EP by choice

[lecialefty]

Anybody care to share your experience? I'm strongly considering it. Dd2 takes a bottle of expressed milk well so I'm not worried about that part. I plan to purchase a new pisa as well to replace the six year old pis that I have. Any other suggestions or tips?

[Sarah-B]

What is ep?

[lecialefty]

Exclusively pumping

[abunchoflemons]

I have my pump from almost 8 yrs ago I am going to use. Heat b4 u pump & pump both together. I would try to massage as well when u pump. if that's what u were talking about.

[newmommy13]

I think theres a chance your supply could dip. I would rent a symphony rather than but a new pisa.

Eping is really hard and a major pitb. However i think i understand why you want to do this from reading your other posts. If you are not very dedicated it will be easy to stop, which i think would be fine too. im sorry you are struggling.

[lecialefty]

Thank you.

[DragonflyMama]

Why would you want to?

I had considered BF'ing for the first year and then switching to EP because I was not sure how comfortable I would be nursing an older child, now I would KILL to be able to BF, my son was in the NICU for a month and Im stuck EP'ing for two years....Its not fun, its a massive time consumer, time I could be otherwise spending with my son bonding and caring for him, or cleaning the house, or taking a shower.

Its painful, my nipples are never not blistered and purple....I just dont understand why anyone would choose this if they could otherwise breastfeed.

[keen1981]

I wouldn't consider it if baby takes breast. It's honestly a lot more work.

[cassie.sattler]

my lo is a slow and lazy nurser usually only snacking (wake up eat for five nap for fifteen off and on for a few hours) some times i got really frustrated and i tried it for a few days which went well but i was tired and missed the cuddle times. the work ethic involved with pumping, cleaning, heating bottles was more time consuming then whipping a boob out. night time feeds where also much harder. i would say that if you wanted to try and take a break and give it a day or two and ponder your results it never hurt my supply or anything.

lo is still lazy and there are still alot of bottles of bm after i nurse him but im just thankful there is no formula.

[kocho]

I've had some of my girls mention that they get as much using hand expresion after they pump as they do pumping. This makes sense as the baby naturally does a combination of suction and compression and the pump can only do suction. It's work a try.

I do always warn my girls that EP is all the work of breastfeeding and all the work of bottle feeding. And though I have some who continue EP long term, most of the time the supply drops, they begin supplementing with formula and before long they stop altogether.

But a committed mom can make it work. If your baby will latch at all, I would suggest a combination of nursing and pumping. Even if the baby isn't an efficient nurser the extra stimulation will help up your supply.

As for myself, my son is missing a muscle in his mouth. I didn't know that at the time. I pumped for about a month for him with a cheapo pump before giving up. One of my biggest regrets. But I nursed DD for 18 months with some pumping for outings.