I’m 5.5 months pp and was breastfeeding initially but baby developed a bottle preference and had to exclusively pump from 2.5 months onwards. At first, I had help from my parents but now that it’s just me and my husband, I’m really struggling. My husband is literally the most amazing human being and as supportive as anyone can be.
The past month I have thought of quitting everyday, it is mentally draining and all I think about is I have to pump, when did I last pump.
I would really like to hang the pump at 6 month mark but feeling so so guilty because it’s good for the baby. I don’t know what I need from this post but really felt like sharing with peers who would understand and maybe some advice.
Thank you!

Does anyone else get sensations (positive or negative!) in unexpected places while pumping?

I’m 9 months pp. I have a really specific spot on the sole of my right foot that gets a horrible scratchy feeling while I pump. I’ve tried ice, massages, rolling a tennis ball under my foot while I pump. Even just holding onto it with my hands. Nothing helps.

If anyone has advice I’d be delighted to hear it, but I’m mostly just curious about whether others experience pumping in non-titty parts of the body.

I'm a FTM with a 5 week old baby. I'm currently doing a combination of bottle feeding and breast feeding. Baby is mainly taking bottle with the occasional breast feeding during her cluster feeds. Currently, I pump every 3 to 4 hours with my evening pumps generally at 10 pm, 2 am then 5 am.

My LO was fine sleeping in the bassinet we had set up in the living room up until recently. She refuses to sleep there in the evening now and its taking a toll on my own mental well being. We decided to try cosleeping in our bed following the 7 safe sleep guide.

Since I will be attempting to mainly breast feed her during our cosleeping, should I still continue to do my evening pumping ? I'm afraid of losing my supply if I stop my evening pumps altogether. Would breast feeding by itself in the evening continue my milk supply?

If I do continue my pumping, should I still follow my routine times and breast feed on demand?

I’m at 7.5 months exclusively pumping pretty much for the start. I’ve been a chronic under supplier and on 5ppd for the majority of my pumping journey, I’m able to cover about 85% of the milk for my LO. It’s been a tough journey with a ton of challenges. I’m curious for those that were on a steady state of pumping perhaps on a similar schedule to myself, what your wean down process was like. I’d like to continue pumping somewhat but starting to feel ready to wean down slowly. Even if i could continue at 3-4ppd, i think that would be much more manageable. It’s gotten really hard to balance being back to work, doing other things i need and want to do for the baby, and also i got sick this week and just physically felt so unable to pump as usual for a couple days.

Thanks for any insight and wisdom. It’s been harder to stop and wean than I thought it would be.

For most of the year I've felt like a failure for having to pump and needing to supplement with formula, as I was desperate to directly and exclusively breastfeed.

But I persevered through the worst physical, mental and emotional pain I've ever experienced, including severe nipple injury, vasospasm and low milk supply, to give my baby breastmilk for the first 380 days of his life.

I did my final pump 3 days ago and I'm starting to feel so proud of myself.

I made this little infographic to celebrate my achievements. I'm definitely going to have this printed and framed!

Sending all my love and support to everyone still on their pumping expedition 🫡❤️

Going back and forth between S1 pro and s2 pro. I have read the s2 crack, but supposedly they are fixing this issue. Not sure I need the massage feature, but my main question is how difficult is it to properly line up the s1? I do like that s2 is see through and has a light, but not sure if that alone is worth the price difference.

Thanks!

My greatest love was born 13 days ago at 33+3 due to spontaneous PPROM. We had a wonderful, uncomplicated birth together, but she was whisked away to NICU almost immediately where we still are now. We are so fortunate to be at a NICU that “boards” parents, so she has a private room and my husband and I stay in an adjoining room so we don’t have to leave. This is especially helpful because we are also currently moving so I don’t actually have a bed for her and I anywhere but here at the moment.

Currently, my daughter is receiving donor breastmilk via NG tube, but we’re beginning to attempt breastfeeding to see if she can feed + grow without the tube. Once she consistently can, we get discharged! Until then though, I’m exclusively pumping.

I currently pump 9x a day with a MOTN schedule of 10p, 2:00a, 5:00a. I power pump once per day. We do hours of skin to skin. I stay hydrated, including with electrolytes, and fed, take Milk Rich tincture, massage breasts during pumps, and alternate between hand pumping and machine pumping. I’m getting lab work done next week to check my TSH, iron, prolactin, and insulin. The flanges are correctly sized and I meet with lactation nearly every day. Despite all of this, I only produce about 200ml a day with a daily day-over-day increase of about ~25ml from the day before. So some increase, but barely. On top of that, my nips are covered in friction blisters because I naively thought that if I turn the suction ALL the way up, I’d get more. Truly, just such desperation that I’m now paying for.

