Just wondering how anyone manages to have a life while EEing. I feel my existence revolves around being home (or somewhere else private) to pump every 3-4 hours! This is the main reason I don't think I will make it past 4 months pumping full time. (plan to go part time, maybe 4-5 pumps per day and make up the remainder with formula)
The good news is, it gets easier & easier. Once you get a bit further on & can start dropping pumps, it makes life so much easier.

I look back now, when at the beginning I was expressing every 4 hours, we were doing outings, shopping trips etc in stages. We would go to one place, then go home to express, then go out again... I look back and wonder how we ever stuck it out!
But after the four month mark it all got easier, that was around about when I started stretching it out a bit further.

What a beautiful offer for your friend to make


how does everyone handle their EBM? to date, i have been pumping it and leaving it at room temp. i generally have two or three bottles pumped ready to go (used to be more but her feeds have settled down a bit and are larger).

but now that weather is warming up, i'm having to start cooling it down and then warming it up again - such a pain.

does your little one take a predictable amount each feed? i never know whether dd will take 70 mls or 130mls - she even took 260mls in the middle of the night last week. I find it so frustrating that i often have to stop her to refill the bottle half way thru a feed. I wish i could screw the bottom of the bottle and fill it up while she was still feeding!
handling EBM - I used to do the same, leaving it at room temp - even through summer - although I would keep it in a bottle cooler or a chiller bag sometimes, especially if we were going on long car trips. It's so convenient having it ready to go, especially overnight, and it meant that we did a kind of demand-style feeding, because there was always milk there ready to go, if she wanted it, she had it.

And yep, she would take different amounts each time. A bit frustrating because it makes it harder to plan for, but I found that if I had a couple of bottles ready to go she would drink roughly the same amount between pumps, just not in the same amounts each time, ITMS. If we had any left over at the next pump & she hadn't drunk from that bottle it went into the freezer.