Exclusively pumping

[KayTee87]

Posting here for traffic sorry!

Are there any threads or groups for those that are feeding their baby expressed bm only?

My baby's latch was always terrible due to a traumatic birth, he's 5 weeks old tomorrow and every time we tried he hurt me and got hardly any milk so would scream shortly afterwards. As he's got used to a bottle his latch got worse so I decided to feed him expressed milk and save both of us the stress while still trying to do what I hope is best for him.

There's lots of people that bf or ff but I don't know anyone that has exclusively pumped so have no one to talk to about it or answer any questions I might have. Hoping there's a thread on here or something.

I'm just hitting six months and now I've got to where I thought I would stop I'm carrying on to Christmas!

You need a good double pump, patience and a supportive DH.. Like pp mine takes over the input when he's around so that it's not a continuous stream of pumping/ sterilising/ feeding.

My pump has a rechargeable battery and I take it out with me to keep on schedule.. I've pumped in Starbucks, Marks, mothercare, the car, NT benches... Though I do feel a bit weird pumping like a cow rather than breast feeding!!

You need a middle of the night pump, between 1 and 5 ideally to keep up your supply and I didn't drop this until about 15 weeks.. I started on 8 pumps but now do 6 and pump for 15 - 20 minutes which gets me 6oz.. Except in the morning when I do 25mins and get 12oz.. We have formula which we gave as my supply increased but she hasn't had one in months now and I have a drawer full in the freezer as back up so one might come out for a growth spurt or be frozen on a different day..

Unlike breast feeding where you might wonder why your babies being fussy I notice an immediate drop in supply if I don't drink enough or eat enough..

Feel free to ask /pm me any questions, I second the Facebook group and there is loads of (mostly American) info online.. I read about expressing while I was doing it!

Just thought of something else... a massive time saver I found as a tip from all the info I read was to refrigerate my pump parts between pumps during the day.. So I run them through the steriliser last thing at night with my bottles for the morning and then in the morning run enough bottles to last me the days expressing so I'm not continuously sterilising.. This saved me so much time when I swapped off sterilising every time that I was doing in the early days..

My dd wouldn't latch after an emcs. She lost a lot of weight and we were readmitted to hospital. I pumped exclusively for 5 weeks and found it so hard. I bought nipple shields and they were amazing. Dd latched right on and it made feeding her a happy experience rather than a huge faff. After about 2 weeks using the shields she started really fussing at the breast so I took it off and she latched on. It took a bit of work and sometimes she really struggled but you just have to stick with it and keep trying to latch them on. It's never too late. Now a month on breastfeeding is much easier but still some way to go with positioning. Congratulations and good luck. Don't put too much pressure on yourself.

I did it for 6 months, God it was hard work. I'm glad I did it but I'm not sure I'd do it again if that makes sense? I would say while your baby is so small get all the advice you can on fixing their latch, an independent bf counsellor if you can. I didn't push hard enough really and that's my biggest regret. In the meantime, you need an electric double pump, kellymom and as much real life help as you can find. And be kind to yourself!

Oh, my top tip for sterilising pump parts is a huge tub of Milton. You can just rinse the parts and drop them in it between pumping then just change the water every 24hrs.

You don't need a specific hands free bra, I just got one of the cheap stretchy yoga tops and cut holes in it to be able to poke the pump out. It worked pretty well (but looked hideous).

I pumped from our son's birth in mid-August (prem) through to April the following year, when I stopped as our son was prescribed a higher-calorie formula to help his growth. Fortunately OH was out of work, so he took responsibility for feeding our son whilst I pumped, generally at the same time so it became a bit of 'family' time. I was given a hands-free crop top from a previous pumper, and that - combined with a double pump - made things much easier to handle.

NICU took back the loan pump when our son was discharged and I couldn't afford to rent or buy a double pump, so I converted a Medela Swing into a double pump using parts from Halfords!!

Actually, it's worth checking what you mean by 'he hurt you' - with both of my exclusively breast fed babies, the first few days/ weeks were pretty grim - sore bleeding nipples with chunks of actual flesh coming off, and various strains of pink milk. In both circumstances my nipples just got used to bf, healed and were then a delight for months and months and months - there is no doubt that the first week or so of feeding can be bloody painful, but once you are through that it gets much easier as you both get used to it and more efficient. Sometimes I don't think that the peaceful breastfeeding mama pictures give a very good idea of the sheer hell that is learning to bf and I don't know how often this is talked about to give a full appreciation of how much it bloody hurts to start with...

I EE for around 11 months with both of my children. I didn't need to do a middle of the night pump as had plenty of supply so eventually just did 3 pumps a day, you may find that this is fine and you don't need to pump 8 times a day. I had the medala symphony which meant pumping took 10 mins. Also if you're building a supply for the freezer then use as you go along as the stuff from the early months won't be right for an older baby.

Also if you're building a supply for the freezer then use as you go along as the stuff from the early months won't be right for an older baby.

I don't think the bodies of EEing women get those signals.

In my experience my milk did change over the course of my pumping. I also wasn't allowed to donate any to the milk bank beyond the 6 month stage for this reason.

If it doesn't change then EE babies wouldnt be getting the required nourishment. My two most certainly were. Both on 75th-90th centile for weight and height.

I'm still pumping 4.5 months on. I sometimes have to add some formula feeds as I can't always get enough out.

I'm currently renting a ARDO hospital grade double electric pump.

