I stopped latching around 1.5 months. It was a heart wrenching decision because I really loved the close bonding time I feel when latching my baby (something that only I and no one else can do feel). But I dont regret my decision to switch to exclusive pumping.
- Baby was latching very long and I was pumping the leftover after latch due to oversupply so it felt I was constantly just latching/pumping and couldnt do anything else.
- with latching baby gets hungry very fast again (about 2.5 hours compared to 3~4hours on EBM). Exclusive pumping gives me more time to do chores and other things.
- i eventually have to go back to work so i felt is better to just switch to EP earlier and work on lengthening the gap between pumps while maintaining supply.
- my letdown on one breast is explosive causing him to choke, the other breast is so slow he is frustrated and meltdown. After 6 weeks of seeing his choking and frustration (though he did slowly improve for the choking as he grew but also grew even more frustrated for the slower breast, I decided to switch fully to bottle feeding EBM which we were already doing for night feeds, and which he is totally ok with.
Do treasure your time latching which you are still doing it, but dont feel bad for swtiching to EP! Mommy's mental health is very important. Happy Mommy means Happy Baby so do what you feel makes you most comfortable!
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