Formula to EBF by pumping

[LuchaGarcia]

Has anyone pumped to increase their milk supply? How long did it take for your supply to increase/how long did you pump for?

3-6 weeks to get her on the breast. Took about 6-10 weeks to be totally ebf.

Baby wouldn't suck so the first three weeks was mostly formula with some expressed milk. Then she started sooking and it slowly started getting more even expressed milk and from the breast. Last formula was given at 9ish weeks and she was on the boob full time then. Stopped feeding her when she was three so it's fair to say that once she got the hang of it she liked it!

@lovablequalities
Can I ask how often you were pumping and how long it took to see an increase in your supply?

I pumped for DC3 as he was in NICU. To increase my supply I just pretended he was in a cluster feeding growth spurt- I pumped for half an hour every two hours (3 at night) even if nothing was coming out. I wore a pumping bra so I could still move around, and at night I used unsterilised kit and dumped the milk so I wasn’t too exhausted.

Three days and my supply was up. It was the same with DC1 and 2 on the breast, they would have cluster feeding bouts, utterly knackering but your body responds.

I can highly recommend a hospital grade pump if you can afford to rent one for a month, it’s about £2 a day. So much more efficient than the smaller ones.

@peakotter my hospital grade pump Rrived yesterday! I'm BFing as well...so offering the breast and then topping up with formula...so I'm guessing I don't have to pump as often...maybe add a couple of extra sessions here and there?

That’s great news, will make it much easier.

Yes, if you are breast feeding then add extra sessions whenever you use a bottle (and a few extra if you are increasing supply). You can also pump after/during feeding to increase supply if baby isn’t taking a massive feed.

I would feed+pump whenever I was on the ward, and express when at home. Then it took 3 days to go from 3 breastfeeds a day to all bf (except one bottle for meds).

Hope it goes well

Thanks @peakotter, that's given me a lot of reassurance :)