The ins and outs of exclusively expressing

[Emerald87]

I have nearly made it to the 6 month mark...(baby had posterior tongue tie and lip tie, very poor latch) I am expressing on an evening and in a morning and have lots frozen. I returned Medea pump and now have swing maxi (new double one) and finding it a nightmare and ready to give up! I knew it wouldn't be as good as the hire one but 45 mins later it still doesn't empty me properly and am in so much pain! Don't know how long I can keep it up for!

Congrats on 6 months!

Yeah the portables aren't as gentle as the symphony eh? My freestyle is awesome, however the "burrrrr" ing of the pump and vibrations transmit through the tubes and irritate my poor nips! However my freestyle does empty me. What do you think the issue with the swing is?

 

[Twinkie210]

I was ready to give up EPing this past weekend, but thanks to DH I have kept going. I was so tired of the continual cycle of pumping, feeding, washing bottles, and felt like I was constantly in this never ending cycle. Plus my little guy has been eating a ton of milk, so I was trying to increase my number of pumps to keep up with him. I was exhausted. But I was having a conversation with DH about formula and he actually acknowledged how much we were saving with me pumping. That is not the reason I do it, but it was so nice to have some kind of validation from him Previously, only negative comments had came out of his mouth. He can not understand why I would want to spend so much time each day pumping, when we could just go to the store and buy formula. That little bit of positivity was what I needed to keep going.

We are going on vacation in June and it will be really hard to keep pumping then, so I don't think I will make it a full year. But I now think I can manage a little longer

 

[Tweak0605]

Thanks for pointing me to this Twinkie!

I've been (almost) exclusively pumping for just about 3 months. Abbigail was born after almost 24 hours of labor. I had a high fever and she swallowed stuff coming out, so she needed to be on antibiotics and on oxygen. I didn't get to hold her until after almost 18 hours. It was unbearable. Skin to skin immediately after delivery was so important to me. I felt like me getting the epidural and having a long labor caused my fever and caused all this distress to her. She had so many needle holes from getting poked for the antibiotics.

She never really latched on well. She has such a teeny tiny mouth that she could never get a mouth full of boob. I worked with 3 different LCs at the hospital, and even went back twice after I got discharged. At the 2nd visit, she latched and fed great, but that next day she went right back to before. I was battling major anxiety and even some PPD so I gave up trying to get her to latch and switched to EPing. It's SO hard when I'm home with her to pump. I supplement with formula, giving her 1-2 bottles a day. My major goal is to get to 6 months, and then I'll re-evaluate from there. But each month that goes by, is an accomplishnment for me. As long as my supply stays up, I have no doubts I'll make it to 6 months.

I only pump 6 times a day. I pump 5 times at work, and then once at home after we put her to bed. I'm only getting between 18-20 oz a day. I could increase my pumps, but that would only take time away from my sweet little girl or my sleep. Since I'm back to work full-time, I really need to get sleep. I'm just hoping my supply stays up to keep me going to 6 months. I have a great freezer stash too, so if I do start weaning at 6 months, then I'll be able to get even further with giving her some breastmilk.

 

[Twinkie210]

I am impressed you pump 5 times at work! I usually 3-4 times at work then twice in the evening/night. I try not to get up in the middle of the night, but sometimes I feel like I have to. I am considering trying fenugreek to see if I could boost my supply a little. I would just like a little extra cushion, although I am not opposed to giving him the occasional formula bottle. Right I am offering him 5/6- 8oz bottles a day and I pump around 42-46oz a day max. Some days I have a few extra oz others I come up short, depending on how long he goes between bottles There is no rhyme or reason to when he drinks 6oz or when he wants 8oz and my Mom wants all 8oz bottles so she doesn't have to bother with heating up additional milk. I am hoping that when he starts solids he cuts back a bottle and gives me a little wiggle room!

