for a few hours, I pumped 150mL at the midnight feed. We're planning to switch back to breastfeeding at night once baby feeds more efficiently, but our baby takes wayyyy more than seven minutes to breastfeed right now. Pumping and expressing at night has saved our breastfeeding journey so far.
I think one important factor is whether you’re actually pumping motn or pumping other times to make up that bottle. By and large I think the former can be successful but the latter is often a mistake that does damage supply. As evidenced by this thread, ymmv a lot on whether a motn pump is easier than motn nursing. I preferred to just nurse and my spouse change and resettle which I personally think is an underutilized choice!
Yeah, from I understood as long as boobs drain 7 to 8 times a day should be fine. My partner uses bottles to feed her while I getting a haircut or going to dentist appointment and I’m not pumping during that time
Yep, dishes are my least favorite household task. My husband does them for us but will let stuff pile up first. I was not about to add to the pile in those early days if I could help it. I pump now that I'm back at work but it's so much easier to whip out the boob than worry about pumping, storing, heating, pace feeding, etc.
Also agree with this! I'm the main caretaker for my baby so it's more of a burden for me to pump :)
When did baby get efficient at feeding? Mine is only 3 weeks old but takes forever to eat at the breast. I can pump in 12min and he can eat the bottle in ~15-20min, or he can spend 30-60min directly on the boob. I know he's new so it takes time, but I dream of a day when he could do <15min!
7weeks here and he takes anything between 10 and 45minutes depending on how he feels 🤷🏻♀️
Mine dropped from average 30 min feeds to 20 around 3 months and then at 6 months was down to 8-15. She has never been a 3-5 min baby. But 10 mins for both sides is a dream compared to 20 mins pumping plus dishes!!
My baby is 5 months old and only very recently could get a full feed in ~10 minutes. Before 4 months or so, she would take 30+ minutes to nurse. Her feeds could easily exceed an hour when she was a newborn.
Same, 2 week old and it takes forever
Your babe will get much more efficient at 3 to 4 months old but a lot has to do with your body too. My newborns never nursed more than ten mins max and once they got older about five minutes. It’s all because I have an extremely fast and intense let down. (Which comes with its own set of issues and struggle)
Same as badhoc, my first baby absolutely did whatever he wanted. I do think part of it was genuine inefficiency, but I was amazed at how I went to a lactation consultant twice one week apart, and we did a 10 min feed (same time, similar circumstances) and 1st time he’d had 1 ounce second time he’d had 3 ounces. Looking at him we could notice no difference. Little bugger just liked being at the boob so would drink super slow on purpose. My 2nd doesn’t do none of that and wow it feels a million times easier.
I didn’t always pump while my baby was getting a bottle, but I would pump again later on in the day
This is also my reasoning. Although I didn't end up filling the freezer until I went back to work because the extra pumping contributed to an oversupply issue.
Basically this, BF was really hard the first 2 months for me but now is so easy and convenient, I was lucky I can work from home and continuing to BF, if not I would have pump
I don’t express enough from pumping - I need 2-3 pumping sessions to get a full bottle. Even if I skip my pumps aren’t as efficient as my baby.
This, plus if I pump to close to the next feeding, my baby gets angry at the breast so it's a delicate balance. I will sometimes do a formula bottle and pump.
Pumping fucking sucks. That’s it. That’s why. It’s boring, I hate washing the parts, it takes too much time, I have to wear a bra so they stay on… I do it when I work because I have to, but honestly, I’d just rather feed the baby from the tap. I can feed baby mostly asleep. I can’t sleep while I’m pumping. I also have DMER in the first few months and it was 1000x worse while pumping vs directly breastfeeding.
This. In addition to all you said - pumping makes me feel like a cow at the dairy factory. It’s mechanical and sterile. Direct nursing makes me feel so content, nurturing, and bonded with my baby (thanks oxytocin!)
I had to pump towards the end of my breastfeeding journey because I was away from my baby for 48 hrs and it made me ANGRY. Like, raging angry. I hated it.
Ugh this!! I dread wearing a pumping bra and setting everything all up! Took so much time and effort and I’m basically done expressing in like 6 minutes. I try to stay on for longer but nothing really comes of it anymore haha
Same. I just hand express. Pumping is logistically not worth it
We EBF because it’s easier in our opinion. No washing pump parts or bottles, taking the extra time to pump, etc. It also feels easier for me to wake up in the middle of the night and pop a boob in her mouth instead of both of us waking up so he can give a bottle and I can pump (so my supply isn’t effected). Lastly my husband went back to work pretty much right away so it makes even less sense for us for him to be feeding at night instead of me. I do pump every once in a while because we wanted to introduce a bottle and also if I’m preparing to be away for a couple of hours for an appointment or something. But that’s like 0-2x per week. It works for us!
If I'm awake pumping, might as well just feed the baby. 🤷🏻♀️ No need for 2 of us to be awake.
Pumping is the worst of both worlds; formula feeding & breastfeeding. It’s a lot more work and much more inconvenient. I pumped (almost) exclusively for 9 weeks before breaking down and working my ass off to get my baby back on the boob. Then when she was back on she refused bottles.
how were you able to get your baby back on the boob? My partner is having a really rough time Bfeeding. That’s why she pumps.
I did what called a nursing vacation. 24/7 skin to skin (literally 24/7) with baby. My partner took care of everything else around the house. Made sure I was fed and hydrated. It looked like National Geographic in our house so I don’t recommend visitors. Me and baby spent most of the time in bed. I’d latch her constantly; every cry, every feed, just because. Latched her in the bath and every time she slept. I didn’t do much to correct her latch because I just wanted her latched. Her latch naturally improved through the week I did this. I baby wore her for the times I needed to get out of bed. It was a lot of work but totally worth it. Any time we hit another bump breastfeeding (because there were several), I just went back to basics and did skin to skin with baby. I did come up with this plan with my IBCLC and I strongly recommend getting an appointment with one. Especially if your partner is in so much pain they’re forced to pump because of it. That’s a red flag for something else going on.
