Switching from EPing to BreastfeedingI couldn’t believe that there was a website for other women who went through much the same experience as I did. Gave birth to a very small 29 weeker earlier this year. I believe that much of the reason that she is doing as well as she is is because of my determination to EP when she was in the NICU, and until she could correctly latch on. I was determined to continue to EP until she either learned to latch on or got to 12 months adjusted. I know many people thought I was crazy. I thought I was headed that way. It is so much work. To pump, to feed an infant, to have all of the work of bottle feeding and breast feeding, and get sleep in just tiny snips and snatches. You start to go a bit crazy. All I can say, is that someday it will be over, and watching your baby grow with your milk, faster than she could possibly grow with that nasty formula is worth it. Take heart, keep pumping. Especially when you don’t think you can any more. Keep trying for that latch. I managed that special miracle one week after her due date. Then I was crushed to realize that she was losing weight. She wasn’t getting enough from me. I was back to bottles. I tried again about two and a half weeks later. She got it. Then she wouldn’t take bottles at all. Which was better, but still a problem, as no one else could watch her for me for more than a few hours. Another week or so after that, and all was better. She will take a few bottles during the day, long enough for me to get a little time away for errands, and then she is quite happy to return to breastfeeding. But it was a long difficult journey. And I couldn’t have done it without the support and encouragement from a close friend, the NICU nurses, my daughter’s pediatrician, and my dear husband. And reading some of the other stories that others have posted, I think my 4+ month odyssey was an easy one by comparison. But I would like to encourage everyone who reads, to take heart. Even if you have to pump every day to give that precious milk to your little one, don’t give up. It is worth it in the end. Ex-EP’er Sending best wishes and good luck to other EP’ers 8 Responses to “Switching from EPing to Breastfeeding” Leave a Reply |
 
 
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January 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Thank you for this! I am just committing to my exclusing pumping… but hope to one day have my baby at my breast… your story brings me hope!
October 18th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I am currently trying to get my second baby to latch at 4 months old. With my first baby it was a hopeless situation as she absolutely refused the breast from the start and even later. I ended up pumping for 11 months for my first born. But I am determined to get my second to latch. He is latching and doing well (the last 24 hours)
But here is my worry. I am so afraid of getting a clogged ducts or an infection because I was pumping triple what he would drink. So now I have to cut my pumping in half so that there is milk in the breast when he wants it. I know my supply will go down, and I’m okay with that because I had more than he needs, but how do you go down from pumping without making your breasts congested and possibly infected.
I am scared that if I get an infection it will be too much for my sanity and I’ll just quit altogether, and I don’t want to do that.
October 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Fabulous update! My son (four month old) hasn’t had a bottle in two days and is finally starting to enjoy nursing. The first day and half were full of tears (his mainly) and self-doubt on my part, but the worst is behind us and I feel so satisfied that this nursing relationship will actually work out for us both. I really am in shock that it worked. I tried so hard with my first and ended up pumping and resenting the pump. It is so nice to be leaving the pump behind. It is bittersweet because while I have so many blurry sleep deprived crazy memories of the pump, I also know that it nourished my two sweet babes. I feel like having a farwell pump party. So strange to have such affection/angst towards an inantimate object. Thank you Stephaine for the advice and encouragement it is much appreciated.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Hi Charlotte,
Congratulations on your new baby! You certainly do sound dedicated and your concerns are completely normal for your situation. It can be a real leap of faith to switch from what is working for you to something that is as of yet unknown. Do you have a history of blocked ducts or mastitis? If so, you certainly do need to be cautious, but if you don’t, I wouldn’t worry too much as long as you make changes slowly.
The key to reducing supply, as I’m sure you know, is leaving milk in the breast. Don’t hesitate to use your pump if you are uncomfortably full or feel any hard spots forming that your son is unable to remove when he is nursing. I would likely start by nursing your son and then once he has his fill, if you still feel fairly full, pump just enough milk to remove that fullness but not to empty. Alternatively, you may consider hand expressing instead of pumping. You are in some ways following a similar strategy to weaning- only pumping to comfort and extending the time between pumping sessions. Eventually, you should find that your son is removing sufficient amounts to make it unnecessary to pump after each nursing session. Don’t hesitate to pump if you need to- i.e. you are very full and uncomfortable- but also don’t forget that nursing on request/demand can be at your baby’s request but also your request.
If you are pumping triple what your son requires, it will likely take a couple of weeks at least to drop your supply to meet his needs. Be patient and enjoy your little one.
Best wishes,
Stephanie
March 28th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Thank you for sharing your stories of success - my little guy needs me to EP for a few weeks or months until he has surgery, and I’m so hopeful we can breastfeed after. You’ve given me another little bit of hope.