I'm pretty much doing this with twins right now. Latch problems (and that business of never sleeping again unless DP helps with feeds). I definitely recommend seeing a lactation consultant. One baby just wouldn't latch at all until she showed me a new technique. Now we're expressing for every feed but still having a practice breastfeeding every day, and they are getting better.

For me EBF is easier than breastfeeding due to time constraints. 20 mins to pump their next feed vs 1.5 to 2 hours each on the breast with a painful latch. I'll take the sleep instead thanks.

I use the Medela Swing, but hiring a hospital grade pump is great advice too. I pump for a feed hours in advance, feed them the bottles, then immediately pump again so the milk is always ready to go.

Breastmilk will keep at room temp for 6 hours (under 26 degrees I think but check this) or 72 hours if put straight in the fridge.

You need lots of bottles, a bottle warmer and a sterilizer is nice too. I don't know about your supply but I found it really easy to increase mine with just one baby to store extra breastmilk in the freezer.

Good luck. You can absolutely do this!

I EPd for 13 months. I hired a Medela symphony. I was knackered by the end! Good luck.

Oh, and kelkymom is an amazing resource!

One tip I didn't know is if you are thinking of freezing breastmilk, do a trial run with your milk to see if baby will drink it when defrosted. Some people produce milk with high lipase and it tastes soapy when it's been frozen so you need to heat treat before freezing. I never knew this and haven't frozen any anyway but it's worth mentioning just in case

When dd2 left scbu I brought home over 80 bags of frozen expressed milk. I think they were relieved to get their freezer back... I have never heard that about frozen bm! You learn something every day!

I exclusively pumped for twins for 18 months, then reduced it a bit and added more cows milk bottles until 20 months, when I had finally really had enough. Like others say, it's really hard, specifically the time, and as the babies get older and mobile, fending them off the quipment while you're pumping.

You need a really good pump, and it's got to be a double electric, someone to mind the baby while you do it as they get older, and you need to do a middle of the night pump to get your yield up. If you create the demand and empty your breasts every time, the supply will follow and you'll have a surplus.

Once your yield is really good, you can drop back to 5 or 4 pumps a day.

Good luck!

I expressed for 15 months with my first son due to tongue and lip ties and I also pumped for six weeks (and still do twice a day) for my eight month old as he had trouble latching initially.

It's bloody hard work and needs a supportive partner! It definitely feels like there isn't enough help around - not many people seem to exclusively express long term in the UK.

I joined several US pumping groups on Facebook and bought a couple of books on Amazon about expressing too. Will check and post you some links .

I pumped for 8 months (started topping up with prescription formula from 6 months and for the 8 months I still tried to feed her at the breast when she wouldn't scream - don't think she would get much as she would then also take the bottle of ebm). It is hard work but the best advice I would give is try to pump regularly especially whilst establishing supply - I was doing two hourly to start with. Also, pump at least once during the night. A double pump is good for time - I used an ameda lactaline and also hired a medela hospital grade. It took so much time and going anywhere for me was hard and I found it draining but wouldn't change doing it again if needs be. Oh and it is quite normal to get one breast that you can express a large amount from and one that doesn't want to give you as much apparently ( thought one was broken!)

Just to add - I pumped for 8+ weeks when twins were born at 27 weeks and were tube fed. Agree with a double electric pump every 3 hours, day and night.

But would also agree with the nipple shields if you are considering BF again. My babies struggled to latch on, used nipple shields from the equivalent of about 36 weeks gestation (so they were about 9 weeks by that point but still only about 4.5lbs each - feeding directly from the breast tired them out so they found the shields much easier) for about 4 or 5 weeks when they seemed to cracking it.

I'd also agree that I felt thoroughly misled by the hype about BF - that it would be this perfect bonding experience, that if it hurt you weren't doing it right.

It bloody hurt. For a long time. I don't suppose twins helped but I do remember having to say the alphabet backwards at the start of each feed to concentrate on something else other than the pain, having scabby nipples. But maybe 6 or 8 weeks in we turned a bit of a corner and it was okay.

Do whatever you feel is right for you and your baby. Good luck

I did it from 8 weeks to 5 months. Had poor let down, even with good double pump, so never managed more than 50% of my son'swa milk. However, his tummy was still more comfy with any breast milk than formula alone.

Tips I got from others:

• You don't need to sterilise your kit every time. Do it once a day. Other times, rinse and pop in fridge in clean zip lock bag

• Breastmilk can safely be kept put the fridge for several hours, so I kept a bottle ready by my bed (along with a warmer) for the brutal 2am feeds

Got son back to the boobs at 5 months :). Introducing solids meant I could slowly drop the formula after that

I exclusively pumped for 5 years, although by the end I was actually producing very little and I would have stopped before if not for the fact that DS loved it as a drink so much. But the first 18 months were very hard especially as I was having to get up twice in the night inorder to keep my supply up. I also took domperidone which boosted supply by about 30%.
Top tips are to refrigerate the pump parts, hire a really good hospital grade double pump, pump in the car, and drink tons of water (that has a huge effect).

Pm me if you like xx

I pumped for 3 months with DS1 from 3-6 months after a nursing strike. It was hard. I rented a medela symphony hospital grade double pump from medela which made a big difference. I also found I needed two through the night sessions in order to keep up my supply.

I EE'd for my DS4 for 5 months. He was born with a severe cleft lip and palate so couldn't suck at all.