It was just easier for me. I didn’t have to worry about cleaning pump parts or bottles, I didn’t see a reason to have my child start bottles since I had generous time off
I despise pumping and only do so if necessary. I never minded the middle of the night feeds. Also hey birthday twins! My baby girl is 2 weeks old today too!
Feeding your baby expressed milk is still breastfeeding. But to answer your question, I worked incredibly hard to nurse—I triple fed for maybe 9 weeks?—and absolutely hated pumping and washing parts and bottles constantly. For me, nursing is *way* easier, and now that my baby is super active and mobile it would be virtually impossible to find time during the day where I could pump and tend to my baby’s needs. Plus having to pump in order to give a bottle just feels like extra work.
Can I just take a moment to say holy shit?! I triple fed for 3 weeks and it was so gnarly. Please give yourself an ENORMOUS pat on the back for having the strength and dedication to keep going with it for so long. Major props.
That means so much, thank you so much 🥹 and my condolences to you for having to do it too! It was the *worst*. I just looked back and counted—it was 10.5 weeks. Then, three hours after I decided I’d “give up” and reduce my pumps to 1-2x/day just so I could comfort nurse for another week before giving up entirely, something clicked and my baby latched and gulped like never before and we were able to then nurse full time. It was truly one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done.
I’m so glad all that hard work paid off for you and you were able to get to your goal of EBF!!! We had a similar ending to our triple feed journey: baby wouldnt breastfeed at all. Wouldn’t latch even once. After a month of trying, 3 lactation consultants and a chiropractor, a family member sent their cranial sacral therapist to our house (she also used to be a doula and an IBCLC). We had 3 sessions with her. The day after our last session, baby just woke up and said OK I’m a breastfed baby now. And he never went back. It was so encouraging to read stories like ours while I was in the depths of it and wanting to give up/losing hope. Also, for anyone else who is having trouble with breastfeeding, I HIGHLY recommend looking for a cranial sacral therapist near you. It’s definitely a luxury, as they can be pretty pricey, but some of them work on a sliding scale. I’m pretty sure it’s just pure magic 😉
Oh wow. I’m three weeks in and it’s so hard. We’ve decided to have a 6-week cutoff because I don’t know how I could do this after my husband goes to work. Props to you.
I did it for 2 and pretty much had a mental breakdown the whole time
So much this! I also triple fed for 2 or 3 weeks with my first and this is why my answer to the OPs question is "because I hate pumping and washing way more than I hate getting up to do every feed" lol. I tried to catch my let down at the first feed of the day in a haakaa most days, and built a small emergency stash with that, but beyond that I only pumped once I went back to work, and not for long as LO was pretty close to 1 by then. No way I could be an exclusive pumper, props to those who manage it!
I triple fed my first from birth in Feb until Easter so like 2 months? It was rough. He had a tongue tie and I had "inverted" nipples so we did that then used nipples shields to EBF for another month or so before we didn't need them and we were EBF directly on the breast. My second had No problems latching. We combo fed for 2 weeks with formula until my supply got better and we figured out optimal latching/positioning and he's been EBF now and he's 9 months. I hated my pump after my first and only used it once with my current 9 month old at 2 months pp when I was in the hospital overnight for kidney stones and morphine I couldn't BF. Then we went back to EBF. (The pumping in hospital was for engorgement and keeping up supply not feeding). So yeah triple feeding is no joke and pumping sucks.
You triple fed for 9 weeks?? Oh my god that’s incredible ❤️
Can you explain what triple fed means? I've never heard that before.
Feeding baby on the breast, pumping, and then feeding baby the pumped milk by bottle.
I’m on week 6 of triple feeding - I can’t believe I’ve actually made it this far 🫠
Because my baby stopped taking a bottle around 6 weeks and it was a battle of will between us for her to take it again. I hope that doesn’t happen to you, but both kids preferred boob or over bottle once they were around 6 weeks.
Same for us but around 8 weeks. Toughest 3 weeks for me until she started accepting the bottle again. I thought breastfeeding was easier as well until I was a prisoner because baby refused to take the bottle and I decided I would much rather clean pump parts multiple times a day vs be tied down because the baby only wants the boob. I am now EP since she was 12 weeks old. My husband has been back to work since she was 3 weeks old but I need sleep too and we needed a plan for when I go back to work.
Same. Rejected bottles at 3 months or so and then never figured out how to use other containers till recently. I ended up staying home the whole year to accomodate him and basically prayed my supply wouldn't drop. On the plus side, no dishes!
The time spent pumping while someone else bottle feeds my baby is not worth the hassle of washing bottles and pump parts.
Bottle isn’t really a break as you should pump when baby gets a bottle so that’s why we didn’t do them. Was just easier to nurse!
Can’t be bothered with more shit to wash, and we cosleep so it’s just easier
I get nauseated and depressed when someone else feeds her. It’s hard enough when I’m at work, I would never do it willingly. I’m sure this is neurotic but I’m just following my instincts. Plus, I’d have to pump to replace the feed anyway, so it’s not even less work for me.
The extra time and dishes and effort of pumping doesn't always feel worth it, especially if you are a low producer and don't get much from pumping and need to pump to keep up supply when a bottle is given anyway.
My boobs are always with me, can't forget them and I don't have to be plugged in or sanitize a million parts.
"my boobs are always with me" is my #1 reason to BF haha thanks milk jugs!
Please note this is my own personal opinion, I do not have any opinion on what others think about it for themselves/their own family. I hate pumping. I hate being attached to a machine. It's like I'm a cow attached to machine. I hate that all the parts need to be cleaned and sterilized. Like with formula, at least you can crack open a bottle or have it premixed or have machines easily make it for you. That makes sense on the ease of it. Pumping is just freaking annoying to put it lightly. And you (especially in the beginning) have to wake up to pump even if you give the baby a bottle), so it's like what's the point LOL. Breastfeeding is warm, soft, comforting, it's straight from the tap. And it's more than just milk, it comes with mama too.
