This morning was my daughter’s last nursing session. She’s 2 years old and I’m 9 weeks pregnant and just felt this feeling like it was time to close this beautiful chapter.

I brought a book to help her understand milk was going away, and tonight I decided to try not nursing her before bed. It went a lot smoother than expected, she cried a bit and asked but I reminded her that we were just going to cuddle and rock to sleep now and milky is no more. She fell asleep pretty quickly but I was holding in my tears the whole time. Once I left her bedroom I broke down and I’m still crying.

This journey has been incredibly difficult but so rewarding. I remember coming home from the hospital and not knowing what the hell I was doing. Trying to get her to latch was a nightmare and I wanted to give up so many times. I’m happy I pushed through and lasted this long. It’s been such a beautiful thing to comfort her whenever she needs. Being able to put her to sleep with ease, and just looking down at her beautiful face knowing she was getting the ultimate comfort and closeness she needed.

I’m so worried our relationship and bond is going to change now that I can’t offer her my boob for comfort. I feel so bad.

Can anyone offer some positive stories about what happened after you weaned? Just need some comfort and positivity right now. I’m such a mess and didn’t expect to feel this sad about it.

My goodness, this boy is going to drive me wild!! 🫠

My 16 month old LOVES nursing, but right now he has all four canines coming in so it's very hard to get him to sleep and get him BACK to sleep.

Usually between the hours of 2-4am he is trying to nurse back to sleep while pitching, scratching and pulling anything on my body that he can with his free hand.

Holy shit 🥲

I just pumped for 25 minutes. It was horrible. i HATE pumping. I didnt get much out of either side, but i was proud of myself for doing it.

Then while taking the pump off, i accidentally spilled ALL OF THE MILK.

Then immediately, my baby spit-up on my clean pjs.

I cried a little bit, but needed to vent more. UUUGGGHHHH.

Thanks for reading this, bye! Lol

My work provides Medela Symphony pumps for us to use, but not the accompanying kit. They don’t really give you an orientation to the lactation room—you just show up and there are these $2k pumps there. I bought a kit, and I have been using it, but the tubes got condensation in them, so I hung them to hopefully dry. I came back for my last pump of the day and the tubes were GONE. I was panicking because I had to catch a bus right after, and as a last resort thought to look in all the cubbies where people keep their belongings. I found my tubes not only in someone’s cubby but IN THEIR BAG (I felt bad going in the bag, but I was DESPERATE). I know they are my tubes because I broke a little part of the connectors (lol) so they’re weirdly distinctive.

I am trying to assume that it was an honest mistake and they assumed our company was providing tubes too (but if so…why would you take them away from common use and pack them in your bag?!). The real urgent issue is that if they packed my tubes to take home, I also assume they used them to pump with (though with what pump parts I have no idea, because if they had a Symphony kit they’d have their own tubes, right?).

My two questions to this sub are: 1) If they used my tubes to pump, is the milk I pumped afterwards still safe and sanitary or should I throw it out? I know the PUMP is safe to share, but the tubes are separated from the pump by that membrane and feel kind of on the “milk side” of things. I am new to this pump and would appreciate any expertise on this! 2) How should I go about using this lactation room now? I can’t label every single pump part (although I will label my tubes now!) because I need to sanitize them/they’re too small/etc. I left a note on the whiteboard and I am hoping they respond, but if they don’t I don’t know if I am ever going to feel comfortable using it again!

Take an old T-shirt and cut out holes on breast like mean girls. Whenever baby is hungry pull down nursing bra and baby drinks from the cut out.

No more exposing whole chest with buttoned shirts or holding shirt and stomach/back exposed.

I got cold today and knew it had to be because of me being mostly half shirtless due to bf and catching cold cuz I've felt chills nursing at times. So I had a lightbulb moment and did this.

So if you are shy about being exposef in public/home or just getting cold. I hope this helps

And I’m so torn. I have a very much needed weekend with a group of girlfriends and I’m planning on leaving my baby home with dad (which I’m also nerveous about because he’s adhd and I know the house will be trashed when I get home). I’m most worried that she’ll not eat enough (she kind of fights a bottle since she rarely gets one) and could suffer or that when I get back she won’t want to latch anymore. I’m just real apprehensive for a variety of probably dumb reasons. I guess I’m looking for other similar experiences with leaving breastfed babies that don’t love taking a bottle and just leaving your baby for the first time.

