The ins and outs of exclusively expressing

[Shadowcat]

I'm sure this has been asked already, but... how do you keep up with baby's growing appetite? My LO is 9 days old and already wants 2.5 ounces per feeding, and I'm only producing 2 at once.

 

[alaskagrown]

There are supplements you can take to increase your milk supply, Fenugreek being the biggie. However, it does take about a week before it starts working from personal experience. Oatmeal helps boost supply as well. There are other supplements on the market such More Milk Plus and Mother's Milk Tea that when taken with Fenugreek can REALLY boost your supply (also speaking from personal experience).

You could also top off with formula in the meantime while you're waiting for your supply to step it up a notch. I had to do that for a few days myself in the beginning! And now I'm making 2x what LO eats daily

Give it time and patience! Good luck!

 

[alaskagrown]

I fell asleep pumping this morning. I was pumping apparently for an hour an a half. LOL!

 

[Noelle610]

I'm sure this has been asked already, but... how do you keep up with baby's growing appetite? My LO is 9 days old and already wants 2.5 ounces per feeding, and I'm only producing 2 at once.

You can also do a pump-a-thon! Every few days, I used to do this. Pump for 20 minutes, rest for 20 minutes. Pump for 10 minutes, rest for 10 minutes. Finally, pump for 5 minutes. It helps stimulate milk production as it mimics cluster feeding

 

[Noelle610]

I fell asleep pumping this morning. I was pumping apparently for an hour an a half. LOL!

Oh my goodness!! Are you still pumping every 3 hours overnight?! Mama needs some rest

 

[Pinkgirl]

So so glad i found this thread and can now go back and read through. after 8 weeks with lots of tears i have come to terms with the fact i will be expressin lo. He has lip and tongue tie that was revised on thursday but his latch is too shallow. I have hired a medela double pump..am pumping every 3-4 hours but know i should make it every 3 hours. I am going to try a pump-a-thon tomorrow and also when i can when hubby is home. Little one is suffering from reflux and trapped wind so find it hard to settle him long enough to pump at times.
I want to be able to make enough to start feezing some. at the moment i average around 900-930 ml a day.

going to read through the thread for more tips and hints
x

 

[Pinkgirl]

I'm EP-ing and this is what I do:

6am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

9am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

3pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

6pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

8:30pm - baby gets bath

9pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12am - wake up to pump alone (LO SSTN from 9pm-6am)

3am - wake up to pump alone



I know I don't necessarily "feed on demand" because I feed LO while I pump regardless if she's fussing for a bottle yet or not, but it makes time management a MILLION times easier!! Kills two birds with one stone, yeah?

I have 3 regular sized bottles filled with 4oz in the fridge at all times that I rotate. As soon as she finishes a bottle, I have milk to fill it back up because I pump/feed simultaneously.

I have 2 "snack bottles" that are 1oz in size that I keep in the fridge and rotate too. If she's fussy in between feeds I pop one of these in her mouth. She usually eats 1 or 2 of these a day.

I take 2 Fenugreek capsules 3x per day. I pump about 40-48oz per day. She eats about 25-26oz.

2 months into doing this, my baby is gaining weight perfectly and I have over 1000 oz in the freezer!! I plan to pump for 7-8 months and feed her my frozen stash until she's a year old

Can i ask, is your little one feeding through the night as well?

I need to get my milk supply sorted now we have let go of trying to breast feed. He takes approx 5oz a feed...we start him on 4 first though. (he is 8 weeks and 12lb 7) he feeds approx every 3-4 hours.
I am taking fenugreek and eating oats and making approx 30oz a day.
i only pump when he wakes in the night which tends to be 3-4 hour intervals. i like your routine that you have established and thinking about trying it with him.

xx

 

[MommaAlexis]

Any single moms exclusively expressing? I'm having such a hardtime because she wants to be burped/changed/rocked but I need to pump.

 

[labmommy]

After pumping for my preemie for almost four months, I may be waving the white flag. He cam home with severe reflux, very gassy and needing more handholding than I can do with pumping. He's 6 wks adjusted. I need to find the appropriate way to ween myself from it. Any ideas? I go back to work Oct. 1st so it should be by then.

 

[stardust599]

Any advice for me ladies?

Trying to relactate. But DS has dysphagia and can't latch/feed from at all because of his swallowing difficulties. So doing it all by expressing.

Taking Fenugreek and Domperidone.

Expressing 3hourly but missing a few sessions because I'm a single Mum of 2 under 2 and sometimes it just isn't possible! DS wakes 6-10 times an night so I am just expressing once around midnight which is his first feed.

I'm only managing a few drops at each expressing session now for a week or 2 and it's excruitiating - so bad that I scream! Getting around 0.5 - 0.75ounce per DAY which is ridiculous when I've been at it for a couple of weeks now. Is this ever going to work?

 

[MommaAlexis]

So after two weeks of pumping, we finally got her to latch with a nipple shield!! Gonna give her a few days to get used to boob then try to pull a fast one on her and take the shield off mid feed

 

[alaskagrown]

The other day I shipped 128 lbs. of extra frozen milk on the airplane to the mainland for a very sick baby in desperate need of milk! I'm so glad I was able to make a difference! I wouldn't have had all that extra milk if I weren't pumping like I do.

 

[alaskagrown]

Okay, I just spent the last 15 minutes pumping with NO BOTTLE attached to one of my pumps. I sat up and my pajama pants and the couch were SOAKED. It was probably around 4oz out of that boob. I'm such an idiot sometimes! Then again, might be because it's 6 in the morning.