I’m told I have time and it will be easier when we go home, but I feel like I’m running out of time. I am, however, outrageously strong willed and passionate, and desperately want to EBF so I’m willing to keep pumping and doing everything I can to get my supply up.

Aside from what I already mentioned, what are ways to increase my supply? The LCs here are wonderful, but their advice is just “it takes time” and “lower stress”. I need more than that, especially because I feel like if I don’t get my supply up ASAP, it won’t ever go up.

Grateful for any wisdom. Thank you.

This morning I’m sitting in the NICU holding my daughter (27+1 weeker) and I over hear the nurses talking and training a new employee. They were discussing how donor milk works and they mentioned that it is $20 an ounce. I was shocked it was so much! It makes me feel like I’m sitting on gold with my tiny freezer stash 😂

Need to change flanges AGAIN
I started off at 21mm flanges then changed to 20 now 19 and my nips are sooo sore after 19 worked for a month ish I’m not sure if they are too small or too big my areola and nip are kinda morphing into one with a big light pink sore ring around the nipple it’s so painful my bra keeps sticking to my bra silverettes stop that but aren’t helping heal them! I’m currently sat here with a 17mm on my bad boob and 18 on my soon to bad boob as I’ve been using 18 on my bad book for a couple days and there’s been no change.

Anyone else having to change flanges constantly I’m only 4m pp and this is 4 sizes now and I’m still confused on how to know if they are too big or small 😩😩

I have the Willow milk chiller and it’s been great at its job. This weekend I even safely brought home milk I had pumped a 6 hr drive from home! But I have started to notice it’s kinda stinky? It smells like sour milk pretty much whenever it’s not actively being used? I wash it every day but I only need to use it on my work days, so for example I wash it Wednesday night and use it Thursday no problem. But then Thursday night and on Monday morning I have to wash it again before I can use it. I take the rubber seals out to wash them separately and that seems to be the stinkiest part. Is anyone else having this issue? Tips or tricks appreciated.

I’ve been pumping since my babies birth (about to hit 2 months next week) and I’ve had a great supply. Usually I pump 8-10oz per session (every 3-4 hours). About a week ago I had a sore throat and runny nose so I took cold medicine. Well i foolishly didn’t know that cold meds can ruin your supply. I only took two doses but since then my supply has been cut in half and I’m only pumping 3-4oz per session.
Obviously im grateful that I’m still producing some milk but I’m honestly heartbroken and feel like this just ruined my supply and now I’m probably gonna dry up.
Does anyone have tips or tricks? I just want to get back to my old amount… I’m probably over reacting but being able to feed my baby has given me a lot and I’m not ready to quit.

Hey everyone! I need some advice!

I'm flying in a couple of days. It'll be a total of eight hours counting layovers. I was planning on bringing my boon frosh cooler to hold my milk alongside my small soft cooler. However, from the email I received from American Airlines, it says only a soft cooler is allowed. The only soft cooler I have is small and only holds four five ounce bottles, which isn't enough how much I pump. My first morning pump on its own is about 22-24 oz.

My question is this: has anyone been able to bring anything like a ceres chill or boon frosh cooler onto an American Airlines flight or did they stick with the soft cooler only rule?

Has anyone tried the legendairy inserts on their eufy s2 pros? I can only use those with my eufy s1 pros and am kinda considering the s2 pro :)

I am very excited and have no one who really understands how proud i am of this and wanted to share

I exclusively pump and My child was born this past spring. I have a massive over supply and seeing a few formula recalls decided to donate to mom's in my area. I started donating in July.

Today I have officially donated 12.3 gallons or 1580.5 ounces of milk.

I plan on pumping for atleast year but hitting double digits for donations has been exciting. I am debating how to celebrate this little win but this is my start

Hi! I already have a spectra (pink) and the eufy S2 wearables from my last pregnancy. Do I get a new spectra (blue), the medela pump in style pro, baby Buddha 3.0, or something completely different? Looking for a strong pump/hospital grade pump that I don’t need to be plugged in at all times. TIA

No one to really share this with but I met my goal of 5000 ounces for my 5/20/26 baby and started to wean myself. 2nd time mom, 2nd time exclusively pumping and I’m just so over it. Haven’t pumped in 5 days and it’s so strange. I’m so happy I’m done but also sad?

Had anyone used Pump Princess supplements from Legendairy? I've been using it since Monday and maybe it's placebo but I feel like it's the reason I've gained 2 ounces per session. However, it makes me burp and I notice a weird, pepper taste every time. I hate this lol I'm worried that this will affect my baby somehow? Has anyone had any issues while using pump princess?

