Exclusively expressing - week 5 and supply is dwindling :(

[RiotBecky]

My pumping habits haven't been great, we've been combination feeding since day 1 as it took a while to build my supply up enough to give him a whole feed. I've been pumping 5ish times a day and last week I was pumping a good 600-650ml a day.
So far this week I've been lucky if I've reached 520, and today I've hit an all time low :( I'm eating porridge for breakfast and trying to drink more water, but what else can I do?? I've read online not to wake up just to pump as rest is very important, and during the night when I'm up to feed him I'm just too tired to stay up an extra 20 minutes to pump. Am I just being selfish and lazy??

No advice but I found information here:

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/exclusive-pumping/

Have you tried a hospital grade pump? Medela rent them on a next day delivery service and they are a lot more effective than shop bought ones

:( Becky , expressing longer term is never a picnic.

The biology of it is this: you build up and maintain supply only by expressing frequently day and night..at a minimum, 8 x in 24 hours. If the baby is feeding effectively on any occasion, then you can reduce.

Porridge and water make no real difference - honestly. They may have marginal effects at most.

The main impact will always be from frequency of effective removal - by a pump or by bf direct.

Long gaps between expressings/feeds reduce supply.

You can rescue things now by increasing the frequency - up to you to work out when you can do this.

I dont see anything selfish or lazy in your post, BTW!

Ive got a Lansinoh double electric which is ace, I haven't played around with the settings much though as I was getting plenty last week when I used it. Just hoping I haven't fucked up my supply completely as it's meant to increase every week, not decrease :(

Aaah tiktok, I've read so much of your advice on other people's posts you are lovely

I rewarded myself for pumping when I relactated. I counted out 12 chocolate raisins at 8am and I got to eat one every time I pumped over the next 24 hours. Incentive

Whenever this happened to me I pumped every 1.5/2 hours day AND night to get my supply back, it works. I exclusively pumped for 5 months and had a freezer full too. The night pumps are very important

Incentives are a good idea. I find it pretty hard to stay up and pump after a night feed when all I want to do is crawl back under the covers and try as get much sleep as possible til he's up again. Think I need to start dragging myself to bed a bit earlier :/

Pumping at night does make a huge difference, even if its just for 10 mins. I found that it was the frequency of pumping rather than the length of each pump that was most important. I very rarely pumped for more than 10 mins but I tried to pump every 3 hours with at least one overnight In the early days. Once my supply was well established I cut down to every 4 hours and eventually dropped the nightpump. If i ever needed to up my supply quickly id bring the night pump back.

Good luck. Exclusive expressing is hard work and youve done amazingly well to get this far.

Lawdy I'd love a freezer full!!! I'd love him to just be completely booby-milk fed tbh. How did you drag yourself out of bed every 2 hours?? Especially combined with looking after a baby??

So it doesn't matter how long I do it for??? So at night I could do a quick 10 minute one? That sounds a lot better than dragging out a 20 minute pump. Be nice if someone could just attach it to me whilst I'm sleeping lol

Persuaded myself to pump at midnight, 3am and 6am last night, wasn't as horrific as I expected :D

Becky - yes, it's frequency that counts rather than time pumping. One good tip is to pump until spurts become trickles, then swap sides, and do the same on the other side. You can swap back and back again when you have more time, but a few minutes getting each side to trickle stage once is a good compromise in the middle of the night.

Good luck :)

It's a double pump so no side swapping required. it does have a let-down mode but ive never known when or how to use it?

Dunno about let-down mode, sorry.

Double pump is fab - a time saver :)

Can you try breast feeding or is it impossible, I've pumped with my son and then bf my daughter and I actually ended up enjoying breastfeeding. Pumping is so tiring. Good luck and I had the odd fenugreek supplement to boost supply.

I have flat nipples and he just won't latch and ends up getting stressed and windy, just gets us both anxious and worked up, and I love the convenience of pumping in all honesty.

When I was expressing my partner would feed DS at night whilst I pumped, is this an option? It certainly made things easier as feeding/pumping took about the same length of time and he could poke me when I fell asleep!!

DP works full time so he doesn't get up for night feeds, alright for some!

He didn't do it every night, just when he was on a late the next day, and only for the first 6/8 weeks

Sorry just caught up with this, I set an alarm for every 2-3 hours then eventually dropped it to 4 hours if supply started lowering if reduce the gaps. Don't know, I just got used to sleep deprivation :-P still haven't had a full night sleep in 2.5 years!
Good luck it's a great thing you are doing

Remember you are also working full time!

Could you use a sling then pump with it in? My baby bjorn one would sling low enough to do this. That way you might have happy baby + pumping option?

Or would brief feed work to help build supply without too much stress? As mouth gets bigger might help bf poss be a bit easier for both of you?!?

I don't think baby would fit underneath the pump horns and bottles :/ otherwise I would definitely be giving that a go. And I don't think bf'ing is going to work for either of us now, I like the freedom of not having a baby attached to my boob all the time, and I like being able to see how much he is taking in. Plus he's on colief at the moment and it's much easier to add to a bottle than to try and get him to drink it off a spoon etc. Pumping is definitely for me, I just have to get into some good habits.