Has anyone ever pumped exclusively?

[Pinkangel23]

Looking for some non- judgemental advice regarding feeding.

Had DS in 2008 and was determined to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months. However I gave up Breastfeeding after 10 days due to postnatal depression and his failure to gain weight.

Now due a girl in September and am actually terrified of Breastfeeding. I've promised myself I'll do it at least once, I hate to say this but my heart just isn't into doing it this time but would feel guilty if I didn't try and give my baby some of the benefits of breast milk.

I've done some reading into exclusive pumping, although I don't see it as realistically as a long term feeding option. I done this a few times with DS in the hospital a few times as he was just too sleepy to feed. Really just wanting to know if anyone has pumped for the first few days or week and how they got on. Thanks.

Yes. I did it for 6 weeks when my ds wouldnt latch on. It isn't a long term solution, it's very very hard & my ultimate aim was always to get him feeding normally which did eventually happen.

I just took one day at a time, set no time limits etc & I did use formula for ove feed a day to give myself a rest as i had been expressing & feeding every 4 hours round the clock due to low weight & jaundice.

My lovely friend is exclusively pumping still at about 4 months along - baby never latched and despite support and treatment it just never happened for them but she has had expressed milk no problem! Draining at first, to say the least!

My sister did it for 6 months. Exclusively gave pumped breast milk in a bottle due to tongue tie and inverted nipples. It was very hard work but she was super determined.

I know someone who exclusively pumped for each of her 3 children for a year each.

She hired 2 electric pumps and did it on both sides at the same time.

I was amazed as I failed to be able to pump even an ounce at a time.

Do try bfeeding again though. I found it much easier with my second than my first.

I'm going through the tedium of pumping at the moment, so no real advice - just my experience so far.

My DS is only 5 days old so very early stages for us but he has so far been unable to latch and lost 12.5% of birthweight by day 3 so I started expressing every 3 hours and feeding him that plus formula to top up (which I am hating with a vengeance, but needs must) and am now pumping every 1.5 hours during the day and still 3 hourly at night.

I can now get 40ml per session so 2 sessions gives just about enough for one feed. But I'm very much racing to keep up with the baby, there is nothing in reserve.

It's exhausting, time consuming and frustrating and I can't see me being able to keep it up long term if the baby ends up unable to breastfeed. But I'm happier knowing he is at least getting something from me.

Not the jolliest response I'm afraid but accurate for me so far!

Draining is right! If you got down this road, hire a hospital grade double pump. The every so often ones just don't cut it. I managed two months exclusively, a month with one formula bottle in the evening and the final month was proper combination to wean baby onto formula completely. I feel proud of myself now but it wasn't easy.

I did for nearly 6 months, stopping only because my DS needed to be switched on to high calorie milk. You need a hospital grade pump. And you need to pump both sides for a minimum of 15-20mins each every 3 hours including at night. Especially at night. If you skip night pumping for more than a day or two, supply drops.
There is a school of thought which says even the best pump doesn't drain the breast as effectively as a baby can. And I have also been told that milk directly from breast has higher fat content than expressed milk.

DS was in the SCBU and fed through a tube for the first 5 days of his life, so bf was out. He wouldn't latch when we tried and so needed formula. I expressed every 3 hours but have never got more than 60ml a shot, never got engorged, never had any of this let down business. Once we got him home, trying to FF and express proved, erm, challenging. So I tapered off over a few weeks and he's now exclusively FF at 6 weeks. It wouldn't have been my choice but then kids don't do what you expect them to, do they?

OTOH, I took him to baby clinic today and he's spot on his percentile line, so obviously thriving!

YY to hospital grade pump.

Set yourself small goals.
ie I'll pump at least until the colostrum changes into "real" milk
Then I'll pump until she regains her birth weight.
I'll try to pump for a month etc

Good luck and whatever happens- don't feel guilty about how long you manage

Yes. Have done for DS and DD. now 2 and 1 respectively.

Am pregnant with DC3 and will wondering how things will turn out. dD and DS were serverly tongue tied which wasn't properly diagnosed and snipped. My DH is a dentist and has actually just done the tongue tie course at Wolverhampton uni as we are both so pissed off at the treatment we got. At least he can sort out DC3 of needs be.

Here is a post below which I wrote last year. Hopefully some useful info

^Hello - I exclusively expressed for DS (now 15 months) until he was 22 weeks. Doing the same for DD who is 8 weeks

I express 5 or 6 times a day with a very good double pump (ameda lactaline) with a hands free bra. I only do one night express at the same time as feeding DD and the expressing sessions are about 15 minutes each. Tend to express at 8am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 10pm plus my night express if DD wakes (she has been sleeping from 11 - 6) in the last week. Doing that gives me a litre and a half a day but I know I'm very lucky with supply and I can mix my times urokinase as long as I don't go more than 4 hours or I feel like my tits ate about to explode! So that 4 hours gives us time to get out and about

To be honest, I didn't think I would manage to express the second time around because of DS but it's been fine as he's only really up and about at the 8:00am and 3pm express and I just pop him in the play pen for 15 minutes....^

......Just a few questions: do you have a good double pump? That massively cuts down expressing times? Secondly, I remember with DS that I started off being very rigid about times that I expressed but then started moving them about a bit and worked out what kind of worked for me and how I could push the times etc to give me some flexibility. Have you been able to do that? I find that makes me feel as though I've got more freedom

Thank you for sharing your experiences, much appreciated. I don't have a breast pump yet and tbh can't really afford to buy an expensive one so perhaps renting one is an option? As suggested will give my self small goals: feeding her myself at least once and pumping till milk comes in.