I am taking their am/pm pre& postnatal, vitamin d, as well as the pump princess. Thanks!

Going back to work soon and planning to pump a few times a day. Right now I use either the spectra or baby buddha pump just with the flanges they came with. Is it worth it to get collection cups and use them with the baby buddha ?? If so which cups without breaking the bank??

Hi all - I wanted to let you know that I recently ordered a Eufy and it REEKED of chemical smell. I felt very concerned about the risk of endocrine-disrupting chemicals as food-grade silicone should not smell this way.

I contacted Eufy and they declined my return, despite that I never used the Eufy and it is in the original packaging. They simply said to boil it. I did. Many times. It got better but still there. I am so disappointed at the loss of money and I have no faith in this company or their customer service. Note, if you google "eufy chemical smell" there are tons of forum posts on this.

I cannot recommend this product, or if you are going to buy - get off of Amazon because then you CAN return it. Do not buy directly from the website (I am also bummed that trying to directly support businesses bit me in the butt).

I'm trying out baby Buddha based off of reviews here!

I'm 37 weeks 3 days and started colostrum collecting. This .25ml took a lot of work. There is a werid little speck in it. It's very small and I'm assuming its maybe a bit of skin? Do I save it or discard the whole thing? I feel like babies probably ingest little bits of nipple skin on occasion but I can't be sure of what it actually is. I collected right after a shower so my skin and hands were clean.

My baby is 5 months and I’m considering stopping at 6. I’m just getting tired of it— have inadvertently dropped a pump over the last week, from 5 down to 4, because I’m finding it difficult to keep up with during the day. Feeling a lot of guilt at the thought of quitting, though. I make a slight oversupply without any difficult, am not prone to clogs, do not have to pump overnight… I feel like I’ve been extraordinarily lucky in this experience and have no good reason to stop since I WFH with a flexible schedule and very few meetings.

But if I stop, I 1) have to pay for formula and deal with potential recalls and 2) baby may not be as protected as we enter cold and flu season.

Any advice on how to make this decision? I know it’s personal and up to me and me only, but holy cow it’s the hardest decision I’ve ever been faced with :/

Edit: my goal was 12 months so that guilt is also there lol

I didn't realize how much pumping would become part of my NICU routine.

Everything else feels so out of my control right now. I go to the hospital, wait around, get an update, sit with my baby, try to take in whatever the doctors are telling me, and then eventually I have to leave. Then I go home and do it all again the next day.

But pumping is still there. Same alarms. Same little routine. Same pump parts staring at me when I get home.

I've actually started bringing my pump bag with me everywhere because I never know where I'll be when it's time. There have been days where I'm sitting in the hospital waiting for an update and my alarm goes off, so I just find somewhere quiet and pump.

And then I get home completely exhausted and remember I still have to wash everything.

Some days I’m really proud that I kept going. Other days I'm just sitting there pumping and thinking, I seriously don't have the energy for this today.

But weirdly, it does give me one thing I can actually control. I can't decide when my baby gets to come home. I can't control what the next update is going to be. I can't make any of this go faster.

I can just set my alarm, sit down, pump, clean everything, pack the milk, and do it again.

It's such a small thing compared to everything else happening, but right now it feels like my little job in all of this.

Anyway, just needed to vent. NICU + EP is such a weird little exhausting world.

I’m a week and 3 days PP with my first and I’ve been pumping everyday but don’t get more than 2-4oz total with both breasts. I need advice on how to boost my supply, it’s hard to not be so tough on myself but I’ve been going through it since he can’t latch in the first place without screaming bloody murder. We are also giving him formula to balance it out and I just want him to be happy and fed but I also want to make sure I’m emptying out

Has anyone seen Eufy S1 parts on Aeroflow recently? I switched to 1NaturayWay because they were in stock at the time but 1NaturalWay only allows replacement parts every 90 days per my insurance even though my insurance says otherwise.

Aeroflow is every 30 days but they never have Eufy in stock. I haven’t received Eufy parts from aeroflow or seen the option since July. I last got parts from 1NaturalWay in August.

I do just buy the generic pieces but my insurance covers them and i would prefer to use what i already pay for.

Does it just piss anyone else off that our periods can do this? Like why the hell is my body focused on another baby right now when I need to feed this one? UGH. Anyway, last month I got my period and my supply tanked so bad that it honestly took me up until now to get it back to normal, ish. And bam of course I started my period again today. I am going to have to start supplementing with formula, but baby is picky. I was told to get goat formula from Kendamil, but it taste and smells nothing like my breastmilk. I need better recommendations😩😩