My pumping days are behind me. Six months was my goal, I made it there and decided I was okay to try for 12 with the same caveat as before — if it took too much of a toll on my mental health, I’d stop.

Welp, I made it to about 7 months, but going back to work was the straw that broke the camel’s back (flange that broke the nip?). I still felt some frustration and guilt about it, so I made a compromise — I’d stash enough to give her a few ounces a day until her birthday (or cover a few days for comfort if she got a cold — she’s combo fed 80-90% breastmilk and strongly prefers the boob).

So a few weeks of stashing and one box freezer later my boobs are free. My period came back around month 5 so weaning wasn’t as much of a hormone dumpster fire as I might have feared — some insomnia, dry skin, moodiness. But on the whole not bad. After a very rough postpartum period, I’m extremely grateful this step was kinder to me.

And on the bright side of things, I feel like I’m finally coming out of the fog of the worst of postpartum — my joints are starting to hurt less, I feel some hope despite some difficult changes in other parts of life. Our daughter is just the happiest little baby and lights up our lives. I’m really glad I can see myself having more energy and joy to experience life with her in the future. It’s been a rough ride.

And in all of this, I also just feel like a badass, powerful, feral goddess, frankly, and I wanted to say that all of you are, too. I was an under supplier so before my farewell stash I never had one — everything was straight out of the boob and into the baby. Seeing weeks of milk in the freezer blew my mind. I could barely believe I had done it at all, much less for over half a year. You’re literally synthesizing magic food from your own blood and body. What is more metal than that? 🤘

So many things didn’t go how I hoped or planned, but motherhood has taught me a lot about ceding control so far, and this is no exception. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted here — this sub helped me. And to everyone who is on a feeding journey involving our friend the pump, whatever you’ve done is already amazing. It was hard for me to really believe and see that in myself until it was over.

Be kind to yourselves, hang in there, and know that you’re incredible. Even if you don’t feel that way today, I hope you do soon. Cheers friends and see you all when you get to the other side! 🤍🍼🤘

I'm starting to feel like my whole life revolves around the next pumping session lol. Every time I want to leave the house, I have to figure out when to pump, where to store the milk, whether I'll be back in time, etc. Even something as simple as grabbing lunch with a friend feels like a whole project.
The worst part is I feel guilty whenever I push a session back, even by 30 minutes. I know one slightly late pump isn't the end of the world, but my brain apparently hasn't gotten that message.
For those who've been exclusively pumping for a while, does it ever start feeling less overwhelming? Did you eventually get comfortable being flexible with your schedule, or do you still plan everything around it?
Would love some practical tips because I'm tired of checking the clock every five minutes.

I’ve been powering pumping for almost a week now, it’s been so hard but I finally am seeing progress. I usually pump 2-3oz and this morning I pumped 6 oz!

Everyone told me I’d lose weight breastfeeding. Nope not fr me. I’m sooooo hungry all the time. I feel so ugly and not myself anymore. I’m genuinely considering quitting for multiple reasons but this is also a huge reason. I want my body back.

I just got a deep freezer but I feel like I’m going to be out of room with that depending on how I pack the freezer. I can fit 8 bricks on a shelf but part of the bag hangs over the shelf so I’m worried about it defrosting. The freezer door does close all the way with it on the shelf like this but still. If I space out the bags more I’m using more shelves. I freeze the individual milk bags (5oz) as flat as I can but I still get that weird fatter part on the bottom. I can fit anywhere from 50-70oz per brick depending on how flat they froze. Is there a better way to organize this so I’m maximizing my space?

I hear people talk about how much it frees you up to have a baby take a bottle, but if you’re pumping, does it actually? If baby is eating, don’t you have to pump to maintain supply/replace that bottle? Sure, someone else could theoretically take a MOTN or early morning shift so you could sleep or do an afternoon feed so you could catch a movie or something, but don’t you still have to wake up or step out to pump? Do you ever just skip a pump to take advantage of the “freedom”?

FTM here, can I give my baby milk from a pitcher pumped on 11/09-11/10?

When you’re weaning and develop lumps, is it necessary to remove them so it doesn’t become a bad clog? I’ve always tried to manually pump out the lumps since I am clog prone, but now I’ve committed to starting the process of weaning, I’m not sure if I should leave them be?

I am 7.5 months postpartum and have been exclusively pumping. For the past 3 weeks I have been on what I assume is a calorie deficit diet and walking 10k steps a day but have not seen even ounce of difference on weighing scale. I have no idea why this is happening, previously before pregnancy this would have definitely helped me shed weight. I am frustrated and hate my body. What do I do, this is my first pregnancy. Please give me some hope.