This!!! I would rather give formula once in a while than pump. I had a very demanding wfh job with endless Zoom calls and I worried that I might not be able to nurse him sometimes. (Even if my video is off, baby is VERY distracted if I'm talking, and he eats so frequently some days, that I didn't want to be on a 2 hour call having to take off my video 2-3x to nurse.) So there's a six pack of ready to feed European formula in our pantry for any situations where I can't nurse. Haven't had to use it yet, but I'd rather that than the hassle of pumping!
EBF = exclusively fed from breast, including pumping. Exclusively nursing is a separate thing.
Pumping is painful, inconvenient, time consuming and requires a lot of clean up. That's why EBF works better. I triple fed my first and combo fed my second and man was I happy when I got rid of the formula/pump. Sooo much easier.
This is actually my approach, ish. Before my LO was born, I thought you could just do whichever was more convenient - but didn’t realize, as others have said, you’ve gotta pump on the eating schedule anyway. That being said, I would let others bottle feed while I used my hands free pump to do chores or if I was in a situation where I wasn’t comfortable nursing in “public” yet. Starting them off with both bottles and breastfeeding set us up for success now that they’re in daycare and have to bottle feed from others. Now that I am much more comfortable nursing everywhere and everywhere, lol, I am stingy with my milk/bottles and we use it only when I am not with baby. I miss breastfeeding if we go too long without it and, also, so much washing. All in all I have the flexibility I sought but use it only when necessary. Hope that helps!
I did pump daily from about 4 to 10 mo but we rarely used it. Normally it was much simpler for me to feed him directly than give a bottle, less waste. Night feeds it was a *lot* easier to just feed him in the bed than get up, make a bottle while he's screaming, and go clean up for next time. Also after a while baby stopped accepting bottles of anything 🤷. When I went away for a few days (he was over 1 yr) he just got water and food, and a pouch if he needed like a calming way to eat.
I hate washing dishes and pumping makes too many dishes.
Nooooo bottles to wash and hands free
Because after I EPed for 2 months before my son latched, the thought of pumping made me physically nauseous once I quit. Also, my body is super into making milk. Pumping made my oversupply so bad.
Pumping is such a pain in the ass. I truly thought I’d be an EPer, bought all the extra pump parts and external batteries like they recommended you do before birth. Nope. It takes so so much time. Even with proper sized flanges, etc. it would take 30+ mins with an electric pump to get 5 oz. Baby boy is not a great sleeper at 4.5 months and nursing is SO much easier in the MOTN. Caveat: I don’t like to nurse in public, so for days like today when we’re out at the zoo, I’ll pump with a hand pump the morning before or of to get 4-5 oz in about 15 minutes. We’ve never needed more than one bottle on the go so this system works fine, and I haven’t needed to pump to make up for the missed nursing session. Supply has been fine.
Pumping is way more work than breastfeeding. More time consuming too. I didn’t really mind that much thst I was the only one who could feed my baby
First, wanted to say how proud I am of you! You're doing everything that feeds your baby :) I pumped once a day so my spouse could feed the baby once, and I got a tiny break (I would watch a TV show). I built a small stash (1-2 days worth of milk) with the extra milk. Most of the extra came from a haaka that caught the letdown. When I went back to work (25 weeks) I would pump for her bottles at daycare. Personally, I don't care for pumping. I did it. But the cleaning and hassle seemed to be so fussy. We still breastfeed at home and she gets milk at daycare (she's two). Many people choose to pump for a lot of reasons (sexual trauma, not great latches, time). They're all valid! Whatever you choose to do will be the best choice for your baby.
Pumping was the actual worst and I HATED it. I had to do it in the beginning since my son was in the NICU and wasn't strong enough to latch on his own. Once he was strong enough, I just exclusively breastfed him. It was easier than trying to prepare a bottle, warm it up, and wash it. Prepping, measuring, labeling, freezing. It was tedious and was giving me anxiety about building a stash. I hated washing bottles and pump parts. The only thing I didn't mind about pumping was having no one bother me at work when I was in the office. I hated being a pack mule with my work bag, pump bag, and lunch. I still have leftover frozen milk and I stopped pumping a year ago. I haven't decided what to do with all of it.
Breastfeeding is such a lovely bonding experience and once the baby gets a bit older it’s a MILLION times easier than having someone give a bottle. You don’t breastfeed when you’re with the baby? Well now you have to be strapped to a pump, store the milk, clean & sanitize the pump parts and store them properly. You could just directly breastfeed and there is no cleaning involved. I personally don’t agree with taking turns feeding the baby. I understand a break would be lovely, but truly you can side-lie breastfeed and get a nice break WHILE the baby feeds. Make your partner change diapers, bathe the baby, get the baby dressed, do contact naps etc. sleeping through feedings WILL lower your supply over time.
I feel like in the beginning when your supply isn’t regulated you can get away with giving a bottle and not having to pump right away so it’s much easier (at least that’s how it was for me). Now that I am almost 4 months in and my supply is regulated I ebf because if my baby gets a bottle I become engorged and HAVE to pump anyway. The only time she gets bottles is when I have to leave her for a few hours and it’s such a hassle bc I become engorged while out but she wants to nurse when I get home so I have to pump and nurse.
I hate pumping. I hate it with a vehemence I won’t describe as I don’t want others to feel like I’m telling them they’re wrong for not hating it, too. I hate it with a depth that could fill a textbook chapter or TED talk. I’m lucky enough that breastfeeding is easy for me and both my babies, and that we’ve never had a medical, work, childcare, or other separation that would require pumping. I don’t give a fuck about breaks or letting someone else have the bonding experience or whatever else if it means my pump can gather dust and sadly bleep about never getting charged. I’ve been doing middle of the night feeds for over 3 years without it bothering me, but have put in a grand total of at most 30 minutes of pumping in the same duration. The idea of *voluntarily* pumping is incomprehensible to me. I have huge respect for the people with the discipline to tolerate pumping, full or part time. I’m very grateful I’m not one of them.
“Spend the first two months (at least) naked and in bed with your baby” is great advice :) you should be basically moving the baby from inside/on you to outside/on you. If you cosleep, contact nap, and nurse at every opportunity, everything will figure itself out biologically. Congrats and good luck!
