Hi MN.
I'm in a situation where I need some opinions as I'm really not sure of the right thing to do.
My son will be 4 months old next week. Breastfeeding has not ever been smooth for us. He has always been a chomper even when everyone around me was telling me his latch was perfect (and he isn't tongue tied).
I basically managed with him chewing on me for the first week, and then I couldn't handle the pain any more and my nipples were pretty much shredded.
I bought an electric pump, which I got on well with and have fed him with breastmilk in a bottle.
It has been a massive uphill journey to keep my supply up through pumping alone. Recently it's been dropping.
Then this morning the motor on the pump gave out. I have a handle that turns it into a hand pump so I managed with that for that feed.
The pump company are sending us a cheque for our money back as it was under warranty. But I really don't know what to do now.
I was only planning to breastfeed for 6 months because of how difficult it has been, so I was going to hit the 6 month mark and slowly reduce down using weaning and formula.
If this had happened 2 months from now I wouldn't buy a new pump.
But because I had set myself the goal of 6 months stopping now would make me feel like I failed.
I'm going to try and do some bottles with the hand pump but it's very difficult.
My little boy has had formula before because I ended up dehydrated once and he has no problem with it.
I dont know, I just want to see what everyone thinks.
Do I get another pump that I only really wanted to use for another 2 months or take the money and use it to pay for formula?
Is there a way to stop breastfeeding without feeling like I've failed?
