Oversupply and pumping at work

[misspriss]

I have always tended more towards oversupply, which regulated pretty well while I was on maternity leave for 12 weeks. Now I have been back at work and pumping for 12 or 13 weeks, and it is a constant battle. I don’t really notice too much during the week, because towards the evening my supply is not as high and my letdown is less forceful, so my pump gets the most of it, and he gets both fore and hind milk in the pumped milk, and I think it is a pretty good mix. During the week, his poops are yellow/brown like EBF poop should be. But over the weekend, I noticed this especially on the long weekend, they were green and sometimes foamy pretty much all the time I was with him. I was also more aware of my forceful let down too. He nurses pretty quickly during the day now too, and gets distracted more easily, and I am worried he is only getting foremilk while we are together.

I want to bring down my supply a little bit, but I don’t want to really cause it to drop too much and have to work it back up again. I also don’t want to let it drop so AF and fertility will stay away…which are kind of selfish reasons but they are quite valid as my body needs to heal after C-section and not get pregnant again, but I worry if my fertility came back I would be too eager to do it again.

Any tips reducing oversupply while pumping at work? My body responds very well to the pump. I currently pump 3x a day over 10 hours. I am worried if I pump any less frequently over that time period, AF may come back sooner, so I am trying to stop pumping when I reach a certain amount instead of decreasing frequency of pumpings, kind of how LO is doing when he nurses. Eventually, if I pump but not empty the breast, more like LO does, I am hoping my body will adapt to that. I think that will work better than pumping twice but draining the breast each time, which is not at all how LO behaves.

 

[fieryphoenix]

I think you are definitely on the right track, I'd still pump three times a day and just pump less, like you said! And ultimately the green stools and baby getting a lot of foremilk really isn't a big deal as long as your lo is gaining well and seems happy otherwise

 

[misspriss]

Thanks for the reply.

Eh, I would just rather make what he needs. I don't have the freezer space or the desire to build up a big freezer stash (I am about to donate all but a small amount of my current stash). I don't like to hear him sputter when my letdown happens (although he manages it much better now). I don't like seeing foamy poops.

On the other hand, I am also changing my diet (eating much healthier) and I worried about dropping supply then so I am being really careful to pump what I need each day. My luck I'll reduce my supply TOO much. But right now, I left him with two and a half days worth of milk in the fridge, so todays milk will just go straight to the freezer so I can use tomorrows milk for Monday so it is the freshest. A whole day's worth of milk. AND I have only pumped 8 oz (what he drinks) each day this week....(I pumped 12+ on Friday, so that is why we ended up with extra each day this week...)

Anybody else dealt with oversupply?