During your pregnancy you make lots of plans, set lots of good intentions, and it all comes crashing down with the reality of motherhood. From natural childbirth (scoff..loved me my epidural) to working out daily (maybe5x during my pregnancy), I coulldnt quite keep my goals, but I was sure that I would be able to breast feed for one year, I figured how hard could it be? This blog is to shar my journey as a first time mother and an exclusively pumping mom.
What does exclusively pumping mean?
Exclusively pumping or EPing, is when you forgo providing the breast as means for your baby to get milk and expressing breast milk through use of a pump. The goal is to pump enough milk that your baby only receives breast milk.
Why would do people choose to EP?
There are many reasons why people decide to Exclusively Pump. The large reason is when your child is unable to take the breast due to prematurity,Cleft palate, thrush, poor latch, or inverted nipples. Other reasons could be separation from child because of return to work,lack of milk, Bottle preference of child. Whatever the cause, mom's choose to EP in order to be able to give their child the benefits of breast milk.
My story:
Ethan was born on New Years, after a long difficult pregnancy complicated by Hyperemesis Gravidarum (a syndrome where you have severe vomiting and nausea throughout, see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002468/ for more information). I was induced at 39 weeks, had a relatively easy labor, he was out at 11:41 alert and beautiful. I had had colostrum at 31 weeks so he started breast feeding immediately and camped out at the breast for an hour. I thought to myself, "man this breast feeding stuff is easy peasy." after that it went downhill, first he had a poor latch and my nipples were bleeding by nightfall, but after many hours with the lactation consultant we were able to correct his latch. Great right? Wrong. Ethan then could not stay awake for a feeding, it would take me 2 hours each feeding and he was never satisfied because he became a slacker, so he never got the calorie rich hind milk, On top of all this, Ethan napped poorly because he was so over stimulated from nursing for two hours. I was starting to resent everything, my sweet baby for being so sleepy, myself, and everyone around me because they weren't nursing. The only reprieve I got was that once day I pumped a bottle and fed him so i could sleep.
At this point I was seriously considering stopping breast feeding. I felt like a failure, and other people do not help, everyone out there is here to tell you that Breast is Best and nothing better you can do than breast feeds our kid. Even the can of formula says breast milk is superior, so what kind of mother was I to give formula. But after a day where Ethan was nursing 20 out of the 24 hours in a day, my mother intervened. She pointed out that although breast milk is more beneficial so is sleep and neither me or my kid were getting any. A change had to be made, I couldn't keep Ethan awake on the breast despite trying everything ie bugging the breast, wash cloths, feeding him naked. Nothing worked, the kid wouldn't wake up when I froze the wash cloths.
I decided at that time to pump what I could and supplement with formula. The moment I made that decision, a weight lifted off my shoulders? We bought formula that day and I continued to pump, at this point I had a vague goal to give breast milk for 6 weeks. Ethan tolerated the switch well, in fact he flourished. Now that he was bottle fed he was able to have play time and good naps, he quickly fell into a schedule. But as my milk supply diminished, I couldn't help but worry that I was short handing myself and my son, I really wanted to provide more breast milk for him. That is when I spoke with a friend who also couldnt nurse her son (although her reason was probably better than mine, her son was tongue tied, a condition where the frenulum is attached to the tongue making it difficult for baby to latch). This friend explained how she built up her sply while exclusively pumping her breast milk. She said at 6weeks she had almost nomilk and was able to increase her supply and wean her son off formula. I decided then I was going to Join the ranks of the impossible and become an EPer. I started researching and found a few sites with information, I also bought the book Exclusively Pumping Breast Milk by Stephanie Casemore. With the info I had, I began my journey into EP. I have been going one week, and all ready mymilk supply has increased, Ethan only takes formula for two feelings.. I hope to wean him off formula completely. It's a hard path to take but hopefully i can reach my goal of 10months of breast milk for my son. Either way I know I tried, and I hope to share with you my process and help those who decide to try EP.
Next Post: rules of pumping
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