Finding the time to pump

[louise265]

Long post. Please bear with me. Very grateful for any replies. Feeling low.

My baby boy is just over 4 weeks old. I’m feeding him half of the time with expressed milk, and half of the time formula. He lost a lot of weight in the first week as he cannot latch to my nipple (had tongue tie fixed but no improvement) I had to go to formula at the end of his first week as I was not able to keep ahead of his feeding by exclusively pumping. I am aware going to formula will reduce output due to supply and demand.

It takes me an hour to pump a feed (90ml between each breast) - with the medela swing or Elvie. So approx 45ml max each boob. My boy feeds 10 times a day so that would be 10 hours of pumping. Or 5 hours if I double pumped (medela on one boob, Elvie on the other). My baby obviously needs holding, bottle feeding, nappy changing etc so I can’t pump whilst I’m doing that. And there are other house duties to do too, as well as feeding myself, keeping clean etc. Also I feel when I’m pumping I’m away from him. I can only pump properly when he is asleep and I can’t guarantee when that will be. I’m aware I need to pump every 2-3 hours, but at an hour each time this is next to impossible. I’m on maternity, not working, but don’t even find the time already to leave the house. Husband does food shops. I feel inadequate. I’m not a lazy person, time just slips away and I feel I can’t keep up.

Also finding it hard to pump at night as he wakes say about 3 times, and takes anywhere up to 45-60mins to feed, change nappy, wind and settle. So add on another 30-60 mins of pumping on top of this, I would get no sleep.

I’ve heard of people spending only 15 minutes of pumping on a double electric pump to produce enough for a full feed. I’ve considered buying a double pump (spectra) to see if this helps, but I’ve already spent about £500 on pumping equipment (medela, Elvie, pump bras, let down collectors, tommee tippi manuals) and I don’t think my husband will be best pleased if I fork out over another £100 😂

I’m keen to keep pumping as my baby boy prefers my milk to formula!

So any tips on finding the time would be really appreciated!

Thank you 😍

Hi OP. I'm sorry things are feeling tough. Keeping to a pumping schedule is indeed very difficult. Have you thought of the Elvie hands free pump? I think it's quite expensive, but could well be worth it for the time you save.

However, the thing that jumped out from your post, was the bit about the tongue tie and no improvement. When was your baby's TT snipped? I notice you said he is only 4 weeks old. Improvement following a TT division usually takes between 2 and 4 weeks, as a baby has to relearn how to use their tongue. It does take patience, but putting in the time and effort is massively worth it if it means you no longer have to pump. And all the pumping will mean you still have a good supply, so I'd think that you would be in a great position to start working on your baby's latch. If this is something you'd like to try, please let me know and I will offer some information about how best to go about it. My 4th baby managed to get to exclusive breastfeeding by about 5 weeks, even after a period of exclusive pumping and bottle feeding.

I'm on a exclusively pumping uk group on Facebook and they are so helpful!

Really recommend a double electric (ideally one that is battery powered or rechargeable) and a hands free pumping bra. You could then pump while bottle feeding or while getting things done around the house. It is so tough though! Please don’t feel inadequate, you’re doing absolutely amazingly - this is all so new and hard! No expert but double pumping is supposed to be best for building supply so you may then find actual pumping time decreases after a while and the volume goes up. Kellymom website has good pumping info on and @bemybreastfriend on Insta x

I exclusively pumped for the first 6 weeks for DC1 until we both learned to latch properly and moved to EBF. I ended up hiring a hospital grade double breast pump from Medala and cannot recommend it enough - it cost about £50 per month and made a massive difference to the amount I was able to get out.

Have you tried a haakaa on the other side when you are feeding? It is pretty cheap £13 ish and you can do it while you feed so it should help with the time issue.

Ignore me. I misread your post.