 

[Tweak0605]

Oh my gosh! I feel like I'm starving my daughter now. She eats 4 oz every 3 hours, so 5 bottles a day. And sleeps through the night, 8-6ish. Should I be increasing her bottles? I know only 20 oz isn't much, and she gobbles the 4 oz in 10-15 minutes. We may try 4.5 and see how she handles it. I would like her to eat a little more then 20 oz a day, as long as she can handle it. She's been gaining weight at all her appts, been in the 50ish% percentile for weight. So I guess that's good.

And I'm super impressed that you pump 42-46 oz day! I would kill to be able to pump that much!! I get 8 oz combined in the morning after not pumping at night, but then the pumps after are only 2 oz combined, sometimes less. If I lost that 8 oz in the morinng, I'd probably quit. That alone is helping me to keep going.

 

[Twinkie210]

If she is sucking every bottle dry then I would try increasing it a little. But everyone has told me that my son eats a lot more than normal. Also he is not yet 4 months old, but weighs over 15lbs (maybe close to 16 by now). If she is gaining weight then you are not starving her

 

[Tweak0605]

If she is sucking every bottle dry then I would try increasing it a little. But everyone has told me that my son eats a lot more than normal. Also he is not yet 4 months old, but weighs over 15lbs (maybe close to 16 by now). If she is gaining weight then you are not starving her

Yeah we've now increased her bottles to 4.5 oz. Some days she takes it all, and some days not. But she's doing well with it. I'm glad she's eating more, but it also is stressing me out. If I do 4 breastmilk bottles a day at 4.5 oz each that's 18 oz. I'm only pumping 17ish oz a day, sometimes less. So I'm going to have to start giving her more formula bottles a day. I think we came up with a plan that on the days we're home with her (Tues, Wed, Sat, Sun) we'll give her an extra formula bottle a day. So that way she can have her normal 4 breastmilk bottles on days she goes to daycare. That way it gives me a little leeway when it comes to ounces I'm pumping vs. ounces she's eating. I was really hoping to continue the 1 formula bottle a day, but my supply just isn't keeping up. I've seen a dip in it the past couple of days.

 

[MommaAlexis]

Lots of water and oatmeal, girls! Keep it up!!

 

[ShelbyLC]

Friday will be my 2 month milestone and I am so proud to say I'm still going strong! I do have a few questions though. I'm hoping one of you ladies will be able to answer!

My girls just came home from the NICU last week after 7 weeks. They came home 3 days apart and I stayed overnight at the hospital for 2 night before the first girl came home. By the second night in the hospital, I was noticing a big difference in the way my breasts were feeling. Immediately after pumping, I was still feeling engorged (to the touch, my breasts were soft, but they hurt like they were engorged) and I had pain as if there was a blocked duct, but there wasn't. That all lasted 4 or 5 days and then went away, thankfully. But I'm also noticing a difference in my milk. It's suddenly thicker, fattier, and more yellow than it has been. Is this normal? Has anyone experienced this before?

I'm assuming it's because of hormonal changes, now that I'm around the babies more. Will this also affect my periods? I got my first postpartum period exactly 30 days after the girls were born. I had a Mirena put in a few days after that but removed it 2 days ago (i was having issues with it) so I've started my period again. Not sure what BC I'll be using now (not that I need to worry about it, with two newborns in the house, there's no time for that! ) so since I'm not using any right now, I'm just wondering what will happen to my cycles.

One more thing - could you ladies tell me how much your babies were eating as newborns, and how often? My girls are currently eating 2oz every 3 hours, which is about half an ounce more than the NICU was giving them.
I just want an estimate as to how much their amounts should increase over the next few weeks as they get closer to term. (They will be 38 weeks gestation on Tuesday.)

Sorry for the long, all-over-the-place post!

 

[Sproglet]

Congratulations on your babies coming home!

2 oz every 3 hours sounds good! Now that Robyn is breastfed, not just bottle fed, she will only drink 2 oz but every 2 hours- and she's 3 months old! As a newborn, exclusively bottle fed, she would drink 3 oz every 4 hours. On average, babies older than 1 month will drink between 19 and 30 oz a day.