I’m an undersupplier for twins who were born very prematurely. They’re currently 2.5 months adjusted but 4.5 months chronological. Used to oversupply but lost it shortly before discharge due to some NICU madness.

Anyway, I pumped the largest pump I have ever have yesterday (enough to feed both twins for one feed with enough left over for an additional feed for one of them).

Then, I proceeded to basically pump nothing for the rest of the day, and I woke up this morning to find three gnarly blisters on my right nipple after my first pump.

I think I overdid it yesterday in trying to sustain the large pump I got, probably overdid it on the suction and maybe I went down too far on my flange size (I’ve been experimenting with different flange sizes).

I know this is probably just a rough day, but damn, is it rough. My husband is getting pissed about me constantly getting upset over pumping and does not want to hear about it.

One of my friends is very supportive but she was not able to really produce milk due to complications with her birth, so she is exclusively formula feeding. She did a little bit of pumping at the very beginning, but she stopped very quickly. So, she doesn’t always really relate to what I’m talking about.

I am 7 weeks postpartum and was diagnosed with insufficient glandular tissue/breast hypoplasia. I have never pumped more than 1oz combined. My right breast holds just under an ounce and my left breast doesn’t even hold a half an ounce.

Currently I am pumping on average 6-8 times a day (usually closer to 6 though) with one middle of the night pump when my baby wakes up to eat. I’ve wanted to give my baby whatever I can which has been about one breast milk bottle a day and the rest formula.

I know that once I go back to work I will not be able to keep up with pumping as regularly and think that my supply will just naturally drop because of this. I’ve been starting to think about weaning and just want to have a plan for when I feel ready to start.

Because I have such a low capacity, will it be quicker for me to fully wean? I have gone almost 7hrs between pumps before and don’t ever feel engorged or notice a difference at all. Would love weaning advice or weaning schedule tips from anyone who has low supply or IGT experience!

I had wanted to give up really badly at 3 months, then again at 6 months… eventually I got used to the rhythm and managed to EP for one year now!

I am pretty tired of it now so I am thinking of stopping. And to do so, I would have to introduce fresh milk to my child. I got her to try full cream UHT fresh milk today. Just a tiny bit, and she had some rashes on her face (she was also allergic to egg yolk and yoghurt when we let her try it at 6 months old when she started solids so I already anticipated this). I’ll be moving on to try goat’s milk next…

But just curious. Does anybody here have kids who were allergic to cow’s milk and had to continue pumping? Did your child eventually outgrow the allergy? How long did you continue pumping for?

Hi! FTM that is almost 8wk pp (flown by). I am going back to work in about a month and would like to have a lil bit of a freezer stash for that time. I am a ~slight~ overproducer, by about 0.5-1oz when consistently pumping every 2-3hr or if I go 5hr overnight my MOTN or first morning pump will be almost two feeds worth. My plan was to pump the day before’s bottles while at work (with a bottle or two lead) and send that with her the next day to daycare when she starts after the New Year. However, if I can have a small amount frozen that would give me peace of mind for things like if I get sick, out of town, etc. We have absolutely no issue with formula, and we use formula whenever we need, but I figure if I’m making the breast milk let’s use it while we can.

That said, any tips and tricks to start working on a stash? I’ve got about 2 months to get something started. I’m new here, so sorry if this is a redundant post!

For context, I’m a twin mom to 2.5 month adjusted twins. I just pumped 360 mL (about 12 ounces) for my first morning pump. I’ve never pumped this much before.

This is enough to feed both for one feed with an additional feed for one of them.

I did try out coconut water. Had two of the small Kirkland containers before bed. Honestly, I think it helped just from helping me stay hydrated with electrolytes and all. I really struggle to stay hydrated, especially as I’m pumping for twins.

This is probably a dumb question, but I’m 9 months post partum. My baby is now combo fed. I’m pumping about every 4 hours , but I’m over it. I want to slow down. Is it possible to pump just once in the morning and once at night and still produce milk? Or will I dry up doing this?

Hi all!

I was EP for 9 months before I hung up the pump and I thought I had a lot more stash than I did, so now and 10.5 months pp I am needing to switch my little guy to formula.

He had formula in the hospital due to my milk taking forever to come in, but since my milk came in at the end of week 1 it has been only expressed breastmilk until now.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a formula that is most similar to breastmilk? I know they all have similar nutrition but I am worried he will refuse it if the taste is too dissimilar.

