I’m posting this now to hold myself accountable to post photos and measurements later, but also because I finished week 8 of pumping a few days ago. It was week 12 of my overall program. I averaged only 2.5 hrs of pumping per day last week. That’s 308 total hours of pumping so far.
The main reason I pumped so little was because I tried to switch to yoga mat padding and so I removed the blue tac I had been using. It turned out to be a lot harder to remove than most people say. Maybe I left the blue tac on the domes a lot longer than most people do, or maybe it was because of the brand I used. I’m not sure why it was so difficult to remove. The yoga mat padding didn’t work out, and I ran out of blue tac, so I couldn’t put new “rings” on my domes. I didn’t want to use the domes without padding, so for the last few days I haven’t pumped all. I’ll be starting again tonight. I’m not sure yet if I’ll make another attempt at using the yoga mat or if I’ll just use the new blue tac I ordered.
The Calypso pump didn’t work out in the end. It seems to over heat or something after around 3 hours, at which point it displays an error message and shuts itself off. I’m starting to doubt that there are any decent electric alternatives to the Brava pump for very long pumping sessions. I’m still glad I tried it out, because I really wanted to find a cheaper option to replace the Brava pump when it inevitably breaks down. It was at least worth a try IMO. For now, the Brava pump is still working just fine. Air locks and a manual pump are still a good cheap option for sleep pumping for a lot of people. It didn’t work well for me when I tried it years ago, but I didn’t have good enough padding options back then. I may try using airlocks again when my Brava pump breaks down. If it works, then I won’t bother buying another expensive pump.
The only other update I have is that the goats rue and fenugreek don’t seem to have caused any immediate swelling or any other obvious changes. That’s not a surprise, and I promised myself I would actually be patient this time. Usually 12 weeks or so is the point where I’d get really discouraged and dissapointed that I wasn’t getting the quick results I hoped for. I’d usually just chuck all my NBE stuff in the trash and abandon the forum. I refuse to do that this time. Like I said before, I’ve had a lot of failed NBE attempts in the past. I’m convinced the reasons are mostly genetic.
I’m considering keeping track of my hip measurements, since I know a lot of people theorize that the hips of naturally pear shaped women “steal” all their potential NBE growth. So far I don’t think that’s been happening to me, but I can’t rule it out yet.