anyone exclusively pumping?

[misdee]

ds is having feeding problem so we have started pumping. the plan is to build up supply enough that he wont need formula for long. atm i am two feeds ahead with pumping but know that could dimish in one hungry baby session.

just wondering if anyone else is pumping to feed?

ds had tongue tie (released recently) and also have a lip tie which is causing latch issues. he has been dipping through the growth charts week ater week with v small gains.

am hoping pumping to feed helps him a bit.

Hi, my DD just wouldn't BF, despite many an hour spent with my doula, lactation consultants, and having her suspected tongue tie sorted. Anyway I exclusively pumped until she was about 4 months old so consider myself a bit of an expert (although I did gradually introduce formula from about 8 weeks). Just wondering why you need to build up a supply of stored milk? Can you not just have enough ready for the next feed or so? Or is it so that you can have some to take out with you? Is DS already on formula now? Two feeds ahead sounds pretty good to me. Building up your supply can take a while - do you have a good quality pump? I found I needed a double electric pump at first but once my milk supply was established I could pump much quicker and easier with a handheld Avent one.

the back stock is literally for when out and about. friend is sending me an double elextric as atm am using an avent manual.

what do u do if you needed to pump when out? i really dont want to be confined to feeding rooms etc, but not sure if the world is ready to be faced with a pumping mum drinking coffee in starbucks.

i want to boost my own milk supply so that we wont need formula at all. so may well end up with milk being frozen for emergencies.

Hi - I pumped for 14 months. Did feed DD1 from the breast about once a day for some of that time, but otherwise fed expressed milk. Expressed 3-4 times daily for most of that period (more frequently at the beginning).

I have nonchalantly sat in a cafe expressing milk under a baggy top (manual) and I would happily hook my electric pump up to the mains at mum and baby groups etc. I found hiring an industrial (!) grade breast pump very useful and saves on the almost-certain wrist strain, so I hope the double electric is useful to you.

I don't know whether you are going to continue to try to latch your DC - my advice would be to continue in the hope of weaning off the pump at least partially. Having pumped for one (DD1) and fed 1 from the breast (DD2) the second was undoubtedly easier. I still express at work to give to DD1 (now 30 months old) though - old habits die hard.

Good luck with it - once your body gets used to letting down for the pump it gets quicker and quicker. And yes, it's totally realistic to hope to stop the formula altogether soon. Hundreds of people (well, it felt like hundreds) told me I'd never sustain a supply just via pumping. I then went on to feed breastmilk to DD1 for a good deal longer than the majority of people who told me it would never work.

expressing can be done long term, but not everyone is very successful as your prolactin levels drop naturally at around 4 months and it can be hard maintaining supply.
not always the case, as previous post shows, but it can be very difficult.

are you getting help to get him back on the breast? that would be the ideal solution no?

True, thisisyesterday - in many respects I know I was lucky that it worked out as it did.

i am co-sleeping with him seemingly permantly attached at night, as we have been doing since he was born. am hoping that maybe one day it will be less painful for me, and less of a struggle for him. maybe as he gets older and bigger the lip-tie wont be much of an issue.

we attend a few bf clinics for help with latch etc, but so far nothing has helped. i would love for him to breastfeed 'normanally' and hope one day that will happen again. but i have been almost killing myself the last few weeks trying to get him to feed well and gain weight.

misdee, would you like the contact details for my friend at the LLL group in Luton? she is without a doubt, the BEST breastfeeding counsellor I know...

can pm you if you want?

misdee try again with a bf cllr (thisis's sounds lovely ) only because I can second what others have said - it's easier to get them latched on if you can. A bf cllr should be able to help you more with latch etc and do it on a one-to-one basis. you're doing all the right things though - pumping regularly, lots of skin to skin.
keep it up you're doing a great job

misdee, will you be driving when out and about or do you have to use public transport? My double electric and a lot of others have a car adapter to plug into the cigarette lighter.

Hi misdee, I second the suggestion to keep trying to latch him on - lots of skin to skin definitely helps (e.g getting in a warm bath together) and experimenting with different positions. Sometimes as they get bigger and develop head control and the head:breast ratio improves they can manage it more easily. What seems to be the problem with the latch? Is it just the pain issue or is there more to it than that? I also agree that a proper breastfeeding counsellor can be worth a try. Didn't work in my case but does for a lot of people. Also have you taken him to see a cranial osteopath? It seems a lot of babies get neck pain when feeding especially if there has been a difficult or long labour and if they are gently manipulated by an osteopath this can help a lot. If he fusses at the breast and pulls off then this might be the case.

Is this your first baby? I found that expressing for DD1 helped me to bf DD2 as my nipples had been drawn out a lot by the action of the pump, I think they were slightly inverted. That may not be any consolation with this baby but perhaps if you are planning any more it may do!

In the meantime it sounds like you are doing an amazing job. Expressing milk is hard work but you know you are doing all you can to get him off to a good start. Any amount of breastmilk is better than none at all.

On the pumping issue I personally found I never had to really while out and about, I used to carry enough freshly expressed milk for the next feed and that would usually do us until we got home. (usually by that time my boobs were bursting a bit though!!) I couldn't freeze mine due to having excess lipase so I could never really build up a stash. Not ideal, but do-able.