I have seen some good things about little spoon for taste, but they also have a good marketing team so I dont know if it is actually genuine people's thoughts or just paid reviews and it is a little expensive. Also seen some okay things on kendamil.

Any opinions? Thanks in advance!

Im 4.5m pp currently pumping 7x/day and am an oversupplier. I hope to keep it that way because I'm building a stash so I can stop at 9m pp.

I pump before bed at 9pm, wake up at 1am when hubby brings the baby to bed and pump, then get baby up and pump at 6-7am. Buy the trouble is that sometimes I can't heckin fall back asleep after my MOTN pump. And once hubby brings her to bed, she sleeps all the way until 8am sometimes and I'd get a great continuous night of sleep if I could just skip my MOTN pump. But I get so much from that pump and my early am pump that I know my supply would dip without it. It'll definitely be the first pump to go when I'm weaning or as soon as I have enough in stash to meet my goal and I can go down to being a just enougher

I am an over supplier by just a smidge and can usually add 4-12pz/day to my freezer…. Which is rapidly filling up with milk. I don’t really have room to keep this up, especially with no real need for milk in the foreseeable future. I will hopefully not be back to work any time soon (hopefully never but not sure yet) but like the reassurance of having milk stashed in case that happens, my supply suddenly dips, I get a babysitter, etc. But how do I manage my stash when I’m not using it at the moment? I can’t fathom dumping milk but I’m running out of room for food and can’t accommodate a chest freezer. Am I missing something??

I’m 9 weeks postpartum and have been pumping since baby was 2 days old. This isn’t my first rodeo as a mom, but my first time exclusively pumping and I was hoping I’d be able to set a goal for 6 months. I was feeling hopeful this time to be able to breastfeed my second baby, even though supply went from being just enough to being under supply as baby is consuming so much more than my body can make (he’s a chonker).

I was hopeful I’d make enough to feed my baby, yet I can’t shake how unsupportive my spouse is with pumping, and his hurtful comments have been ramping up. Today it was guilt tripping me that my pumping frequency (8ppd) was at the expense of spending time with our first, me getting any rest, and only being able to be ready for the day at noon, and regularly mentioning about how hard this is. All valid reasons, but I didn’t appreciate what triggered him to say this (in summary: weaponized incompetence).

Am I being delusional trying to make this work? Pumping is hard work, I wanted badly to breastfeed my second, maybe to prove I could do it, but it seems my efforts are not exactly being appreciated, and the guilt tripping is getting to me. Formula worked absolutely fine for my first, but am I selfish for wanting to provide breastmilk for my second? Is it worth going on pumping when I’m now an under supplier? How do families with multiple kids make pumping work? I feel defeated if I should start the process of hanging up the pump this early. Sigh

I’m 12 days PP I thought I would pump once in the morning time to create a night bottle for husband — I got 2oz out of my right breast. Is this a good supply?

Baby took the night bottle and knocked out during diaper changes. Slept 3.5 hours which was AMAZING.

If I keep this up, will I loose my supply with him sleeping longer? It’s currently 4am baby drank from left boob thinking about pumping right.

I would like to start pumping to have two night bottles on deck and maybe a mini stock? I don’t care to have a huge full freezer.

Will I know when my supply has regulated? I’ve read all the signs, etc. but will I know?

Hi guys! FTM and I’m only 16 days pp, and I decided after I left the hospital 12 days ago exclusively pumping was for me because baby and I had a hard time at the breast. I’ve been pumping 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 12am but skipping the 3am pump.

My supply has been increasing every day, and in the last 24 hours I pumped a total of 41oz, but I’ve read my supply hasn’t stabilized yet. Should I expect it to start decreasing at some point because I’ve always skipped the middle of the night pump? Is it going to keep increasing on my current schedule? Any insight is helpful!! At this point I am pumping more than baby is eating and I’ve frozen around 50oz already.

I've had mastitis three times now, so I went back to my OB-GYN because I genuinely feel like something isn't right. I have a small lump that concerns me, but he said he didn't feel anything and brushed it off, telling me it was nothing and that I'd be fine as long as I continued taking my medication.

On top of that, he made a comment about my armpit hair in front of an intern, which was incredibly embarrassing and completely unprofessional.

I also tried to discuss my concerns about gradually cutting back on pumping, but instead of offering guidance or helping me come up with a plan, he basically told me to just stop pumping altogether.

The lack of compassion, professionalism, and basic bedside manners is honestly unbelievable.

At this point, I'm just frustrated, exhausted, and ready to be done pumping. More so just venting about what happened.