Exclusive pumpers - please help!

[Thelandmum8a]

Hi all, looking for some advice!

I recently started exclusively pumping for my 17 week old. I BF first feed of the day (around 7) and then she has 4 bottles every 3 hours or so throughout the day until bedtime at 7, and then I give her a dream feed bottle between 10/11. She sleeps through then until 7.

She’s been breastfed up until now but was getting distracted and lazy on the breast and this is now working well for us. The only problem is I have no idea how much I should be giving her?!

She’s a big baby - 16lbs - but not overweight (I don’t think 😂) as she’s very tall! I’ve read that babies who are bottle fed breast milk should only take 4oz or so per feed, but she easily has 5oz in each of her bottles and would probably have more if there was more in there. I pace feed to ensure she’s not wolfing it down but I suppose 5 bottles at 5oz is 25oz a day - not including the AM BF - should I maybe be giving her more? Or is that crazy talk?

She seems hungrier as the day goes on so I’m unsure whether to put more in bed time & dream feed bottles, or up the bottles throughout the day overall? I can only pump on average 4-5oz per session so if I was to increase her bottles I may have to supplement.

On this note, if I did mix some ready made formula in with the breast milk for feedings would this then mean I should increase the amount in her bottles? Or remain the same? I AM SPIRALLING IN MEASUREMENT HELL 🤣

Any advice would be so appreciated! Thank you x

Heya!
I have been exclusively pumping for my son since week 1 as he was terrible on the boob 😂 It is totally normal for breastfed babies to take in around 25-35oz per day, My DS (20 weeks) currently has 30oz per day and has done since he was about 3 months old. His feeding schedule looks something like

7am - 4.5oz
9.45am - 4oz
12pm - 4oz
3pm - 4oz
5pm - 4oz
7pm - 4.5oz
10pm (dream feed) 5oz

I'm afraid I haven't supplemented so no advice there but do have some advice for increasing your supply from the breast

1. power pump - this takes an hour so would need to make sure someone can look after the baby! Pump both breasts simultaneously for 20minutes, rest for 10 minutes, pump for 10 minutes, rest for 10 minutes then a final pump for 10 minutes. This mimics cluster feeding and can help to increase supply
2. drink oceans of water!
3. eating oats has helped my supply

@Sairafina thank you so much!

In general is it better smaller amounts more often, or does it not really matter? We’re generally feeding every 3 hours so feel like it might be better to continue with that and put a bit more in the bottle rather than less more often? Thoughts much appreciated!!

Thank you for the supply boosting tips! I power pump in the evening (so once a day) would you recommend more? No idea why it’s been dropping, wish I could bring it back up again!

I have exclusively pumped from the beginning as well, and agree with Sairafina's advice, double pumping makes it less time consuming and is supposed to help increase supply. My DS is 22 weeks and takes 35oz a day over 6 or 7 feeds, varying from 3.5oz to 8oz feeds so I make up 7oz bottles for the majority of feeds and bigger ones for the first and last feed.
It is difficult to find support and information for EP in the UK but the American website kellymom has some useful information.
I have read and been told that it isn't likely I would be able to boost and maintain a supply which isn't true. From 8 weeks I have maintained the amount pumping 4 times a day which is more than DS needs.
I hope it all works out for you.

I honestly have no idea if smaller amounts more often is better than larger amounts less frequently. We are just in a routine which works for us and DS is happy which makes me happy :)

If you are trying to increase LOs intake, it might be easier to up the amount in the bottle rather than squeeze in an extra feed during the day, it all depends on the shape of your day really as one of the downsides of EPing is that you need to be prepared - you can't just whip out a boob and pop them on!

There's an instagram account I follow exclusive_pumping which always has loads of good tips and advice for boosting and maintaining a supply

Thank you both!

@Milcd do you find that your LO wastes some of the milk? I barely pump enough (working on it!) but find myself wanting to cry when I make up a 6oz bottle and she only drinks 4 😂

Will check kellymom out for tips to boost supply! And have followed that account @Sairafina thank you!

Once milk has been taken out of the fridge it is good for two hours so if she only drinks 4 out of 6 oz then you could try for the remaining 2oz in the two hour window if that makes sense?
Alternatively, put it in her bath! A breast milk bath is wonderful for their skin

I did this for both of mine. I just gave them as much as they wanted. 'Your baby week by week' has approximate daily amounts which is helpful.

But I found that they took a lot more in some weeks than others - they would have growth spurts that went on for days where they would want an extra 300ml each day.

One advantage of pumping/bottle feeding is that in a hungry week, you will know they have taken their usual amount and are still wanting more, so can just give them more milk (formula or freezer stash). Then and they won't be sucking on an empty breast and crying all night because they are hungry :-)

I do find that I have wasted milk sometimes but there is no set time he will drink it all or leave some so I just have to go with the most he generally takes. It used to make me cry having wasted milk but since my supply has been good enough for me to build a freezer stash as well as having more than enough every day I have become more relaxed about it. In the beginning every drop was precious! I have used it in the bath also just so it seems like it wasn't a waste of time pumping it.