 

[MommaAlexis]

OMG!! That sucks!

Nipple shield tanked my supply and I have to go back to pumping, I went from pumping 4-5 oz a feed to barely 3 if I'm lucky.

 

[bananaz]

The other day I shipped 128 lbs. of extra frozen milk on the airplane to the mainland for a very sick baby in desperate need of milk! I'm so glad I was able to make a difference! I wouldn't have had all that extra milk if I weren't pumping like I do.

Holy cow, 128 POUNDS?! That's an entire human being's worth of milk! What an awesome thing to do.

 

[lily24]

I'm EP-ing and this is what I do:

6am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

9am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

3pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

6pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

8:30pm - baby gets bath

9pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12am - wake up to pump alone (LO SSTN from 9pm-6am)

3am - wake up to pump alone



I know I don't necessarily "feed on demand" because I feed LO while I pump regardless if she's fussing for a bottle yet or not, but it makes time management a MILLION times easier!! Kills two birds with one stone, yeah?

I have 3 regular sized bottles filled with 4oz in the fridge at all times that I rotate. As soon as she finishes a bottle, I have milk to fill it back up because I pump/feed simultaneously.

I have 2 "snack bottles" that are 1oz in size that I keep in the fridge and rotate too. If she's fussy in between feeds I pop one of these in her mouth. She usually eats 1 or 2 of these a day.

I take 2 Fenugreek capsules 3x per day. I pump about 40-48oz per day. She eats about 25-26oz.

2 months into doing this, my baby is gaining weight perfectly and I have over 1000 oz in the freezer!! I plan to pump for 7-8 months and feed her my frozen stash until she's a year old

Wow! This is amazing! But do u have time to leave the house? I meet with other mums quite often and our older children play but can't imagine pumping in public

I plan to exclusively pump and feed BM from bottle to my baby but worried I will just be stuck in the house milking

 

[alaskagrown]

I'm EP-ing and this is what I do:

6am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

9am - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

3pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

6pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

8:30pm - baby gets bath

9pm - pump/simultaneously feed baby with her bottle (4oz)

12am - wake up to pump alone (LO SSTN from 9pm-6am)

3am - wake up to pump alone



I know I don't necessarily "feed on demand" because I feed LO while I pump regardless if she's fussing for a bottle yet or not, but it makes time management a MILLION times easier!! Kills two birds with one stone, yeah?

I have 3 regular sized bottles filled with 4oz in the fridge at all times that I rotate. As soon as she finishes a bottle, I have milk to fill it back up because I pump/feed simultaneously.

I have 2 "snack bottles" that are 1oz in size that I keep in the fridge and rotate too. If she's fussy in between feeds I pop one of these in her mouth. She usually eats 1 or 2 of these a day.

I take 2 Fenugreek capsules 3x per day. I pump about 40-48oz per day. She eats about 25-26oz.

2 months into doing this, my baby is gaining weight perfectly and I have over 1000 oz in the freezer!! I plan to pump for 7-8 months and feed her my frozen stash until she's a year old

Wow! This is amazing! But do u have time to leave the house? I meet with other mums quite often and our older children play but can't imagine pumping in public

I plan to exclusively pump and feed BM from bottle to my baby but worried I will just be stuck in the house milking

Well...it's kind of tricky. I'm facing this trying to get out and go to local 'mom activities' while working around my pumping and her napping schedule
The nice thing is she gets hungry like clockwork and I have a pretty good idea, within 15 minutes of error, when she will get hungry next (9am, 12pm, 3pm...). So this basically gives me 3 hours or so between pumps/feeds to get out of the house and accomplish things. It would REALLY suck if I pumped at, say, 3pm and then she at at 4:30pm, then I had to pump at 6pm...we'd get NOWHERE!
My pump is portable and has a battery pack so I can take it in the car and do my thang, but I'm so much more comfortable doing it at home. LOL, plus I can't imagine pumping in my car in the middle of winter AHHHHH!!! My milk would freeze coming out of my nipples LOL!

Lilly started holding her own bottle at 4 months old so that makes it a little easier to 'feed' her while I'm pumping. Frees up a hand and she definitely feels proud of herself haha!

 

[MommaAlexis]

I managed to feed her at same time I pumped! Woooo covenient

 

[alaskagrown]

How many ounces at a time do you feed your babies?

Mine drinks 4-6.5 oz at any given time, but is still LIVID when the bottle is empty. I mean foaming at the mouth, gasping for air, and tears streaming down her face livid. The only problem is she spits up about a dozen times immediately following a bottle so I'm reluctant to give her any more!!

She drinks about 30 oz per day total, but spits up on average about 3 dozen times per day. The last time I discussed her spit-up issues with the doctor, he didn't seem concerned because she is gaining weight properly (although she dropped from the 25th to the 5-10th percentile during our last weigh-in).

What do I do?!

Oh, I'll add that yes, I do burp (wind) her every time after she eats.

 

[apple84]

I'm new to exclusively pumping and it looks like this is the place for tips and advice . My twins are a nightmare to nurse at almost 9 months and I almost quit and switched to formula like I did with my son when he was 8 months, but I've regretted that and don't want to have regrets with the twins too, so I guess I'm now (mostly) exclusively pumping. I've still been offering my breast, but they're not accepting it often

I might need to get some of that mothers milk stuff. I already take Fenugreek, alfalfa and brewers yeast, but I'm still not producing enough for two.