Switching to Pumping part-time

[smilesp]

Please bear with me because I know this is going to be a long, rambling post but I'm trying to get my thoughts together and would love some input from people who understand.
DS is almost 6 months old and is EBF. We have just started some solids in the last week. He has had 2 teeth for about a month now. I've been having issues with him biting me and also with distracted nursing. The biting has been pretty bad a few times where he's actually injured my nipple and caused bleeding. A few days ago, he spit up blood. He seemed fine but of course I was concerned. I talked to the ped's office and they said to watch his stool for blood but since he seemed fine it was ok to just keep an eye on it. The next day he spit up a lot of blood while DH was home and he freaked out a little. DS had bitten me pretty hard while nursing immediately prior but the ped recommended I pump and only bottle feed him for 24 hours to be sure the blood was coming from me and not him. We did that and there wasn't any bloody spit up so common sense says it is from me. I thought pumping for 24 hours would be a huge PITA but it was actually a relief for me to not be worried about the biting. Worrying about him biting me makes me really tense while nursing. I also worry he doesn't eat enough because he is so distracted while nursing. Many times he only nurses for a few minutes before he gets too distracted. I will usually offer the breast a couple more times but encouraging him to eat more when he is distracted is one of the times when he is more likely to bite.
Now I'm thinking about switching to pumping and bottle feeding during the day to save my nipples and to hopefully relieve my anxiety about the amount he eats. I'm thinking I will still nurse him at night because I would like to do it some and I don't want to pump in the motn. I'm also hoping maybe he will sleep longer because right now he's up 2-3 times a night when we had gotten down to 1-2. Im wondering if it is because he is eating less during the day. I don't want to create a situation where he's not eating much during the day and waking more at night.
Does anyone else do this or something similar? Any thoughts?

tl;dr I'm thinking of switching to pumping during the day due to distracted nursing and biting.

ETA I see there is already a similar thread here so I will be following that also. I'm going to post on the main BF board for insight from others who might not visit this EP board.

[lexisophie55]

Wow - throwing up blood sounds scary. I am glad you were able to narrow it down to the biting of your nipple...that was odd to type.

I do exactly as you have typed - and I have for a few months now. My lifestyle (on the go, 2 jobs, sports, hunting, etc.) is not breastfeeding friendly, so once the distracted nursing starts, I am unable to have a kid attached to me to eat every hour for 3 minutes. It was the same with DS1. Then, you throw in some teeth - and Im out.

I pump at 6am, 9:30am, 1pm, 4pm, 8pm. Give or take of course. I then sometimes nurse at 11 (but usually I'm too empty, so we give a bottle). I do nurse at 4am - so much easier at that time of night.

When we first started this at 4 months, I do believe he preferred nursing at night, to the bottle during the day. It was a bit of an issue. He was up 3 to 4 time a night, snacking is what I called it. I could not take it anymore, and had DH give him a bottle at 11, hoping he would eat more and sleep longer. A few nights of that, and it worked. He now wakes up twice, sometimes once. We usually start with the bottle route, and if he wakes up again, I nurse him. However, I now know he can make it for 6 hours without milk, so we do let him fuss for awhile before I give in.

The bottle at 11 is only 3 to 4 oz. I do not want him to think that he can fill up at night. We had daycare push bottles during the day as well.

Great job making it this far and good luck!

Let me know if you have more questions - it seemed a little confusing.

[smilesp]

lexisophie55 Thanks for your input!
We started doing a 5 oz bottle at bedtime a couple of weeks ago because sometimes he was falling asleep too quickly while nursing and then waking up hungry again in just a couple of hours. So far,
that has been working well.
I like the idea of getting on a schedule also. I go to work in the afternoon 4 days a week and I get stressed when I need him to eat before we go and he is too distracted. I feel guilty dropping him off with DH when he might still be hungry.
I think I might try the day pumping for a couple days and see how it goes. I just have to keep reminding myself that it isn't an all-or-nothing type thing and it's fine to switch back and forth.

[lexisophie55]

smilesp, you are exactly right. Sometimes we both wake up at 6am and he is hungry, so I just nurse him. It is hard to figure out what works, but once you have a schedule, it is a lot easier.

I agree with the part of not nursing when you need him too. It is basically the reason I switched. If I needed to go milk cows for 3 hours, I need to be drained before I go and he needs to eat when I'm done - that is a lot to ask, so pumping is the only solution. And like you said in your original post, it is actually less stressful and time consuming in the long run. To each their own though. My friends do not understand it....they do not think it is easier.

[smilesp]

lexisophie55 I have made the switch and I'm EP except motn. I feel less anxiety about how much he's eating and I feel like I have more freedom. Plus, he's waking up less at night because he's eating more during the day. Thanks for sharing and your advice!

[lexisophie55]

Dec 4, 2015 14:22:15 GMT -5 smilesp said:

lexisophie55 I have made the switch and I'm EP except motn. I feel less anxiety about how much he's eating and I feel like I have more freedom. Plus, he's waking up less at night because he's eating more during the day. Thanks for sharing and your advice!

smilesp, Glad it is going great!  That is exactly how it went for us as well.  Thanks for the update.