I have done both, and nursing was much easier for me after the first two months or so. They get more efficient and I got off the nipple shield. I made sure to line up good lactation support and went back when her latch didn’t feel right.

With my first I EP’ed. Nursing was super challenging and I didn’t have the support I needed. I really resented pumping. I choose to do it for 8 months - initially wanted to make it to a year, but I was just done. I retrospect I probably would’ve done formula earlier. For me pumping was depressing, I just really didn’t enjoy it. But if nursing isn’t enjoyable for you maybe it wouldn’t make much difference? But in my experience nursing gets easier over time and pumping gets harder.

I think it depends so much on how much you produce, how much your baby eats, whether you’re at home or at the office, and so many other things. My DS is just shy of 5 months and I’ve been fortunate to have an oversupply which has allowed me to produce about 38oz/day spread over 3 pump sessions. My husband and I both stay home so he watches the baby while I pump and cleans the pump parts so that they are ready for the next use. The hardest part was the very beginning (first 2 weeks or so) when I was pumping like 8x/day to establish a supply and was unable to run to the baby when attached to the pump. It got markedly easier after 3 weeks when we felt more of an established routine. I think it would have been the incredibly hard if either my husband or I were working out of an office and/or if I had to pump 5-8x/day to get enough milk. If either of those had been the case I think I would have gone to formula a long, long time ago.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I have been pumping for 4 days now and it isn’t that bad. I pump 8 times a day when he naps. It’s not that bad since I’m usually eating or watching tv and I can just pump. I’ve been able to freeze a lot of milk. The washing parts has been annoying but my husband has been helping me do it. I don’t how long I plan to pump or switch to formula.

So glad to hear it's working out well for you! Having a freezer stash is really comforting.

I've been EP-ing from the beginning and my LO is now 7 months old. i honestly did not find it to be that difficult, but I had low expectations since I knew it was all going to be hard.

A few practical things that helped me:

- Don't put too much pressure on yourself. I could never do the 8 pumps per day like what was recommended...it was too mentally draining. At most, I was at 6-ish pumps a day. By 4 months, I moved to 4 pumps and at at 6 months, I went down to 3 pumps per day. My baby typically eats about 30 oz a day and I pump anywhere between 30-40oz a day. I felt comfortable moving to 3 pumps because I was still making more than baby was consuming and I knew he was going to be taking less milk since we started solids.
- Whenever I went down a pump, I tried to increase the time I pumped. At 3 pumps, I try to pump anywhere between 30-45 minutes a pump. I pump at 8am (I work from home and pump after daycare dropoff), 3pm and 10pm.
- Having an app to track my production was really motivating in the first 6 months. When I was too lazy to pump, the app helped me get to goals for the day (kind of like Fitbit steps I guess lol). I stopped using it when I went down to 3 pumps because, again, I was comfortable with losing some ounces.
- I also had a Spectra and found the massage mode (also known as Bacon mode haha) produced more so I keep it on that for my whole session
- If you can, use the pumping session as a time to also rest/pamper yourself a bit. I was lucky in that I have only one child and my husband was at home to help. When it's time for me to pump and if our baby is home, my husband knows he's on baby duty. I use those 30 minutes to have some quiet time with a book, netflix, whatever it may be.

Also as a side note, my husband loved the experience of getting to feed our baby especially in the early months.

Honestly, all I can say is just be kind to yourself. Pumping isn't bad for everyone. For me and my family, it was the best solution for us and our preemie baby. He has thrived and our family has developed a system that works well for us. Don't let negativity get you down because motherhood is hard enough as it is. If you want to chat more, happy to chat separately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did EP with my first for 11 months. It was much better than his terrible latch, we were both miserable with nursing. He was also a preemie so I too liked seeing the amount he was getting in the bottle.it was manageable - I bought a lot of sets of parts so they could just be washed once a day, my husband took care of all the logistics.

Also, get a hospital rental pump like Medela symphony

Now with my second I am BF and that's easier but ONLY because it's working. It make me realize I couldn't and shouldn't have forced it the first time.

Good luck to you!

I second the hospital rental pump. It was SO much more efficient than a cheap one. Well worth the rental and the nurse trained me on how to use it.

OP here. I have a Spectra.

Anonymous wrote:I did EP with my first for 11 months. It was much better than his terrible latch, we were both miserable with nursing. He was also a preemie so I too liked seeing the amount he was getting in the bottle.it was manageable - I bought a lot of sets of parts so they could just be washed once a day, my husband took care of all the logistics.

Also, get a hospital rental pump like Medela symphony

Now with my second I am BF and that's easier but ONLY because it's working. It make me realize I couldn't and shouldn't have forced it the first time.

Good luck to you!

