No more pumping, sad day 😢

Jenny ✌️❤️😺 • 💙 Caleb 💙 Stevie 💙 Asher

My LO (3.5 months) had a hard time breastfeeding when he was born. I have flat nipples and successfully used a nipple shield with my older 2 boys, but Asher would just cry and scream and kick while trying to latch, sometimes for up to an hour we'd try, just for him to feed for a minute and then fall asleep on the boob. His 2nd day of life I ended up having to give him a formula bottle bc I was so concerned he hadn't successfully breastfed in 6 hours. Once we got home with him I decided to keep trying but in the meantime I would pump and bottle feed since he did so well with a bottle. Well he never got the hang of breastfeeding so I was pumping and supplementing with formula (about 90% breast milk at first). Fast forward to now, he eats A LOT and I've gradually had to feed more formula bc despite pumping every 2-3 hours religiously, I just can't keep up. He's over the 98th percentile in height and weight Over the past month or so my supply has been decreasing big time. Now to where I can barely get an ounce most pumping sessions. He's sleeping through the night and I'm still waking every 3 hours to pump and barely get anything at all. I've cried and cried over this but it's just becoming too stressful, which is in turn probably one of the reasons for my decrease in supply. So I've decided to stop pumping and strictly formula feed 😢 I'm happy that we made it this far despite all the challenges, but I can't help but feel guilty about it. Trust me, I know there are ways to work on building my supply up but I have 3 kids 5 and under and a lot of things going on in our lives so it's just not practical for me. I already feeling horrible enough so if you're going to feed me the "breast is best" speech, please save it. I already know. I just wanted to vent and hopefully I'm sharing this in a group where I won't be judged. Thank you for reading and God bless all you Mamas!