Pumping times

[cyberfish88]

How do you fit pumping in with regular breastfeeding? My daughter is 1 mo and I am expressing to supplement regular nursing because of low weight gain. I am finding it hard to pump because I am so worried about using up milk before I put her on the breast every 2-3 hours. I tend to try to pump shortly after I bf but am not able to pump much (I am lucky if I get 0.5oz from one side).

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[mintycat]

I think the reason you couldn't pump much after BF is because she probably emptied your breasts pretty well, plus the pump will never be able to match the baby's ability to drain your breasts. In the first 2 months, I pumped after nursing whenever I felt she didn't empty the breasts well. I pumped because I didn't want to be engorged (I get engorged very easily both times). When she turned 2-3 months and was able to better empty my breasts after each feeding, I stopped pumping. Your breasts will keep making milk so you don't have to worry about not having milk in there for her after 2-3 hrs.

 

[peainpod]

How about pumping in the early morning? I had the same prob as my 6-week old son nurses every 2 hours and my pediatrician suggested I pump one bottle for my husband to do a late evening feed so I could have a longer rest-interval.

He originally suggested that I pump AFTER each feed but my baby is a really efficient nurser and I found it very disheartening to pump so little (literally a few drops). What I now do is that for the early morning feeds (either 3 or 5 am feeds) I will pump the OTHER (full) breast to collect a full bottle. I find that my breasts fill up faster during these times (also b/c I go back to sleep after nursing, which also speeds up the "refill" time) that when he wakes up for the next feed, there is enough for him again.

Sometimes I only manage to fill half a bottle during a pumping session, in which case I will pump again the non-nursing breast the next time I feed (and both breasts are feeling fullish) to fill up the bottle.

(Once you have one full bottle to extend the between-nursing times, I find it's easier to pump a daily bottle after that.)

I also read that you could try pumping BEFORE you feed (but only 20-30 mls) to build up supply as the baby is more efficient at extracting your milk than the pump is. (I think I read it in "Happiest Baby on the Block" by Harvey Karp.) The only prob with that is that you will be collecting only foremilk.

Good luck!

 

[cyberfish88]

Thanks Mintycat and peainapod for the comments. I have tried to switch around my pumping times and just tried the middle of the night pumping. I am getting more then but still odd that I am not getting much more. All this pumping is exhausting!

 

[peainpod]

I can't agree more! It's so much easier to nurse the baby than to pump!

For me, sometimes during the early morning hours when I wake up with my breast feeling really full and bubs is still sleeping, it's really hard to decide whether to pump or wait for him to wake up. (He's not on a very stable schedule yet - so sometimes he will sleep for 3 hours and other times, for more than 4 hours).