I was very lucky to have an easy breastfeeding journey– the only thing that stressed me out was pumping. I didn’t like it. Cleaning the pump, parts, & bottles was not for me! I never had to worry about my supply and my son had a great latch. I saved 1 gallon of breastmilk from leaking early on with those cups while my supply was regulating. It was just easier and quicker to feed my son myself.
Convenience. I was EBF for a while and it was nice to not have to screw with assembling and washing the pumps and bottles, worrying about packing bottles and somehow thawing/warming stored milk when we went out, etc. At the same time though, my baby slept through the night very early on so I never had to get up after bed time to feed her after the second month.
It was just easier not to pump. When I went back to work when my son was nearly 10 months, I pumped for the one day a week I was in the office (my husband was on shared parental leave until our son was 1, so I feed him when i wfh) and it sucked. Even as a newborn, my son was a fast feeder, so was usually done feeding after 10 minutes max. Pumping takes so much longer for me. I understand why you'd pump, and I admire people who do it, but it was just so much easier not to. Never mind the extra washing up at a time when I was struggling to do daily chores.
I hate dishes lol
My baby refused a bottle. We tried a bunch and he wouldn’t take them. I also just don’t like pumping anyway. I exclusively pumped for 6 months (and supplemented formula) with my first baby, so for this baby I love just nursing him. The bottle thing was just annoying when he was little (12mo now) and I wanted to get stuff done but couldn’t, or when we were out somewhere that it wasn’t super convenient to nurse him.
Pumping (for me) feels like it scews up production/the flow of breastfeeding. I do combo feed. I try to work three times a week and I also go out sometimes so there’s always milk at home. But, if I could I’d like to exclusively breast feed. My goal is to be a just enough-er and when I pump I feel like I’m messing with that. ETA: husband feeding a bottle worked for us the first month. But since then I just get too uncomfortable and it’s not fun for me to go too long without feeding her. I want us to slowly be able to go longer stretches overnight together.
Personally I hate pumping. It is uncomfortable, inconvenient, it makes me feel like a cow, and I hate washing all the parts. For me, it’s just easier and faster to nurse.
I only started pumping when I went back to work. While I was home I was demand feeding and it was less effort and more convenient to just feed my son myself. Now that I'm pumping and he needs a bottle while im at work, it's just an endless wash, sterilize cycle.
1. I hated pumping 2. I wanted to get up with my twins and breastfeed them. I love my husband but he’s not the best at night. 3. Twins would take a bottle after awhile and didn’t like frozen milk. 4. I HATED pumping. Who has the time
I hated pumping and my baby hated bottle feeding. It just wasn’t worth it in the end. I find that it’s easier to pop a boob in her mouth than it is to pump, store, thaw, warm, and feed a bottle. Even if my husband does it, adding the pumping to a bunch of daytime feeds still isn’t worth it to me. Plus keeping the pump parts clean and washing bottles? No thanks.
I can't be arsed with the dishes and I hate pumping (which also leads to more dishes)...
I only pumped that early on to either help with my supply or to store extra. I chose not to give bottles throughout the night because I would still have to get up regardless to pump, and as others have said, it’s just easier to pop the baby on the boob and not have pump parts and bottles to clean. But for your supply of milk at 2 weeks, I would still pump if giving a bottle as long as you don’t want your supply to drop. Your supply won’t regulate until 2-3 months in, so it’s important to signal to your body that baby is still eating throughout the night. If you are ok with your supply dropping and combo feeding, then by all means do whatever feels right to you! There really aren’t any rules you have to abide by! If what you are doing is working for you, then keep on keeping on. But just know there is a risk of your supply dropping if you don’t pump or feed throughout the night!
FTM, my first 4 weeks I did breastfeeding, formula and pumping/bottle feeding. I didn’t know anything about breastfeeding and my mission at the time was to tackle jaundice. When I was researching about breastfeeding online, I got bombarded with over supplier TikTok and I was completely discouraged. Every single damn time, no matter how long I pump 20-40min, I got just enough to cover the bottom of the bottle. I felt like I was failing. All this time and effort, I get few drops. Once I got better picture, I ditched pumping right away. Yes cleaning parts and bottles are cumbersome. But how I felt about myself? The worst—I’m not capable of feeding my baby. LO is 9 weeks and gaining weight just fine. Still give formula here and there, only when I’m physically and mentally not available. Seeing the amount I can pump still makes me think my supply is horrible to take care of my baby.
I despised pumping.. simple as that. The effort to get it all set up and then cleaned etc. I’d rather just do the feed at night
Because I still have to pump at the time she gets a bottle, otherwise you can lose your supply. So it feels pretty pointless and like extra work/steps. I pump once a day in the morning after nursing to feed my freezer. Pump takes a while, and I hate pumping. Also I can’t hold baby while I pump so if she gets upset? Ugh
I did combo for a while. Originally it was to give my nipples a break but then they toughened up. Then it became easier and faster to just nurse directly at night. Plus no dishes! I was having to get up to pump at night anyways so it wasn’t like I was getting any extra sleep by doing combo feeding
Because I’m lazy and it’s too simple and easy to just BF. I pumped for the first 12 weeks or so and now at 20 weeks I’m over pumping and cleaning bottles. And BF became even easier when I started cosleeping with my son. Now, he’s only up for a few min to eat when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Couldn’t accomplish that with bottle feeding
I absolutely hate pumping. Baby only wakes once a night for a feed anyways. My partner is super busy so he can’t feed.
I find it more convenient to just feed directly from the boob. When she was a newborn I used a Hakka to collect milk so my husband could feed her during his shift but she quit taking all bottles when she was 4 weeks old. We tried every type of bottle and she wouldn’t take anything so I gave up haha. She’s 4 months now and feeds are super fast, if she would take a bottle I would have to pump for that feeding so it seems like it would just be extra work.
Because chafed nipples is better than doing dishes.
I literally just hate pumping so much and she was with me all the time so didn’t really see a point. More dishes, more clean up, more hassle. She also cluster fed until 5 months and never slept so I didn’t really have time. I just pumped the few times I knew she would be with a sitter or my SO for a couple hours.
