The End of the Pump

Earlier this week I returned to the hospital the hospital-grade breast pump I had been renting since Lauren was born. Before she arrived, I expected I would pump as needed while working, but I fully expected to nurse frequently. Well, it's interesting  how things work out! We tried for three weeks, but it was not meant to be. After her stay in the NICU where she was bottle-fed, Lauren was not interested in nursing. She learned that with the bottle she could get food NOW, so why would she want to put in more work to nurse? I don't blame her! I ended up pumping for 5 months and feel good that she received primarily breast milk during the first 3 months and will continue to have some breast milk every day until she is at least 6 months old.

Because I had not intended to pump so much, I had not done a lot of research about pumping prior to her birth. I figured I would have time to figure it out and wouldn't need to worry about it for at least the first 6 weeks or so. I ended up getting a crash course in pumping, storing, etc the week we came home from the hospital! Prior to this, I did not realize that there are moms who do what's called "exclusively pumping" (EP for short) where their babies are exclusively fed breast milk but they pump vs. nurse. I found some great EP web sites and community forums with tips that were invaluable to me. There were some things about pumping that were incredibly challenging. When she was a newborn, it was very hard to take care of Lauren while making time to pump frequently, too. I found that I got painfully clogged up a lot more than my friends who nursed, and it was really hard to clear up the clogs through pumping alone. I ended up finding what worked for me (lecithin pills!), but I still got clogs frequently. It was also a lot of work (time consuming) to pump. Besides the time spent actually pumping (it added up to about 3 hours every day), it involved preparing bottles, cleaning and sterilizing bottles and pump equipment, storing and rotating a fridge and freezer stash, etc.

But there were also some big positives about pumping. Dan was able to feed Lauren a bottle from the day we brought her home, which gave him many bonding opportunities with her (and gave me a break!). It also gave me a little bit more freedom as I wasn't at Lauren's beck and call to feed.

Although I felt a little sad to return the breast pump this week since I liked providing breast milk for Lauren, I'm excited that we are moving on to the next chapter of Lauren's culinary adventures - solids!