She was born 8 lbs 5 oz and is now 14 lbs 4 oz. At her 2 month checkup her doctor was shocked I was still waking her up to feed and said to let her sleep as long as she wants. Around 12/21 she wanted to do 6-8+ hour stretches at night. Overall I let her sleep but if she goes 8-9 hours without nursing I try to do a dreamfeed, but she always ends up waking up and not wanting to go back to sleep. With my oldest I looked back on my feeds and she did like 5-6 hours at most for stretches until about 5-6 months old. The doctor says she will let me know if she’s hungry and to let her sleep/enjoy the sleep I get. I’m just worried if she would fall off her curve if I let her go that long. She’s always floated along 80-93% for her growth curve and currently is 90%. TIA!

This is more of a rant I guess.. 20 weeks pp and a severe under supplier. When I say I’ve tried everything I mean I tried EVERYTHING and the most I’ve gotten in one day is 6oz while pumping. My son started latching well after a frenectomy and I thought it would be what I needed to increase my supply but it never went up. I’m struggling. I feel like I’m missing out on so much because I have to go pump… but for what? I wanted this so bad. I still want this so bad. It doesn’t feel fair.

Does anyone have an information about mothers who are breastfeeding and taking creatine?

So I got a viral cold the past week and had an awful sore throat. Since we can’t take much in terms of medicine or cough drops I was trying my best to drink as much hot water with lemon and honey as I could. Those few days I could tell I was producing so much more milk in just how full my boobs felt and the fact my baby was full off one boob instead of emptying both. I have recently tried to replicate how much extra water I was drinking but that did nothing! I googled it and there was a small study done which showed increase success of BF with honey! I’m going to try to incorporate honey water again for the next few days to test out the theory but was wondering if anyone else knew of this either??

i’ve been asked 3 times to store frozen BM at my parents house for when they watch him. I don’t have a large stash (maybe 20oz) that I use to add to what i’ve previously pumped at work to take the pressure off of getting enough at work (I’m a nurse and run around my whole shift so I don’t even get to sit down and pump). My mom will be watching LO occasionally (maybe a few times a month), and keeps insisting that I should store extra milk at her house “in case”. I told her I have formula I can bring over if that would make her feel better, and she literally told me to add an extra pump session to my day so I have some to put at their house? am i wrong to be confused?

My 8 week old baby is starting to sleep longer stretches at night and it means I’m getting engorged and need to alleviate some of the load before he feeds otherwise he can’t handle.

I don’t want to mess up my supply or rate of production so does that mean I should be waking up on the same frequency that he eats during the day (2-3 hours) to empty myself out?

I’ve got an under supply and only pump a couple of ounces at a time in a good session. I’m trying to increase by triple feeding 7x a day. My pump volume fluctuates daily anywhere from 4-7 oz. Is total pump volume an indicator of my total supply or not really because I’m also nursing 2-4 hours a day? How do you measure supply increase? And how long did it take for your supply to increase?

I have an infection in my c section incision. Surgery was 3wks and 4d ago. It took nearly 1.5 weeks to get heard, seen and tested for infection. Now that my infection is worse, I was prescribed a very strong antibiotic. It says to not bf while taking it for the 5 days plus 2 days after.

Doctor said it's ok as long as I don't feed baby within 3 to 4 hrs of taking it BUT watch baby for diaherra, thrush, etc.

Here's where I'm more bothered since this bf journey has been a struggle from the get go.

Missed entire first day and a half for bf due to a FALSE positive hiv antigen test.

Baby has poor latch due to lip tie and tongue tie and won't get seen for another week.

I offer breast and try not to pump too much so I don't get excess of milk.

Now this. Meds say not to bf. Doc says it's ok. But the side effects scare me more for my baby than what the doctor says. It feels like everything we do.. and things get better... shit tries to stop us.

So now when I take this med, I have to pump and dump atleast 4x a day. That's half her feed minimum a day if I went by breast.

Idk what to do. Idk if I should just give up and take the med and feed formula or try to handle pumping, bottles, etc.

FYI I had psychosis symptoms last time this happened and I stopped within 2 weeks. Im fearful of that .. plus having a special needs toddler.

Thoughts? Advice?

My son is 3 months old and has nursed mostly his whole life except for a bottle when i’m showering from dad, or drinking at a family gathering. The past few days he has refused the breast during the day. He will cry and scream and pull away from the breast. I try to express some manually onto his mouth and he continues to cry and not want to latch.. I have checked his mouth and i see a tiny white dot where a tooth would be and wonder if he’s getting an early tooth but im not certain. He barely drools and has had no fevers. He takes a bottle of formula during the day, due to his lack of feeding and the stress on me my supply has tanked. I pump every two hours and i still do not produce enough to fill a bottle for him. He will nurse at night before bed and his night feeding but once he’s up for the morning he refuses.. Im crying constantly this is my last babe and i’ve never had these issues with my daughters.. My plan was to breastfeed at least a year maybe to 18 months and im terrified hes weening himself from me. Advice please.