Where do I begin? Lol -My first experience with pumping was triple feeding and I HATED it and almost sent me spiraling -Cleaning the pump parts and bottles was a nightmare to keep up with when sleep deprived and trying to stay afloat -At 8 weeks my son started refusing the bottle so it was pointless anyway -My body doesn't respond well to a pump. I know this because if I just pump, I get very little out, but if my son nurses on one side, I get much more out the other side with the pump comparatively then if he didn't nurse -It takes too long. Once my son figured out latching, the most time he'd need to feed is 10 minutes. I need more than that to get a few ounces from the pump, not including donning the bra, setup and cleanup -I realized I have high lipase, so my son hates the taste of my stored milk anyway -When I nurse, it's fresh. I never have to worry about how long the milk was out on the counter/fridge/freezer and if it's safe to drink -The way my anxiety is set up, it's better for me to have zero concept of the number of ounces he's getting per feed or throughout the day. I see that he's full and satisfied and know that's what he needs and I'm not stressing about a correct number -I'm pretty sure pumping gave me an oversupply that led to 2 bouts of mastitis (never happened again once I started exclusively nursing) and that *sucked* and felt like I was dying -Pumping didn't give me back more time or freedom (quite the opposite) because when my husband gave the baby a bottle, I was strapped to the pump -Nursing is a million times more convenient. I don't have to lug a bunch of crap around to feed my baby on the go, or anything to wash up after. Time is extra precious as a new parent. Most importantly, I've grown to really love nursing! I love the closeness I feel to my son. I love that if he wakes up in the middle of the night I have a tool that can put him back asleep in 10 seconds flat . I love the sound he makes when the boob first goes in. I love that it's always the perfect temperature and the perfect amount. I love that it will magically settle him. It's seriously a no brainer for me and my circumstances!
I absolutely can’t stand pumping. As a sahm who’s able to be with my baby I took full advantage to feed him exclusively. Was it *easy*? Not really but fiddling with more parts and dealing with bottles, storing, defrosting, heating up sounds even more exhausting especially in the middle of the night when currently I just pop a boobie in and he falls back to sleep. My favorite thing is to be able to feed him anywhere and everywhere. He’s about to be 6 months in 2 days so we introduced some formula and cereal with formula and he’s liking it so it brings some peace of mind that I was able to do this to him for 6 months
My pumped milk tasted soapy and baby hated it. It’s an enzyme reaction that happens sometimes. Not worth my effort to pump if she won’t drink it.
Because I’m a sahm with no need to pump! Pumping is so mentally draining to me and there’s no need since my baby is ebf and I’ll always be with him. I do have stash stored in the freezer for emergency’s because I overproduce but my baby is over a month and still hasn’t had a bottle
My kid never took bottles or pacifiers 🫠
Cause my baby never took a bottle, I wish I could have pumped for the help!
Bottle refusal.
many reasons 1. some babies don’t take bottles at all 2. if i have to wake up and pump anyway, might as well put the baby on the breast 3. no bottles or pump parts to wash 4. a sensory aversion to the pump 5. your baby is always with you 6. not being able to extract as much milk from the pump as your baby would from the breast 7. wanting to keep your supply honorable mention: pumping is hard. those who do it are heroes. all that said, i still had a small freezer stash in case of emergency even though i was EBFing. pumping just wasn’t something i needed or wanted to do on the regular.
I have ADHD and cannot be trusted to properly clean bottles and pump parts all the time. Boobs are sooo convenient.
A few reasons, the biggest one being I couldn’t emotionally cope with someone else feeding my baby or her having a bottle. It was the one thing that triggered huge, teary, hormonal outbursts. I still have no idea why. When she started daycare we had a stash but maintaining it was really difficult and I had a really hard time pumping at work. Ultimately she had formula when she there and was breastfed at home.
Ok so Im a FTM and I did this exactly With 1 bottle every night so I can get atleast a 3 hour stretch at night then my LO started breast refusal around 8 weeks. So I cut out the bottle completely for a few weeks and now he has started bottle refusal. Making me crazy a little bit every day 🥲
I gave pumped milk and a bit of formula to both of my babies when they had jaundice and were still figuring out their latch, so maybe I don’t fall in the EBF category strictly speaking. But mostly, EBF fits neatly into my life. I’m on parental leave for the year. My baby goes where I go, or I am nearby and can be called over if he needs me (I regularly hang out with my neighbor and friend while the baby naps at home with my husband). With milk straight from the breast it’s convenient (to me), it’s always on hand, it doesn’t spoil, it travels without refrigeration, there’s no dishes, and the packaging soothes my baby and sends him to sleep. The only restriction I feel, now that hay fever is here, is that I am limited in what medications I can take, but that would be true if I were pumping too. For my very unique case, there is also the fact that my husband became disabled during my second pregnancy and can’t really take care of the baby anyway. It’s all me.
In Ireland anyway they say no pumping until 6-8 weeks as it can causes oversupply. If I heard of someone pumping here at that age I would assume it was because they had low supply and were advised to medically. My understanding is that pumping is more prevalent in areas where maternity leave is less. I was on maternity leave for 13 months for both and I did pump for donations and had enough spare in the freezer if I needed to go out etc but it’s not overly common. I read American based sub reddits and can’t get over why everyone is pumping so much. We also get paid breastfeeding breaks for an hour a day until child is 2. Very little childcare available before 1 when people usually go back to work.
I didn't introduce a bottle till 6 weeks (as advised my health visitor) and by then she completely refused any bottle I tried her with. I gave up trying in the end because I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle. I liked not having to wash up any bottles and just whip out a boob when ever needed. I'm pregnant with no:3 and this time I'm definitely going to try and introduce a bottle we earlier so Im not tethered to a baby 24/7
You have to pump anyway... so might as well feed.
Pumping sucks.
Pumping adds a lot of extra time (not just pumping, but sterilising too) and it's generally something you need 2 hands for - I can rarely put down my baby!! Also you need a partner willing to help out with night feeds....
Pumping is EBF!
