By the sounds of things you're doing a wonderful job, feeding with cracked nipples is awful. By the sounds of things my bf experience was very similar to yours. In the early days I resorted to expressing to give my nipples a break cos I had terribly cracked nipples. But in hindsight I tend to think that the powerful suction of the pump did me more harm than good cos it would reopen the cracks that were in the process of healing.

Have you tried a nipple shield? I used them full time from about four to twelve weeks, they let ds attach properly and gave my nipples a chance to heal. They also allowed us to establish a proper bf relationship in the early days. I can't recommend them highly enough.

The other thing that really helped me was giving my nipples a salt water bath a few times a day. I would mix up a solution and then use a medicine glass to cup it over my nipples so they got a good clean out and didn't get infected.

Over time my nipples healed (mind you I still have the scars to show for it), ds's suck got stronger and he learnt to attach properly. At around 12 weeks we were able to gradually drop the shields and have been bfing ever since (he's nearly 18 months).

You're doing a wonderful job and your LO is so lucky to have a mum so committed to giving him breast milk. If you feel changing to ebm will be best for both of you in the longrun, then there is nothing wrong with making that choice, but it is hard work. I've often heard that bf can take months to establish (which was true in my case). For us, we couldn't have done it without the shields. HTH