would an electric pump be quicker?

[WellieMum]

Hi all

I'm new and this is my first post!

Have dd age 3 months and I'm trying to express as much as possible. I have a medela hand pump which is fine but it takes me ages to get a pathetic amount of milk and Velcro Child here gets cross if I put her down for more than 5 minutes at a time... :)

Would an electric pump be quicker/ easier? Or is it just me that's slow, in which case I guess I'll just stick to the hand pump.

I tried hand expressing which is great from the sterilising pt of view, but not really quicker and the milk goes everywhere except in the bottle... sigh.

Anyone used both hand and electric pumps and able to comment?

Thanks!

No, no, Moondog, don't apologise! I was really enjoying the digression! Any more stories like that?

Umm, to answer the questions, it seems to be a problem of 'wear and tear' on the nipples - can always see a bit of local trauma there. The pain is worst on latch on and then fades a bit, and is very directly related to sucking. My impression is that the nipple is being mashed against her hard palate despite the fact that she opens her mouth nicely and position looks good (from the "outside").

I thought of thrush and treated self and dd, with a slight improvement but no more.

Support here has been excellent. My only regret is that when dd wasn't gaining weight initially I allowed myself to be persuaded to give her formula top ups (as well as expressed tops ups).

I was very, very reluctant as I felt that dd had begun to "turn the corner" on EBM top ups. The midwives got very fed up with me for being so stubborn, and I gave in to pressure in the end. I was desperate to stop the formula as I was so worried about the effect this would have on my milk supply, and in fact managed to keep the top ups minimal and stop them quickly - so I could probably have got by without them (but to be fair, the retrospectoscope is a great instrument and I know the midwives were acting in dd's best interests as they saw them).

Eek, I am ranting! It's all ok now - dd is packing on the pounds and is (has always been) active and alert and smiley. The pain has improved from agonising to manageable. I'm certain that the initial weight problems and the painful feeding are 2 aspects of the same problem (whatever that is).

The only leftover thingy is that I now have a terrible paranoia about weighing and centile charts, ie that if she doesn't put on enough weight I'll be scolded for being a "bad mother" - dd's happy and growing out of her clothes, yet I have to resist the temptation to check her weight on the bathroom scales even though I know (in my head) that this would be completely ridiculous.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, feel better now! Nothing like a good rant! Sorry, really boring.

We can get back to the weasels now!

Hi WellieMum

it does sound like the latch may not be good yet - have you tried the underarm- rugby ball position ? I found that the easiest to get a good latch on.

But you sound like you are really doing well and have probably nearly turned the corner - in a few weeks you will probably suddenly realise it is easy now !

And try and keep away from those charts - breast fed babies are notorious for not following them ! As long as she is having plenty of wet and pooy nappies and looks healthy and is growing through her clothes then she is probably fine.

Hi all

Sorry, have been wanting to get back to this thread but it's been tricky. People have been so good about offering advice - thought I should update in case there's anyone else in the same boat who is interested.

Well, I'm now the proud owner of a Medela electric breast pump, and I think it's fab! Very easy to use and gentle on my poor sore nipples. It's worked out well for feeding on 1 side and expressing on the other - less of a martial arts event...

It's made expressing at night much easier as I'm not sitting up for ages after the feed, desperate to get back to bed.

I'm trying a couple of different ways of using it. One is to use the milk expressed at 1 feed as top-up for the next; another is to feed 1 side, express the other and then feed the expressed milk straight back in, which works well if 1 side is very sore. A third thing I want to try is to express enough for a full feed, and then just express at the time of the feed, so I can give my nipples a few hours to heal.

Throckenrobin, to answer your question, the midwives here had good ideas for different positions and in fact I liked the rugby hold best.

I say "liked" because at the age of 11 weeks, dd discovered the joys of being mobile, ie kicking against a fixed surface to scoot herself along. Very cute on a rug, very NOT cute whilst latched on ..... so I have to be careful about this and make sure her feet are dangling in the air with nothing to brace against... made even more tricky as she's very tall.

Yes, if I had my way dd would never go near a weighing scale again! I really, really hate this fixation on centiles, as opposed to looking at the baby herself. Had this argument in clinic again yesterday. dd is gaining weight very fast but it all goes into growing her head and length, ie her weight is on a lower centile than head and height.

She's happy, active, developing well, sleeping well, satisfied after a feed, weeing well, huge poos, growing quickly out of her clothes. She's nicely rounded but not one of those spherical babies. So, um, where is the problem???

Hmmm, I'm ranting again, aren't I? It's all a sore topic (literally!), because of her initial feeding problems where she was constantly hungry, but I'm absolutely convinced that she's now getting as much milk as she wants and that this is her natural body shape.

Actually also need a rant about the weaning advice I was given, but maybe that needs a different thread... and a bit of spare time...sigh.

Thanks again all for great advice to a newbie - much appreciated - and I can feel myself becoming hooked on mumsnet already...