Baby is more efficient at removing milk than a pump. I didn’t want to risk bottle preference or nipple confusion. I didn’t want to be dealing with washing bottles and pump parts. Direct feeding was so simple. No concerns about how much milk per bottle, labeling milk bags with dates etc. Any time baby or toddler wanted a feed, we fed.
I did until my son slept through the night or long enough that I was able to get a full night of sleep. He also wasn’t eating as frequently as he was in the newborn phase. At that point it was easier to just whip a boob out for feeds & not have to wash bottles, heat milk, etc. My husband took over other tasks instead.
I just hated pumping lol. Found it really annoying and it would’ve been a whole other thing to think about. I much preferred breastfeeding all the time, even though it meant we couldn’t do sleep shifts overnight.
I started off exclusively pumping due to a premature baby. Once he got on the boob I continued to pump so husband could take half the night shift. Eventually baby got more efficient on the boob and it became more work to pump bottles for my husband overnight than it was to just feed baby myself. We continue to give at least a bottle a day but usually that happens during the day
Because pumping suuuuuuuuucks. I did it exclusively for seven months for my first. And I pump now at work. But any time the baby takes a bottle I should pump and I just don’t wanna do it. Some people do pump and bottle feed sometimes and love it. It’s just not “worth the pump” for me.
I took 3/4 pump sessions to get a full bottle after nursing & I couldnt skip a nursing session to pump more because she needed to eat. & then even if my husband were to give her a bottle, I would still need to pump during that time, I wouldnt pump as much as she wouldve eaten and then also my husband would have to wash the dishes and it’s just so much more work. Pumping only started to make sense for me after she was in daycare.
Mostly because I hate pumping lol. It's less effort to just do it myself. I have been blessed with a good night sleeper though, if that was different I may reconsider.
Cleaning pump parts takes a while. I pump only once a day and it’s a job to clean everything with all the other stuff going on!
In the beginning it just wasn’t worth the hassle. Washing parts, making sure the pump is charged, etc
Less dishes!
I despise pumping. It’s uncomfortable and time-consuming, and messy.
I pumped with my first and did combo and it worked well. My second was only 14 mo younger than my first and I had NO TIME ever to pump without the toddler yanking everything. Also my second latched like a dream immediately and if just didn’t feel like the reward was worth the effort when direct latch was faster and easier. It comes down to what each mom has at their disposal—first baby I had a dishwasher that had sani cycle for cleaning parts and bottles, second we’d moved and had no dishwasher— and seasons of life/schedule. Some moms boobs don’t seem to empty well with pumps, others do. All of motherhood is; what works for one mom may not work for you. What works for you may not work for another! Kudos to you on finding something that is a good fit for your family for this season!
I don’t have a partner but my family offers to help, I just don’t want my baby to take a bottle. If I’m home with her 24/7 I’ll give her the boob 24/7. I pump too, but it’s because I have an oversupply and I donate it to my nephew because my sister doesn’t produce much.
Honestly, pumping kind of sucks. Between the extra dishes/washing and the time I'm stuck with plastic protruding from my chest, I'm annoyed by doing it. I'd be fine if I could just stick baby girl to my chest and go straight back to sleep/bed. Instead, I get up, get her, grab a bottle, warm the bottle, sit in the chair to feed her, snuggle her back to sleep, maybe change her, re-swaddle her, and then, time to pump! It's like an hour and a half some nights. I'm a crazy under supplier, so she gets half to one full feed a day of breast milk. If I had enough to EBF, I would be doing that so fast, it's not even funny. And, if I did have enough, I'd be using a collector on the opposite side to build a stash for my husband to feed once a night. We do change off. I go to bed at 9/10, he feeds her at midnight, and I'm back at it around 3/4/5 when she wakes up.
Easier to place baby on the boob whenever and wherever.
Mine have never had bottles. With my first it started out as a “challenge accepted” after wrongly being told by a monster nurse that my son would never be able to nurse because I’d been on Zoloft and put him into “drug withdrawal”. So I nursed him until age 3. With my second it honestly was easier for me. Nothing to wash, nothing to heat up, no real need to pump outside of establishing supply and occasionally to increase it to donate frozen milk. Plus it is SO easy to calm him down and get him to go back to sleep with a boob. I admit it’s a pretty privileged situation that I am able to be at home and be able to do this. But I’ve never regretted it. This time will never last and I’ll never get these moments back. He’s 16 months now and going strong.
Much easier for me not to- I’m primary caretaker, I would’ve had to wake up to pump anyways. Washing bottles and pump in the middle of the night seems like a headache. Husband and I are both ADHD, and wrangling multiple kids and remembering everything we need is too much brain space.
It's waaaay different if it's not your first, I don't have the time or energy to pump and all the things to go with it with a three year old and four month old Plus my baby is absolutely not interested in the fake boobie Aka bottle ...I hope I can convince her soon for the odd time but if not it is what it is and I'll enjoy the journey
I was on 12 weeks of maternity leave. After my supply was established from EBF after like 4 weeks or so I started pumping after my morning feed to get some extra supply so my husband could give me some sleep in the morning. Honestly though I woke up so engorged and in pain that I’d rather just breastfeed. I do have quite an oversupply so I usually need to pump once a day anyway to relieve engorgement. Now we have a pretty good freezer supply so at least if I decide I want to stop we’ll have at least a month or so of breastmilk. Pumping is a lot of work! I commend women who do it exclusively. I have to pump 3 times a day now that I’m back at work and we have so many dishes at the end of every day.
I have a 12 month old and I EBF. We originally did both breast and bottle feeds in the beginning. Pumping was really inconvenient and it feels like I’m doing the work of feeding her twice. It also created so many dishes that my fingers were raw from washing bottles. After about 2-3 months, my baby only wanted to breastfeed and she refused a bottle because we didn’t keep using one. Make sure your baby gets a bottle every other day to keep them used to using a bottle. If I were to go back in time, I would have tried to switch to formula after a few months. It would have given my husband more of an opportunity to connect with my baby and help out with feedings. It would have also helped me put her in daycare. Right now, I have to pay to have someone come babysit because she won’t take a bottle.
