My hats off to all of you who EP. I don't know how you do it. I have been home since last Saturday and I think I might give it up. It's too much for me. It seems like everytime I have a free moment to myself or to spend with the babies not feeding or changing them I need to pump. I hate it. It probably wouldn't be so bad if my pumping felt productive, but I,m only getting 1-2 of 8 daily feedings per baby of BM... so about 15 oz. per day which is what the visiting nurse just told me is typical (?).
I've read this same post from numerous MoMs and now here I am posting it. ::sigh::
Re: I should be pumping right now. :(
oh you are so not alone. i just gave up myself, like pp said, all i did was pump, clean machine and clean bottles all day. yes, i am sad about it, but i have my life and my sanity back so i can better tend to my kids.
oht
I only made it 3 weeks with pumping. Like you, I wasn't getting very much at all. I would maybe get 1-2 oz per pump, usually more like 1 oz total. I felt like all I did was feed, change, pump... and I only had 2 babies! Once I quit, it was the biggest relief! I had more time, less stress. Not too encourage you to quit, but just wanted to let you know if you did, you are not a failure and you may be happier in the end. It's funny because I found some pump parts today in a closet and I threw them out immediately. I told my DH if we have another baby someday, I'm going straight to formula feeding!!
I am typing this response while bummed out after a cruddy pumping session. I've been nursing the babies, but in two weeks I go back to work, so I decided that today I'd pump during work hours and feed the babies out of bottles--to start getting them used to it. I'm not getting nearly enough. I'm not sure how I'm going to continue feeding them exclusively breastmilk when I go back to work, and I'm so bummed about the idea of phasing to formula after the three months of pain, stress, money, and time I've spent to finally be able to breastfeed.
Don't mean to hijack your post, but want you to know that I feel you. It's so hard!
This. It was just too much, and I felt like I wasn't getting any quality time with the babies b/c I was doing all that and constantly in a bad mood b/c I was dreading the next feeding and pumping session. It was a huge relief when I quit.
I could have written this exact post- I felt just like you. I gave up and felt so much better once I did.
All that's important is that you are happy and feeding your babies.
are you able to nurse? you can try using the EZ2Nurse pillow to tandem feed two babies hands free, and then put the third baby in the bouncer or boppy in front of you, and feed them a bottle of formula. Then rotate the babies each feeding.
honestly, i could have not pumped. but nursing, especially as they get older, is the easiest option - even easier than bottle feeding.
this. now that Abby and Lucas are way more efficient at nursing it's definitely easier than bottles. Zoey has pretty much refused to nurse lately (and was never very good at it anyway) so she always gets bottles. I'm gradually reducing my pumping sessions, and I think I'll stop pumping by the end of Dec and just bf after that.