Hi. I'm pumping- dd is almost six months. She had formula for the first day home from hospital and then never needed it again as I had built up a supply. I felt that everyone was negative and kept telling me my supply wouldn't last but some lovely people on here and a bf expert told me it was doable. I have an electric pump and a manual one which I take with me when I Am out and need to pump (which I don't do often) and for nights so the noise doesn't wake up dd. It can be time consuming so I've got into the habit of pumping at the same time as feeding. I did try to establish bf for a while at first but this has worked out just fine for us.

ds is my 5th baby, i have 4 dd's :)

he has trouble latching due to his tongue tie and lip tie. right now he is latched on well, but all it takes is one shift in movement, and we lose it. i am still offering the breast most feeds, but also pumping.

he was born weighing 6lb 15oz, and has never lost weight, and now weighs 10lb 1oz! however as at 2 weeks old he was on the 25th percentil line, and he is now hovering above the 0.4th line, if his weight doesnt pick up he will be referred for FTT.

since starting pumping this week, i can see he is having 3+ breastfeeds a dayy, one-two overnight, plus 5 4-6oz bottles of EBM a day, and has also had 2x6oz of formula and a 3oz top up on weds whilst i was building up supply of EBM. so if his weight doesnt pick up,, then i can guess its not a feeding issue and will need further investigation.

Hi - my baby is on exclusively pumped milk and is now 5 months old (I breast fed for the first 2 weeks until it was too painful for me to continue and did one breastfeed a day for a bit, but they are few and far between now). I have never found it necessary to pump "out and about" - have just got up more in the night to have an extra bottle to take with me. That said, I deliberately haven't gone on any long trips which would have required expressing and if I visit family I take the pump with me to express in private. I have found it manageable but I don't know how doable it would be for subsquent children (especially with 4 others!) and I have had to miss out on activities which would have benefitted us because I couldn't miss expressing.

As with other posters, I can't advise on building up supply because I am rarely that far ahead. My golden rules (made up by me) are:
i) always get up in the night to pump (other people disagree on that)
ii) try to never let it go longer than 4 hours between expresses (though I do go longer at night now and I did it more frequently than that in the early months)
iii) always have some milk in the freezer if possible - I was amazed at how much more relaxed I was when I had some milk in the freezer for emergency feeds. When I started, DH would be waiting for me to pump 10,20ml to feed immediately while I carried on expressing. That was unbelievably stressful!

For me expressing was less stressful than mastering breastfeeding but it definitely wasn't/isn't easy. Good luck with whatever you decide to do - as per your last post, the important thing is that he is healthy and happy!

Try the Beginners Guide on the ivillage exclusively pumping forum. This is quite detailed and gives a lot of good advice about how often to pump and maintaining supply. It also gives a very useful brief survey of how much people were pumping and babies were eating. Its just an informal survey of forum members, but still quite useful because it details the wide variations.

forums.ivillage.com/t5/Roll-Calls-Introductions/Updated-Beginner-s-Guide-looking-for-input-and-any-additions/m-p/116687945/message-uid/116687945#U116687945

During the first few months they recommend pumping often to up your supply. I'm now cutting down the number of pumps I do gradually, maintaining the same supply over less pumps (down from 8 to 6). I don't produce a huge amount, but I produce more than I can get the baby to drink.

If your out you can just wait for a bit - depends how long your out for. The key thing for supply is the number of pumps a day and draining when you do it in the experience of the women posting on that forum. So just ensure you put that extra pump in. I don't find I get any drop in supply if I'm out and delay a pump that way. Done that for a gap of up to 6 hours so far.

I use a little bit of forumla, because I don't have such a large supply that I can afford to waste any EBM. My daughter has a habit of acting like she wants more milk, taking a mouthful, dribbling it out and then grinning like a loon while not drinking any more. I make up the EBM bottle I know she will drink and then offer her a bit of formula at the end for her to dribble. She'll drink the top up maybe once a day and at random times.

The hardest thing about pumping is that it takes time. Not always more time than BF (my husband does the last feed of the day while I pump for example), but time where its quite hard to be doing things with the baby (my daughter has discovered how to grab things which means pumping with her on my lap is a constant battle). The good thing is that your husband can get involved in the feeding too and thats a nice experience he won't have had as much if you BF all the girl.

I strongly recommend rigging your pump to use it hands free. I use the Medala Freestyle which is nice because its quite small and can be attached to a belt that comes with it so you can use it and move. I can't do a huge amount because the bottles get in the way but I can go into the kitchen and grab a drink. I sort of wedge the horns into my nursing bras and do them back up - not 100% secure but I've not had one fall yet. You can also make a pumping bra by making some holes for the horns in an old bra. If you're going to pump a lot at least you can then do something else at the same time.

I'm not sure how long I'll pump for. I was planning to BF until at least 6 months and then see. I've set myself the target of 6 months and then I'll see where I am. If I can get my current supply out in 4 pumps a day I'll go on for a bit longer, otherwise I'll stop then. I plan to be finished by the time I go back to work at the latest.

G is that you?