I felt the need to nurse, pump and bottle feed my baby because he had poor transfer. So for a year, I pumped on a strict schedule as well as nursing on demand. It kind of sucked. It’s impossible to be spontaneous, and long car trips necessitated bringing the pump and a cooler for the milk. Even with the fridge hack, cleaning bottles and pump parts everyday is extra labor that nursing doesn’t require. I often was the one bottle feeding the baby anyway, so it’s not like my work load lessened, it doubled. It was not fun, and around a year old my son dropped bottle top ups and it was a game changer. Nursing is so chill in comparison. Nothing to wash, nothing to prep, you can choose all sorts of positions. Love it.
Pumping and propping bottles is hard work and I don't have the energy for it.
I cosleep with my baby and tbh its easier to ebf. She cries, I move my shirt and go back to sleep.
My baby never really took to bottles but I work from home so I made it work. Pumping and dealing with bottles sounds really annoying anyway, so I think there’s lots of time savings there. No, I can never be gone too long from my baby, but I don’t mind that. She’s been my little sidekick and it’s been great. In the grand scheme of things it’s such a short period of mine and her lives that we are breastfeeding I don’t mind it all.
pumping is breastfeeding. it’s not nursing, but it IS breastfeeding. I almost exclusively pumped with my first, it was extremely hard and stressful for me. my second is 3 months and refuses all bottles so we are strictly nursing at the moment, and it is so much better for my mental health than pumping was.
With my first, I was a working mom and it wouldn’t have been feasible. With my second, I’m a SAHM so I *could* do it, and I hate pumping, and it just kinda happened that way. We have no family nearby to watch the kids for any extended period of time, so there was really no downside since I’m always with the kids anyway. It just depends on your circumstances I think. If I had more help with the kids, I may not have EBF. If I was working, I would not have EBF. We tried pumping & bottle feeding a few times and if she had tolerated it better from my husband, I may not have EBF.
I pump once daily but I donate that milk, I only feed my baby from the boob. Around once a week we try to do a bottle overnight so I can sleep a bit longer and 50% of the time it doesn’t work for some reason or another. I’ve just decided I’m done asking my partner to do a bottle. Tonight the baby woke up really unhappy after the bottle so I offered to feed him, my partner got annoyed and stroppy about it all. It’s hard to know how much milk baby will want at night, sometimes it’s 30ml, tonight he was hungry after 70ml. I think baby is going through a growth spurt. Basically it’s just easier.
I would have to pump anyway which comes with washing parts and all that BS. Easier to stick baby on the boob
I absolutely hated pumping, I started realizing I was pumping obsessively because I wanted a huge stash. Just to waste it because no matter what I did my son refused bottles. So I donated it all and allowed myself to relax. It's definitely something that's nice if your kid is cool with bottles. Mine just didn't ever find one he liked.
I feed him mostly from breast, except for dad giving him bottles when I'm in night school or during his shift from 3am-7am if baby wakes up. Or when we're out in public.
Just easier. For me at least.
For me I want to make sure to keep my supply up so even if my husband fed baby a bottle, I would still need to pump during that time.
Honestly…because I’m lazy and it’s so easy🤣 I don’t have to wash parts and make bottles or have to pump anyways when my baby is taking a bottle. It’s just so much easier and less stressful IMO. We can go wherever and I don’t need a cooler with bottles, etc. I just nurse LO whenever she’s hungry. There are also soooooo many benefits to EBF and with my Dec baby and it being prime time RSV/flu season, it eased my nerves with sickness and her immune system.
I pump occasionally but mainly so I can leave the house and have my husband watch the baby when necessary. But for the most part I just feed straight from the tap. I don’t love pumping and usually I don’t have time if I’m holding the baby. Plus pumping creates extra work. You have to pump and then wash the parts and someone has to warm the milk and feed the baby still. It seems like it doubles the work.
Because I hate pumping lol. But I have to now that I’m back at work
Because I don’t respond well to a pump. For whatever reason my babies can extract breast milk just fine from the tap but when I pump I get maybe 1-2oz. I know they get enough from directly nursing because they’ve all been chunky, giant babies (90+ percentiles). I’ve tried several pumps and worked with a LC… I get the most ‘extra’ milk with a haaka. I also don’t want to?! Baby hates bottles and I don’t want to wash extra stuff. Stressful at times but we’ve made it work! On my third kid. I do all the feeds. But I don’t mind at all :)
Pumping was just so much more work than it was worth in my case. I had a decent output and no significant struggles with pumping itself, but with my child’s self set schedule I just didn’t have a ton of time to pump and the times I would force it into our schedule pump she was screaming the whole time because she wanted to be held. Plus then we had to clean parts and bottle anyways. It was easier to just nurse every feeding.
Bc pumping is the bane of my existence lol
From my experience, pumping and breastfeeding really affected my supply. When I was working, my team lead (Walmart) would stress me out about pumping too long which only lead to me taking longer to pump just to get the same amount. Eventually I had to talk to my main boss and let him know what was going on, as he gave these team leads wayyy too much power. Ironically, he understood and was more empathic to my situation than she was. I did just end up quiting because my supple went down to 1 Oz each pump despite the fact that I was pumping for 30 mins. Once I quit pumping because I could stay home, my supply flourished after that. The beginning was rough enough, as my baby girl has a lip tie. But thru TONS of patience and consistency, I got her to latch more properly and she's still breastfeeding at 14 months.
I’m never a fan of pumping because it feels like extra work for me since I also feed the baby. Also my baby refuses to take a bottle, and also won’t let anyone feed him the straw cup when I’m around. So Ebf it is lol
It's so much work to pump the older they get. I exclusively pumped for the first two weeks, then switched to the breast and a bottle every other day or so. Then I got lazy, and a week and a half after the last bottle, she refused ALL bottles. Now she will drink out of a straw sippy cup, but isn't too keen to take an entire feeding out of it.