 

[Twinkie210]

Congrats on the babies coming home! I would say that the change in your milk is due to hormones. Mine doesn't seem like it has changed much, but I share a refrigerator at work with my friend who pumps for her 6 month old daughter and her milk looks way more yellow than mine. I think variations in color are normal. Little guy ate 3oz every 3-4 hrs when he was a newborn and consistently added more every couple weeks. Now he will eat between 6-8oz every 4 hrs during the day and sleep 6ish hours at night. In contrast though my friends little girl is 6 months old and takes 4-6oz every 4 hrs, so I guess they are all different!

 

[Snow Owl]

Hello ladies, am thinking of joining you.

LO has a terrible latch and the pain was putting me off BF and I almost found myself dreading it.

At 8 days he's still not gaining weight so midwife has upped his feeds to every 3 hours and recommended I put him to the breast until he falls asleep and then feed him 1 or 2 oz which I've expressed from the other boob.

However while OH was doing his nappy change I managed to pump (only have a hand pump) 2oz and I had 1oz left over from an earlier session.

So he got 3oz on this feed. I think that's ok....

I only first used a pump yesterday and didn't get this much so I think my supply is picking up daily

However we shall continue! OH has got into the habit of doing the nappies while I prepare to feed and this gives me time to pump.

So ladies, lets see how this goes. I would still like a bit of booby action but I was starting to dread it, so maybe this is the way forward?

Ladies, how much did you give to your EP baby per feed?

 

[Twinkie210]

After I quit BFing altogether I gave him 3oz per feed to start off with and gradually increased from there.

 

[Snow Owl]

Well after being reccomended to stick LO to the boob, then to pump the other boob and feed this to him (he was continuing to lose weight) we now have a lazy baby who refuses to take the boob.

So today we've hired a double electric pump and seeing how were getting on.

First session (after a 8 hour gap) I got 120ml.

Second session of 20 minutes and I've got 80ml.

It does seem that the longer I leave it the more I get. But am I right in thinking this won't do my supply any good?

If I pump every 3-4 hours for 20 minutes I'm assuming my supply will increase?

We are currently doing formula in the night just to top up, but will stop when we can!

We're feeding 3oz every 3 hours, does this sound ok?

 

[Emerald87]

At your stage more pumping = more supply. Don't let it "build up" and definitely don't go 8 hours at your stage. 4-5 hours is the absolute maximum. I was tempted to but glad I didn't. Now at 13 weeks my supply is fully established and my daily yield is pretty consistent regardless of pumping numbers e.g. 7 pumps a day will give me the same volume as 5.

I did start with pumping every 2 hours the first 4 weeks (around the clock). After that it was every 2 hours during the day and a break at night (5 hours) until around 10 weeks. Then for two weeks it was 7 (rather than 8-10) pumps a day and now it's consistently 5 pumps a day.

As for feeding, do it on demand. I tended (and still do) to overfill bottles so LO had the opportunity to drink whatever she wants. Due to my abundant oversupply, throwing out a little isn't a disaster. However it was in the early days and I really had to be careful. I think what I did was give her everything I'd pumped and not care about stockpiling until my supply built up.

 

[Twinkie210]

I always converted my output to a "per hour" number. I find now that I pretty much pump 2oz for every hour I go between pumping (although it seems to be lessening some ) So if I pump every 3 hrs I get 6oz if I go 4 then I get 8oz. Even now I try not to go more than 4 hrs during the day. I am afraid that my supply will suddenly go down.

 

[Snow Owl]

We're not feeding on demand due to his weight loss, he lost too much post birth and do we're fattening him up for now.

Once he's back where we want him we'll return to on demand

Slept completely through the 2am pump but back on now

 

[Emerald87]

Don't beat yourself up for sleeping through a pump. Sometimes you honestly need the sleep more and I skipped many a pump unintentionally due to exhaustion. Besides, as long as you get in the number of pumps, the time in between matters less (given it's less than 5 hours).

 

[Snow Owl]

Only got 4oz at 6.30 am so lets see what we get now. Worried I can't keep up!

 

[Snow Owl]

Oh great only got 2oz this time!