Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Why are you pumping so much, OP? I would pump twice at work, and baby would drink that the next day and usually a bottle of formula too.

I never pumped outside work, I bf and would occasionally feed a formula bottle. I'd say my babies were about 75-80% bf and the rest ff. I nursed them past a year (gave up the work pumps around 7-8 months). It just sounds like a lot of extra work pumping so much.

Oops, I'm tired tonight and missed that OP is pumping not nursing. OP, do you know why baby isn't nursing well at the breast? Sounds like your supply is good, has baby's latch been checked and also checked for tounge tie?

OP here. He turned 5 weeks old. We tried everything - multiple lactation visits, devices for inverted/flat nipples, different positions, etc., and he never got the hang of it. I also have a slow letdown and this made him angry. I finally gave up at 4 weeks and have been pumping for a week.

I pump 8 times a day because that seems to be the standard. He eats every 2.5-3 hours 8-10 times a day so I pump every 3 hours.

My question wasn’t about latching though. It was about whether pumped milk has the same it’s nursing or if I should just formula feed.

I agree with other posters that there is some benefit to breastmilk, even when pumped, but your baby will be fine on formula as well. It also doesn't have to be all or nothing. You could likely easily drop a pumping session at night and still pump the same amount of milk each day. And by three months your supply is pretty set and you could probably pump 5-6 times per day (and not overnight) and still make enough milk. Or combo feed with formula if your supply drops. I think formula is fine, but the formula shortages would make me hesitant to switch fully to formula until I had enough of a stockpile.

Getting breastfeeding to work well is a massive time suck but once it works (if it does) it can be a huge time saver (no mixing and cleaning bottles). If you go back to work you have to figure out whether pumping will work. If you can work from home and have childcare (nanny or daycare nearby) in theory you could just take nursing breaks.

I had a really hard time with breastfeeding and quit at 8 weeks with child one and formula fed; with child 2 I got breastfeeding to work ultimately and ended up nursing until he was almost 2. Both times getting breastfeeding to work was pretty miserable and I stuck it out about 4 more weeks with baby 2 before it got easy. But once breastfeeding clicked with baby 2 it was hands down easier to breastfeed.

The mental health side of it is important as well. My struggles played into postpartum depression with my first. With my second I agreed with my husband that I would try for X weeks to make it work (it ended up being about 12 weeks) and if it was still a struggle at that time I would stop trying and know I had given it my best. I think that approach was good for me. It ended up working out for breastfeeding but had I quit I would have been OK with that decision as well.