Part debrief and part woohoo

[Fleur]

Huge hugs
It can be devastating when things don't come out the way you thought they would, especially when it feels like so much of it is beyond your control, or beyond what you can see / deal with at the time.
I hear you on the BF question. I never knew exactly how to answer & would say something clunky like 'yes... well no, we are expressing fulltime but she has breast milk, so kind of.. I'm lactating...'
You are doing a wonderful thing giving your boy EBM, so NOT the easy road at all! I know that doesn't completely ease the feelings of disappointment (I still have them!) but you should be proud of yourself.
Have you checked out the Exclusive Expressers thread?

[Mother Goose]

and I am so so proud of you hon! I know how much you struggled in those early days and you are doing FANTASTIC! Your little man is so lucky to have such a fantastic Mummy! And you did NOT take the easy option! I can't tell you how proud I am of you!

MWAH

MG

[human bean]

CeCe I don't think you've taken the easy way out at all, and I think your are doing a brilliant job full time expressing!! I think starangelk's response is a great one for people who ask too.

I will admit I have serious freezer envy with all your bags of EBM

[CeCe]

Thank you all for your support.

Starangelk, you’re only one short of the number of sessions I do, so you too are doing great. I express after DS feeds and that seems to be enough for supply atm.
Kmn – I’ve often thought about giving attaching another go, but tbh I’ve lost confidence in that way of feeding. I got so many messages in hospital that I wasn’t giving DS enough and therefore risking his health (he had suspected wet lung followed by jaundice which took weeks to clear), followed by when I did feed from the breast I always needed to supplement with bottle. I just find this the best way for us. If we have another child I will certainly give BF a shot, but for now...
Fleur – Thank you. I read the thread about 3 or 4 weeks ago and I really think that’s when I started to accept this path. Seeing that others had successfully done this gave me the courage and determination to accept what is. In the early days I was constantly told that to have adequate supply DS needed to be attaching, but this thread showed me otherwise and I’ve begun to relax about it all. I’ve been meaning to post in there but just haven’t made the time to yet.
MG – thank you for your support in those difficult, indecisive days. You are a blessing to me.
Human Been – LOL at freezer envy. I now worry about the freezer not working and me losing my stash. Thank you for your support.

[Kmn]

Fair enough!
I don't know if you could almost consider it a separate "experiment" - keep the expressing and EBM bottles and just attach when he would not normally be having a feed to see what happens.
He's much bigger and stronger, he has something in reserve, you know you have a whopping supply and you that your supply responds to pumping - so it would be pretty safe to give it a try. It's just such a monster workload for you...
hugs.

[Kmn]

double post...