I second the hospital rental pump. It was SO much more efficient than a cheap one. Well worth the rental and the nurse trained me on how to use it.

OP here. I have been pumping for 4 days now and it isn’t that bad. I pump 8 times a day when he naps. It’s not that bad since I’m usually eating or watching tv and I can just pump. I’ve been able to freeze a lot of milk. The washing parts has been annoying but my husband has been helping me do it. I don’t how long I plan to pump or switch to formula.

I pumped after feedings bc I had low supply, and then pumped after I went back to work.

I don't think pumping is that bad in the abstract. It's faster than nursing at that age and has other advantages (other people can feed instead of you, you will have a backup supply, your kid will be able to take a bottle).

The thing that was the most challenging for me was what to DO with the baby while I was pumping. Nursing obviously occupies the baby, pumping does not. Sometimes when I was trying to pump my DS would start crying in the bouncer and I couldn't put him down for a nap or even hold him properly without dislodging the pump.

I exclusively pumped, and it was really awful for me. I was upset that I had to pump because nursing didn't work for us, so the premise was negative from the beginning, which I'm sure didn't help. You seem to have a slightly better attitude about it, so that might help.

I was very worried about supply, and I had to pump frequently to keep it up. Thus, I was pumping all.the.time. It is double work because you have to pump and then feed, and if you are doing it all and your baby is needy and crying because they want to be held or fed and you can't really attend to them well because you're hooked up to a pump, it sucks. My baby was very colicky and had GERD and was generally just a hard baby who didn't sleep much, so on top of all of that, exclusively pumping was miserable. I was up for double the time in the middle of the night because I had to feed and pump.

A friend of mine exclusively pumped and had a slightly better experience. She went back to work before I did, and I think that actually helped because she pumped while away from her baby much of the day. It was really hard to do it while together with my baby as the sole caregiver.

I did have PPD and PPA, and I think exclusively pumping and the sleep loss and stress and lack of connection to my baby made it worse. But I don't think it has to be that way, and my friend had a much better (stressful but not awful) experience with it.

With baby #1, I was much happier when I finally quit and FF. With baby #2, I was able to exclusively BF, and it was great, but that was not an option with baby #1. I think if you are comfortable keeping a balance where you pump but also supplement with formula as needed and don't worry if it's not 100% breastmilk, it may be better as well.

People will have a lot of different opinions. Try pumping and see how you like it. I had a private office and even then, pumping was a PIA. I never EP. Didn't bother to pump at all for my 2nd, just did a mix of breastfeeding and formula during maternity leave, then switched to formula exclusively.

Give pumping a try. See how you like it. Don't feel guilty if you switch to formula.

If I were you OP, I'd pump for a month exclusively. Then start cutting back on pumping and introduce formula. You still get all the benefits of breastmilk even if it's not the ONLY thing you feed your baby.

After you've cut back a bit, re-evaluate. Personally, I hated pumping, so once my baby preferred a bottle, I weaned. Best choice ever. I was much happier once I was done pumping!

It was horrible for me. Absolutely horrible. I had such bad PPA though and I could not see that formula would be okay. I quit at 7.5 months and then spent a several more weeks filled with regret that I did not quit sooner and just enjoy my baby more, but also regret that I did not try hard enough to nurse (I tried very hard). My supply was low so I had to pump A LOT. When I had my second, I said I'd try to nurse and if it didn't work, she would just get formula. Nursing worked, thankfully, but when I went back to work at 6 months, I was only working part-time and only one day in the office. That one day per week is the only time I pumped, and I would cry in my office all the way though. It was like PTSD. After three weeks of that, I worked it out so I could work from home until she was a year old. The nanny would bring her to me to nurse, which we had already been doing on my other two days at home (I was 60% with only one day in the office before so this was not huge.) Anyway, I know people who did it and loved it and they could do it on 3-4 pumps per day. I hated it with a passion. I wasn't in the middle of a pandemic though.

Haven't read the other replies but I did a mix of nursing and pumping once I went back to work. I never had a supply issue, most women I know who had issues pumping had more of a supply issue than anything else, which was also an issue with nursing.

The only think I would say is to get yourself a good hospital pump- I got clogged ducts a couple times travelling with just my smaller pump and it just didn't cut it.

I had supply and latch issues (flat nipples) with both of my kids. I pumped for maybe 2 months with my first and maybe 5 months with my second. Both still needed formula. It was difficult and yes, I recommend a hospital grade pump. I hated pumping in the designated pump room - signing up etc etc. But YMMV.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pumping is a huge PITA and a waste of time. Just FF.

This x 1000000000000000

You will look back and ask yourself why you didn't just FF to begin with and saved yourself the stress (and time).

Interesting, I pumped for 15 months and never once wish I had formula fed. Why is it a waste of time?