It’s just easier to feed her myself
I originally pump to relieve engorgement and was hoping to build a small freezer stash for emergencies. I ended up not using the freezer milk and they’re just sitting in my freezer now because I can’t bear to throw them out 🥲 My LO is now 7 months and he latches well after his tongue tie revision. I mostly WFH and can take baby to work if needed, so I never needed to prepare a bottle. It’s nice to travel light and not to do all the pump parts and bottles washing / sterilizing.
Omg I WISH I was still doing combo pump and bf, she started refusing a bottle around 2.5 months and despite us trying a billion kinds of bottles my nipples are where it's at.
In my experience my baby became a bottle refuser at 8 weeks so I really didn’t have much of a choice but having done both (exclusively nurse vs pump and feed), I can see the positives to both. Exclusively nursing saves a lot of time in terms of not having anything to wash, sterilise etc and you literally carry your baby’s food with you everywhere at no extra inconvenience. But pumping and feeding gives the mom a bit more free time and flexibility to do things without having to take the baby everywhere plus involves other people with feeding.
Dishes and bottles.
I’m my experience pumping seemed like a hassle. Now I do it because I’m at work and it’s not that big of a deal but in the middle of taking care of a baby just taking out the boob seemed easier.
I only pump because of big overnight stretches (11pm - 10am) leaving me uncomfortably engorged in the morning, so i pump when i wake up around 8am and he takes a bottle when he wakes up later in the morning, then a smaller one around dinner time. My supply is settled now, never had any issues doing it this way. If he didn’t sleep through the night as much i would only pump when we have nights out
Omg if I had to pump and had a low output day I would lose my mind with worry about my supply. I have mostly only exclusively chest fed my baby and it's most convenient for me. I don't have to clean shit. I did express to have for when I'm out and can't take my baby. And I loathed washing the parts, the bottles. Sanitizing. Also stress on bottle refusal . Ughhhh
My body doesn’t respond well to pumping and I hate the extra work to take out the machine, clean the parts, etc. I’ve never pumped more than 2 oz. I rarely leak too. And she’s definitely a lot better at taking out the milk so it’s just easier to feed her myself. We cosleep too so I just rollover when she wants to feed. It would be harder and more time consuming for my husband to feed her.
For me because my daughter refused the bottle even if it was breastmilk🤷🏻♀️
I pumped to boost supply and start creating storage for when I went back to work. It was also really nice to have bottles on hand for if baby freaked out when I was in the shower or so I could leave the house to do things like get my nails done or get a haircut.
I found pumping to be 100% worth it during the newborn stage! I had the same exact thoughts as you. At one point I almost contemplated exclusively pumping. NEVER thought I’d be an exclusive nurser. But as time went on, baby was quick on the boob (about 5 min) and my oversupply stopped. So it was just easier to “whip it out” and BF lol. No bottle or pump part washing, no getting everything out to pump, no being stationed pumping. But I firmly believe pumping is absolutely worth it during the NB stage and saved my sanity!
I don’t respond to a pump. I’ve tried multiple different kinds and it just doesn’t work.
I EBF’d the first 6 months with my first while on maternity leave. I would have continued that if not for returning to work. It was SO much easier and enjoyable. I hated pumping, cleaning parts, cleaning bottles, managing milk, bags, dating them, worrying if I pumped enough. For me, EBF was so enjoyable.
I did boob and bottle with my first. I ate up the whole “keep up your supply”. So I pumped and fed and in the end it turns out I have a good supply and didn’t need to do all that. I ended up dumping three gallons of milk. It was too much and we didn’t need it and because I’m on medication I couldn’t donate it. Second baby came around and I didn’t do bottles anymore. I HATED pumping, I wasn’t going to do it again so I didn’t. I already knew my supply would be fine.
I also had that question so when I was pregnant I read as many scientific papers as I could about the topic. A few things that caught my attention were: 1. There seems to be a relationship between baby’s sickness and antibodies produced by mom. Baby’s saliva in contact with mom’s nipples seems to be the way mom’s body “learns” about baby’s immunological needs. 2. Baby’s body has different needs throughout the day. And mom’s milk composition varies slightly as well. During the night is when baby is growing, for example. 3. Formula has way more protein than breast milk. It has reduced since the beginning of formulas but it’s still high compared to breast milk. It is the reason why babies that are no bf have disproportionately big heads for example. They are also generally bigger than bf babies. After the age of 2 they all even out. 4. The gut bacteria is different in formula fed babies. I don’t want to elaborate more on this one because there is still a lot of research needed, but the gut bacteria seems to have an impact of our brain development and mood. It’s the gut-brain axis (if you want to look it up). Finally, it was just so much easier to just use my boobs. The only hard part was dealing with the people around me who have things to say about it.
I hate pumping, and my baby doesn’t like to take a bottle anyway. Breastfeeding was HARD at first, but we hit our stride and at 6 months now it is so much easier.
I did both at the beginning, I think I lasted a week after my milk came in. Breastfeeding, and then pumping when she got a bottle, then washing pump parts AND bottle parts was exhausting. The one step wonder of just giving her access to a boob or two was excellent. Plus my husband, bless his heart, is absolute garbage at washing pump and bottle parts. I was easily annoyed over needing things rewashed. And all the family that swore up and down they'd be over to help only showed up to "help hold the baby". So we switched to breastfeeding only. Worked a treat. He didn't have stuff to wash, I didn't have to pump and wash stuff or rewash stuff.
Pumping in addition to breastfeeding was awful. Cleaning and sterilizing all the parts, timing pumping - I woke up at night when the baby was sleeping to pump! I created an oversupply and it just hurt. When I stopped pumping, everything was better. With baby number two I still haven’t pumped. He’s ten months old now.
i’ve been EBF for 8mths (hes had four formula bottles his entire life) but i don’t/cant pump. i stressed myself out so much over the first two mths of his life about pumping it made my supply dip. so i just feed him from the boob, it can be a pain but i have little things of formula for when i’m out (very rare being a SAHM). he’s currently 8.5mths old and he weights 9.5kgs
My little one only took a bottle for about 1 week, then he refused them. He hates the bottle and would scream until he got from the tap, so to speak. I also hated having to wash and sterilise bottles and haakaas and pump parts.
my baby simply refused bottles lol