I am a breastfeeder/pumper. I struggle with it every day. It's a beautiful thing. It's the best provider of nutrients to your baby. But, it's also ugly. It hurts. Your nipples become unrecognizable. Personally, I became a pumper pretty early on. My girl was losing a good amount of weight and it drove me crazy that I could not SEE how many ounces she was getting in a feeding. Beyond that, it took us both some time to figure out what we were doing. In the meantime, my breasts were extremely engorged, and I had a cracked, bleeding, excrutiatingly painful nipple on one side. I could NOT feed her from that side, she wasn't getting enough from the other side. She was hungry, I hurt...I turned to my pump. (Medela Pump In Style, I love you and I hate you.) It was SO nice to put myself on a schedule and work out the engorgement while giving my poor nipple time to heal....all while still getting milk to feed the baby. Three months later, and now that I'm back to work, it's nice to be on such a schedule. M has had no "nipple confusion." I know that happens, but for us....so far so good. I still breastfeed my girl in the evenings and on the weekends. We're much better at it now. And sometimes, that girl just wants the boob! I can only talk about my own thoughts and experiences here. Maybe it's helpful, maybe it's encouraging, maybe it's just nice to know that someone is out there who understands? I hope so to all of those things. "Right" or "wrong" in the eyes of La Leche League, I don't care. This is what works for US! I came across this Hello Giggles article yesterday by Bethany Joy Galeotti. (I just love BJG. She just seems like a cool chick. And, let's face it....so am I. I totally think we'd be friends, but I digress.) It's just a word of encouragement to breastfeeding moms who feel like they want to give up. Like I said, I struggle with this every day. My goal is to make it to 6 months, then use whatever freezer supply that's left at that time. But if I should need to stop sooner, or if you are reading this and feel guilty because you have stopped. DO NOT FEEL GUILTY! Of all the benefits of breastfeeding, I can think of one thing that IS better for your baby. That's a happy and healthy momma. This article was encouraging to me and I wanted to share it, which prompted this blog posting. I thought about keeping all the bloody details to myself instead of posting them here. But...that's me, Milk Machine, honestly.