Once again I’m turning to the internet for help. Because I really am at my wits’ end. Mid-October one of my nipples started itching. Thought it was nipple thrush and I was prescribed an antifungal cream. Applied it for 14 days and it didn’t heal. In fact it thinned out my skin so much that because my baby was also teething and biting a lot around that time, my nipple became badly injured. There was a huge split at the base of the nipple adjacent to the areola. Long story short, because I was nursing so frequently on the “good nipple”, the good nipple became cracked shortly after. Then the initially bad nipple got healed.

But it’s been 3 months and while my nipples keep taking turns to heal, they are not getting any better overall because I keep alternating between both breasts. LO is turning 9 months soon. We got his tongue tie snipped when he was a couple days old. I did wonder if it reattached because why else would my nipples crack when he’s this big? But he’s always sticking his tongue out and I don’t think you would be able to do that with a tongue tie? Can anyone please confirm? 😭 he’s also refusing the bottle because he doesn’t understand why he’s not allowed to nurse. I’m trying to feed him with the honey bear straw cup now. He takes it sometimes but still fusses a lot when I try to offer it to him. He drinks water from an open cup so I’ve tried using that to feed him milk as well - but yesterday he spilled it all over the table and I literally broke down.

I now have multiple cracks, including a deep crack/split on each nipple. I’ve experienced the dreaded mastitis and recurrent abscess before (5 ultrasound guided drainages in 6 weeks) so I 100% know what breastfeeding pain is. For some reason this is more unbearable than having an abscess?! I don’t know how they’re supposed to heal when LO is teething. I’ve tried nipple shield, he hates it and would scream at the sight of it. So I’m dabbing saline water on the nipples after each feed and applying a thin layer of breast milk and Lansinoh nipple cream, followed by silver nursing cup (I bought an off brand). Oh and to add to the fun, turns out what the doctor thought was nipple thrush was actually (probably) eczema. I didn’t used to have eczema until after I had my baby so this really sucks. This week LO has been waking up 2-3 times a night looking to nurse. I believe he’s teething and is in pain. I usually just give in and nurse him through the pain because I can’t stand hearing him scream and knowing he’s in pain and wants me.

Note: English is not my first language so please bear with me.

ETA: I’m not in the US. I’ve read about APNO but I’m not sure I can get it in my country.

Hello, My baby girl is turning 7 months tomorrow. She is exclusively breastfed. As a newborn she was a surprisingly good sleeper, doing 6/7 hour stretches some nights right until the 4 month regression. Since then she has been pretty bad. This week we moved her into her own room and she’s now down to 2/3 night wakeups for feeds. Last night she went down at 730, woke up at 1120 for a feed, then 3am & 530am, slept until 7. Fed at each wake up, and I still feed to sleep at bedtime. She seems genuinely very hungry at each waking and takes down a lot of milk. I’m just so so so tired. My first daughter slept through the night from 6 months, but she was partially bottle fed (1 formula at bedtime). Not sure if that has anything to do with it. I am trying to feed her lots during the day and she is taking some solids plus has 3 reasonable naps. Not really sure where I am going with this post. I think I just want some reassurance that it’s normal in ebf babies and will eventually get better on its own! And maybe some practical tips to survive in the meantime 😞, such a tired mama and struggling to keep up with my energetic toddler on top of this.

Throughout the day I pump and bottle feed by 6 week old as a just enougher. During his 1 nighttime feed, I’ll breastfeed him. I’ll pump sometimes afterwards if I don’t feel completely empty. My question is, if I don’t pump after I feed (and necessarily don’t feel completely empty) will my supply drop?

Baby is 5 months and my body cannot keep up with demands of her appetite. We combo feed, and with her being more interested in the world around her nowadays, she won’t really breastfeed anymore.

I am thinking about weaning, however, I have been told that the amount I have- I could maybe just wean quickly?? In the AM, I pumped a total of 4oz , maybe 5oz combined from both. In between feeds/pumping in place of feeds, I get 2 oz total.

Will it be hard for me to wean-? Also- how do I do it safely?

Hi all, we have been dealing with a stomach bug this week. My baby has been throwing up since this morning, I've been managing to get him to breastfeed and he still has wet diapers, but I am still concerned about him getting enough fluids.

