EP'ing: Coming up on 17 WEEKS and feeling really good about it!

LucyPevensie · March 2009

If you had told me back when my (born tongue tied) son was 2 weeks old and I had to take him off the breast because I had numerous open sores (which later turned into infections, mastitis and thrush with a severe allergic reaction to nipple ointment thrown in there too - the whole sad tale is on my blog - link in my siggy if you're interested) - anyway - if you had told me then that I would still be feeding my son breastmilk when he was 4 months old (4 days from now) - I wouldn't have believed you. It seemed impossible. I had terrible problems for the first 8 weeks of his life - never got him back to the breast - but my breast health issues did finally resolve by week 9 (although I now have keloid scar tissue on my nipples) and now I pump 5 times a day - twice at work - and get a little over 20 ounces total. It's not enough to only feed bm - but it's enough to feed more bm than formula. And it is a huge, huge accomplishment for me.

We're steamrolling toward my goal of 6 months and I feel like we can make it. (And if we do, I'll take stock of where I am then and decide if I want to wean. We'll see.)

I would NEVER recommend EP'ing to someone who still has a chance at successfully nursing at the breast - but if that is impossible - pumping IS an alternate way to still be able to feed breastmilk. I just feel really good about it right now. I've come a LONG way.

Barbie&Kevin · March 2009

wow thats awesome, congratulations on your success!!!

Stacyc625 · March 2009

congrats lucy.

its a great accomplishment and you should be VERY proud of yourself

Christina617 · March 2009

I've followed your story & struggles on SAIF and am so genuinely happy for you! Here I am worried about pumping when I go back to work part time! Thanks for helping me...if you could get through ALL of that then surely I can pump 3 days a week while working. Good luck to you!