April 16th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
I have been EP for about 3 months now. My son is almost 6 mos and I started pumping at 6 weeks due to low supply, slow gaining, and because of bad direction at the hospital. I worked with an LC who had me nurse, supplement, and pump at every feeding 8 to 10 times a day and my son grew fond of the bottle. Then, he had some infant torticolus that made the position of breastfeeding uncomfortable which I didn’t know at first. That has been resolved and He will actually breastfeed at 4am and at 7am when he first wakes up but during the day he refuses the breast. I honestly have tried n a while but I would LOVE to be able to get him back on the breast more. I worked so hard before but it’s been so much work. He would cry and cry and then I would cry until I gave him the bottle. He is happy to nurse at night though. I guess I’m looking for encouragement or stories of other women who have bottle fed this long and then were able to reestablish bf. My supply is great, about 26-28oz and I now pump 5 times a day, plus the 2 morning nursing sessions. Is it possible to get him back on after this long? I really don’t want to stop and it would be so much better to feed him direct. Thank you!
May 1st, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Hi Joanna,
Returning a baby to breastfeeding at 6 months will be challenging although it does occasionally happen. While I could provide general guidelines, it is likely best to contact a certified lactation consultant who would be better able to assess your son’s latch and provide you with advice specific to your situation. Dr. Jack Newman is another wonderful resource. If you google his name you’ll find his website and should find his contact info there. He is usually very good about responding.
I’ll also post your comment on the website and perhaps others who have experience in this area will respond.
Best wishes,
Stephanie
May 17th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Dear Joanna,
I cannot believe you are in the same situation as me. Almost identical. I started pumping at 6 weeks because I developed mastitis due to the fact that I was producing too much milk compared to how much my baby was eating (she never emptied my breasts). She was growing perfectly well, so no problems in this respect. After 4 days of EPing (because I was unable to hold her due to my fever and pain from mastitis), my daughter refused the breast. I had a couple of months of battles trying to make her nurse, but she refused. She would nurse only at night/ early morning when she was half asleep. When she was awake, she refused. Sometimes she would latch on, but after 1-2 minutes she would start crying because she wanted the bottle. Also interesting we consulted a physical therapist thinking she had torticolis (she did not, but she had a right preference, always tilting her head on the right). And also interesting, she refused one of my breasts, probably because the position would make her uncomfortable. But I did not know this and I was always trying to force her to feed at that breast because I produced most milk there. I realized now how stupid I was for trying to force her to nurse when she refused at that breast. Unfortunately, my story is one of failure to BF. At some point around 6-7 months, my daughter started to refuse to eat at night, which ended my BF completely. I am still pumping for her at 11 months now. She is also refusing to eat solids, so I am stuck with the pump. EPing becomes increasingly harder as the baby ages, unless you have full time help. As the baby becomes active, you cannot pump while alone with him/her, and also in time the milk supply goes down if there is no nursing. I noticed a huge difference between the time my baby nursed at night (the rest was EPing for me), and the time when she stopped nursing at all. Even if she nursed for 1-2 minutes at night, it was enough to stimulate my breast, which was producing a lot of milk a few hours after. Now when she does not nurse at all, I struggle with my supply. One advice I have for you is to store as much excess milk in your freezer (maybe invest in a deep freezer to be able to store your milk longer-6-9 mo) while your supply is good. Also try to keep the night/morning feedings for as long as you can (even if this is bad advice in general for others) because that’s when the baby stimulates the breast to produce more milk when you pump. No pump ever invented is as good as the baby to remove milk from the breast. And this is especially true after 3 months postpartum (in the first 3 months most women have an excess of milk production, so pumping is much easier). As much as I hate the idea of formula, at some point I wanted to quit as I was completely exhausted, but my daughter totally refused any type of formula. Just like you I was pumping 5 times a day and getting 26-30 oz. Not anymore…Now I am living a nightmare struggling to pump enough to feed her.I consulted a lactation specialist to try to increase my supply, but nothing helped. Everyone says that you need to pump more often to increase your supply. Well, I CANNOT DO THIS. I only pump 3 times a day, and I cannot do it more times a day (I need someone to watch my baby to pump now, so only do it when my husband is home morning and night and once mid-day when my baby is asleep when I manually pump next to her), but my pumping sessions are 1 hour long, sometimes longer. When my baby was 4-5 months, I could pump 8 oz in 3-4 minutes…now I think at those times as heaven.
I am sorry I have no better advice. To recap: (1) try to get professional help if you can afford it, maybe a miraculous LC might actually get your baby to nurse- I believe it is possible, although not highly likely; (2) try to keep the night feedings for as long as you can, as this will keep up your milk supply, believe it or not, (3)store in the freezer any excess milk you have. I also want to mention that I have stored about 2 gallons of breast milk in my freezer and I thought I will never use it, as my baby did not like the taste of it. However, at some point I got the idea of feeding her the frozen milk at night, which she happily ate. I have exhausted long time ago the frozen milk, but I wish I stored more,because I had lots of excess milk at some point.
Anyway, my hope is that your story will be different from mine and you’ll get your baby to BF successfully, so you can stop pumping. Good luck, and in the meantime try to do what I have suggested based on my painful experience with EPing….Good luck, and keep up the wonderful and priceless job you are doing…Lisa.