Vent

[amyk]

Can I just say right now how sick I am of pumping?!
DS has been on breastmilk with Human Breastmilk Fortifier mixed in since he was off his feeding tube. He has his 4 month checkup tomorrow and I am thinking they might take him off of it, but now my lazy little boy wants nothing to do with the breast. He actually seems to get excited when he sees the bottle comin' at him. I know there was a survey related to this, but has anyone here pumped long term? How did you not go insane?!

Amy

Chloe (8/6/01) 35 weeks, p/e, hellp
Tristan (9/3/03), 32 weeks, p/e and hellp AGAIN

[mada]

Hi Amy,
I admire oyur determination. I had to supplement with Sam because he had really bad jaundice and my milk was so slow to come in. After 2 month of fighting the pump and his rejections of my breast I was like Forget it!!! He was then formula fed. What kind of pump do oyu have? A friend of mine strictly pumps as well and she has a really great one where you can pump both breasts at a time. Well, hang in there and wow 4 months!! Hope the check up goes great!!

Mada Harpster

Sam 6-29-00 36weeks P.E.
Ben 11-03-01 No P.E.

[amyk]

Thanks, Mada,I am renting a Medela Symphony from the hospital. Although I'm really, really tired of pumping, in my opinion this is one of the very best. (It's a double pump and it's quiet enough that my husband can sleep through it. Maybe that's not such a good thing.)

Amy

Chloe (8/6/01) 35 weeks, p/e, hellp
Tristan (9/3/03), 32 weeks, p/e and hellp AGAIN

[natan]

I know that breast milk is really the best for their nutrition, but if he won't eat then there are alternatives.

My son Natan was too small to latch on. The hospital only wanted to feed him Neosure, expensive stuff. About $13.99 a can. Not all stores carried it. We had to buy at least five cans to get us through the week.

Anyway, we tried to help him latch on with strange gadgets like spagetti like tube the ran down my chest and into a bottle. I didn't like that feeling. I couldn't imagine going out in public like that. I didn't seem to work anyways. Also durning 9/11 and I was not able to relax. Too stressout and worried.

He had two surgeries, and everytime we would have to start over and help him adjust to me and he would not eat well. Doctors really wanted him to gain weight so we totally switched to formula after he came home for good.

Someone told me "as long as he looks healthy that's all that matters".

Goodluck with it,
Deborah

[catherine]

Hi Amy, I'm so with you. Chloe turned 6 months last week and I'm still carrying my pump to work with me every day. It seems like sheer drugery but the advantage kicks in on the weekends and in the evening. More than pumping I hate making up formula!!! I was hoping that she'd get more interested in food and we'd be on our way but NOPE, not the b[:)][:)]ie princess... still with the midnight feed..

The thing to remember is that they start getting interested in the world at around 4-5 months and can be distracted by pretty much everything, even when nursing. I've gone through phases when I have to take her off to somewhere quiet so that she'll focus on getting the job done. It passes and she gets back into the groove.

In the end it is really worth doing, especially if you are working and they are at "germy daycare". Chloe hasn't been sick since she started and that is major peace of mind to me. I nursed Lucy up to 14 months, though during the day she'd drink regular milk from a cup. She just nursed morning, evening when she got home from daycare and before going to bed. Kind of fun. Don't think that I'm capable of going much longer than that.

Catherine (37)
DH, Dave (40)
Finn (6)
Lucy (2)Preeclampsia & HELLP
Chloe (7/2/03)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/f/finngoosensprout

[laura]

Catherine's right- formula is too frickin expensive- we're going through $30 week in plain old formula. And I'm sick of finding and washing bottles. And she still (8.5 mos) wakes every four hours to eat: 9pm, midnight, 4 am, 8am. (whine, whine, whine)

Laura-28
DH Jack-30
Allie 5-13-98 (35 weeks-pre-e)
Baby Camille 4-17-03 (36 weeks- htn and oligo)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/c/camilleandallie/

[paljane8]

Hey Amy,

That Medela hospital pump is the best. I am sorry this is dragging on so long for you! That pumping round the clock is exhausting! We pumped exclusively for 9 wks and then Janie suplimented until about 5 months or so. You are almost double that now. Even now Janie(8 mo) still takes a suppliment bottle about every other day or so. I really thought I would go insane that first 9wks of exclusive pumping! Janie was born with some low muscel tone including oral low tone. She wasn't strong enough to extract milk. In the very beginning she used more calories trying to get bm from a bottle than she got from the bm itself. We started with that spaghetti-like tube that Deborah talked about attached to a syringe. We put that tube on our fingers and let her suck as we "injected" bm. She only took 5 cc's in the beginning-it is amazing when oz don't matter anymore. The finger feedings were such a process that I was SO glad when she could finally use a bottle! I really wanted to nurse-so that was the aim-to have her bf (I started the preg intending to bottle feed from the beginning but as the preg progressed I changed my mind) I did at least 1 practice nursing a day right up until 5 months when she could nurse on her own. The only reason I stuck with it was I wanted Janie to have the antibodies that come from bm. There were many times I nearly gave it up. Infact, the only reason I am still breast feeding is that it was such a battle to get to this point! I remember Janie preferring the bottle over the breast because she didn't have to work as hard. So, I would bf and then give the bottle. My question is, do you want to nurse?

I think you are a strong cookie to stick it out this long. Hang in there!

Nancy-35
dh-34
ds-8yrs
dd-7yrs
Scott-born 05-14-99 @38 weeks-PE
Janie-born 05-12-03 @37 weeks-PIH, small for gestational age (oligo and low blood flow)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/4/4lbs/

[paljane8]

Laura,

You should buy stock in infamil, similac? Since you are boosting that market anyway!

Nancy-35
dh-34
ds-8yrs
dd-7yrs
Scott-born 05-14-99 @38 weeks-PE
Janie-born 05-12-03 @37 weeks-PIH, small for gestational age (oligo and low blood flow)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/4/4lbs/

[mada]

Just a little tip....Yes formula is insanely expensive. I went to similacs website and signed in and they sent me tons of coupons!! Pampers does the same thing[;)]

Mada Harpster

Sam 6-29-00 36weeks P.E.
Ben 11-03-01 No P.E.

[aimeejane]

Another tip: I got most of my Neosure for Nicky off of EBAY of all places! Brand-new, never-been-opened cans, some of them for half price.

He just didn't drink enough EBM to gain any weigh on it...Even on the Neosure, he was over 18 months old before he got into the 5% for either height or weight.

Aimee - 28
Dh - 30
Ds Nicky - 3/24/00 (28 wks - eclampsia)
Ds Kalen - 7/10/03 (36 weeks - preeclampsia)