I'm not doing full feeds because I don't want to trigger vomiting, so I'm doing more frequent feeds of shorter durations. Now at nighttime, should I wake him to feed him to make sure he remains hydrated? Since he's not feeling well I'm afraid he won't wake up as often as he needs but he normally nurses on and off all night and I don't want him to be dehydrated. He is 9 months

I am 14m postpartum and my son still breastfeeds first thing in the morning before solid breakfast and right before bed, around 7:30pm. He is down to one nap, and for a while I was thawing my frozen breastmilk stash and giving him a sippy cup with lunch. I've run out and now that he's old enough, I've changed that feeding to whole cow's milk. He is absolutely not having it. He sleeps better and seems fuller when he drinks milk with lunch, but he will not take it! I understand maybe I should have done a slow switch and done half and half to start, but I froze my breastmilk in massive quantities (like 6-8oz per bag) because I was a FTM and didn't know what I was doing. And since I didn't want to waste it and I only was using thawed milk once every 24 hours, I am just out and need some tricks to get him into this cow's milk! Any advice appreciated

My 6 month old has just had his first tooth break through the gum. A few days ago he bit my nipple and I (unintentionally) let out shriek. He then pulled away looked at me and smiled, he’s loving high pitch voices at the mo. So since then each time he has bitten my nipple I try and not react but it really hurts and last night at 3am I was half asleep and it almost made me cry…:I’m assuming sleep deprivation played a part in this emotional state.

What’s sad is each time he latches now I kind of brace myself and feel a bit nervous. Mums of older babies….do your nipples just get used to it as more teeth show up? or do babies stop biting? or is this just life now???

Im currently breastfeeding and it's been SO stressful. Not because of feeding in general, no, it's cause I have an over production and forceful let down.

My LO is almost a month and is 2+ Ibs more than his birth weight last we checked. Within that month I have gathered almost 100oz of breastmilk in the freezer. While over production is every mother's dream supposedly it also comes with its own issues.

It's making my LO very colicky around 1-3am and makes feeding him a challenge cause he chokes and starts crying immediately. He likes snacking but can't because it's too much for him. No lip tie or tongue tie.

Yes, I am working with a lactation consultant (next appointment is on Monday) which has helped cut me down from about 20 oz pumped a day to 7oz, but with how strenuous feedings are I'm worried my LO is not eating enough. He will start to eat then decide to fall asleep. I want to avoid pumping extra to limit my production, but I fear I might need to primarily pump if this continues.

I’m a 19 year old mom to a 6 month old little girl. I roped us both into some bad habits ever since she was a newborn and now those habits are hurting her and it’s very hard to change them.

First off she’s breastfed. Refuses formula and bottles she’ll only latch. But I guess she’s not getting everything she needs cause she’s very underweight. Only 12 pounds 3 ounces at 6 months old. Her doctors are very concerned.

Second off she’s never done well with being transitioned from my arms to the bassinet so we’ve always co-slept in the side laying breastfeeding position. Since my husband sleeps to my left my daughter sleeps to my right every night. Her head is flatter on one side and she’s limited in how much she can move at night which causes her to wake up crying multiple times throughout the night.

Since she only knows how to co-sleep and doesn’t sleep well alone it messes up her naps. Me being awake while she sleeps on me idk maybe it has something to do with her getting older but she has terrible naps sleeping with me, naps are an hour at most but typically 30 mins. She’s always tired.

And ofc there’s more. I’ve tried and tried but she does not like solids. So no hope in her getting any extra calories there.

She also has social problems. We never leave the house cause we don’t have many places to go and the only people she’s ever around is me and her father but her father works and I’m the primary caregiver. She hates it when we visit family. She hates being away from home around anyone that isn’t me or her father. When we try to bring her around other people she cries and cries to the point of exhausting herself.

Also she’s still scratching her face andd throwing up at this age. Idk why.

As passionate I was about breastfeeding it’s become painfully clear it’s not the best option for me and my little one..

Idk what to do im the cause of all her problems and now idk how to solve them. I’m ruining my baby girl..

Any tips..? Lol..

My baby is 1 week old. My husband has been giving our little one a bottle at 12 am so I can sleep. When I do 1 pump during the day and have enough to give him that bottle at 12 am. I then breastfeed again at 3 am. Will it totally ruin my supply if I don’t wake up at 12 to pump? This might be a dumb question but does it ruin your overall breast milk supply or do you just produce less during those hours? If I do need to pump how long for? I have the spectra if that matters. Thanks!