Setting a schedule?

Laurie - posted on 10/22/2009

Quoting Stephanie:

I have a 7 month old daugher and have been exclusively pumping for the last 7 months, and I am getting really frustrated with the amount of milk I am producing. I breastfed for the first month and then switched to just pumping thinking that it would be easier, but its not. After a few months we tried formula with her and she got really sick and was vomiting for a few days because of it. Ever since then I have been scared to try formula therefor continued to pump because I really didnt have a choice. I tried putting her back to the breast but at 4 months she already had 2 teeth.. ... and ya that didnt work out so well! :o) I was pumping every 4 hours round the clock and then at about 5 months I noticed that i wasnt pumping hardly any milk at the 2 am feeding so I dropped that one, and every since then my supply has gone down alot. Sometimes I can go from 10pm to 8am in the morning and can pump 2 feedings or milk and sometimes only one. I just dont know what to do, I want to do whats best for her, and i dont want to put her on formula but I was just wondering what you all thought or if your had similair situations

pumping more frequently is what will signal your body that it needs to make more milk. hth.

Stephanie - posted on 06/21/2009

I have a 7 month old daugher and have been exclusively pumping for the last 7 months, and I am getting really frustrated with the amount of milk I am producing. I breastfed for the first month and then switched to just pumping thinking that it would be easier, but its not. After a few months we tried formula with her and she got really sick and was vomiting for a few days because of it. Ever since then I have been scared to try formula therefor continued to pump because I really didnt have a choice. I tried putting her back to the breast but at 4 months she already had 2 teeth.. ... and ya that didnt work out so well! :o) I was pumping every 4 hours round the clock and then at about 5 months I noticed that i wasnt pumping hardly any milk at the 2 am feeding so I dropped that one, and every since then my supply has gone down alot. Sometimes I can go from 10pm to 8am in the morning and can pump 2 feedings or milk and sometimes only one. I just dont know what to do, I want to do whats best for her, and i dont want to put her on formula but I was just wondering what you all thought or if your had similair situations

Esther - posted on 05/17/2009

First of all - congratulations! You're not nuts at all. Breastfeeding wasn't working for me either. I tried but my son wasn't latching on, I didn't like it, my nipples started bleeding, everything got sticky and gross, my son got frustrated, I got frustrated and he wasn't getting enough to eat. Also, feedings would take up to an hour at a time because he was jaundiced so he was constantly sleeping and we would have to try to keep him awake by tickling him, moving his legs, stripping him of all his clothes etc. In short, it was not a good experience. Then when he went from 8 lbs 4 oz at birth to 7 lbs 7 oz in a matter of 4 days, my pediatrician told me I had to pump to get my supply going and so that I could bottle feed him the breast milk so that it would be easier for him to quickly get something down and we would be able to monitor that he got at least 1 oz down. When I started doing that, I figured, why not just keep doing this and forget about the whole breastfeeding thing. So I exclusively pumped for 6+ months and then switched over to formula. As Angela said, you'll need to pump very regularly (i.e. every 3 hours) for several weeks at least to get your supply going. You should also invest in a good electric pump that will allow you to pump both sides at once. Eventually I was able to get by with pumping only 3 times a day. I have to say though that I did give my son 1 bottle of formula before we would put him down for the night just to take some of the pressure off of me and enable me to build up a bit of a supply in the freezer for those days where my production would be down or I wouldn't be able to pump 3 times. That worked well for me and made the eventual transition to formula much easier too since he was already used to the taste.

Nicole - posted on 04/25/2009

You are no where near nuts!!! I have been going for 8 months now and once you get used to pumping you won't look back!

For 8 months i have been on a 3 hourly pump schedule and last few months i am able to go sometimes 6-7 hours at night and do a massive pump in the morning just always pump beyond your last let down to keep supply up... and keep coming back here and asking questions! We aren't all experts but we do what we do to pump exclusively!!!

Welcome to the world of pumping!!!!

Angela - posted on 04/21/2009

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!

You are not nuts!

Angela - posted on 04/21/2009

For the first 12 weeks of your baby's life you will need to pump every 2-3 hours, 24 hours a day to establish a good supply. If you were breast-feeding that would be the same amount of times your baby would normally eat in a 24-hour period. You will need to pump a minimum of 15-20 minutes and will need to pump 5 minutes past flow to stimulate milk production. If you don't fully empty, it can decrease your supply or lead to problems like plugged ducts and mastitis. This means if it takes 45 minutes to empty your breasts you have to pump yet another 5 minutes. After the initial 12 weeks you can usually start to drop pumps. Most choose to drop the middle of the night pump first. For most the first pump in the morning will yield the most breastmilk.



After you pump you may want to use a product like Lansinoh to moisturize your nipples. Do not use just before you pump. It is sticky and can cause cuts. Some have used olive oil as a natural lubricant between their breasts and horns. Also letting yourself air dry or putting breast milk on cuts can be helpful. If you wear breastpads make sure you change them frequently.

from: http://www.pumpingrules.blogspot.com/



http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bf-li...



Kelly Mom has lots of info.



This is a pretty small group..... I wouldn't not have made it 12 months without ivillage message boards.....



http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-ppe...