Pumping and supply - help

[feelingmywaythrough]

My 3-week old daughter is struggling to get back to birth weight. I’m topping up her feeds with bottles, per the midwives’ advice, but largely with formula as I’m struggling to express enough BM. I’ve hired a hospital-grade pump (Medela Symphony) but this morning (post-feed) I only got 25ml on one side and 5ml on the other. Full disclosure: I’m struggling to find the time to pump more than twice a day, but she is feeding on the breast 8-12 times throughout the day, so lots of stimulation. Do I just need to be pumping MORE? I already feel like a one-woman dairy parlour with that machine on 😂

I have had feeding plans with both my girls. With DD1, i was doing the 8-10 times a day pumping and only ever got 40ml total at a time. With DD2 (currently 6weeks and only made her birth weight back at 3w exactly), I'm getting exactly the same as you (around 25ml) when i pump after a feed. I'm only doing one pumping session a day as i cant manage anymore with a toddler in the mix! Then 8 x feeds at the breast and formula top ups after each breastfeed.

The lactation consultant i have been seeing suggested a couple of things if i couldnt pump more than 1 or 2 times a day - 1) dont put baby to the breast for one feed (give her a full formula feed instead) and use the time saved to do a full pumping session to really try and empty the breast. I do this lateish afternoon when we always had a fussy breast feed anyway, and 2) try doing a power pumping session in the evening. This is pump for 20mins, rest for 10mins, pump for 10mins, rest for 10mins and pump for 10mins. Its supposed to mimic cluster feeding. I dont always manage these every day, but try and drop them in when i can.

I have seen a bit of an improvement this week, but its hard to tell if its due to the above techniques, or if its because at 6w, DD2 is now getting better at feeding and developing a stronger suck.

If you haven't had a look already, see if the kellymom website is helpful for you. Its American but has so much information.

Good luck - pumping is such hard work (emotionally and physically!) I did it for 6months with DD1 and it nearly broke me. This time around, im much more relaxed about switiching to formula fully if we need to - hoping to make it to 3months but would like to prioritise getting out of the house a bit more this time! You are doing a great job no matter how you end up feeding 💐

Could you try a Hakka on the other boob your not feeding from x that’s what I did then you are not trying to fit in an extra pump as such. Or a wearable pump so you aren’t plugged into a wall xx

Don't stress about how much you get! At that stage, even if the baby is putting on loads of weight and solely breastfed, you'll only get a few ml with a pumping session. Just pump as often as you can (don't worry about the amounts) and relax about it and you'll start making more...if breastfeeding then you'll baby will start feeding more directly so the amount you pump won't actually go up. So basically the amount you pump has no reflection on anything.

Thanks all. Really appreciate it. I hate being chained to the pump - another thing to juggle in these heady newborn days! @ProjectKettle I’m preparing myself to combi/formula feed once she has hit birth weight. Not my plan originally but then neither was a diddy baby! @Preggers101 so good to know about supply question.

I also had a feeding plan but it was pump every 3 hours while breastfeeding. Looking back I would have used a haakaa at every feed. If you have leaky boobs you could also wear collection shells for no effort milk collection (the haakaa brand ones are called ladybugs but there are other versions).

Lactation consultants always say that a baby is more efficient than a pump. Though my baby in the early days wasn’t very efficient but when she got it she got it, I was able to stop formula by about 6 weeks.

It sounds like you’re doing well, hope you are getting skin to skin too as that will help your milk supply.

Thanks @Missscarletintheconservatory . Going to get on that Haakaa tomorrow! Did you still use Haakaa on opposite breast even before baby had had a go on it, if that makes sense? Or only after s/he’d had a go?

I used it on the boob I wasn’t feeding from to collect the let down and stimulate the boob and later when my let down was too much for my baby (about 4-8 weeks) I used it on the side I was about to feed on as my letdown was very strong and baby couldn’t cope! Don’t worry about supplementing with formula if that’s what you gotta do. We did until about 8 weeks (partly for need partly as I wanted to long term Combi feed anyway) until baby decided he didn’t like formula and completely refused it 🤷‍♀️.

If you pump at the same time as feeding your baby , so effectively tandem feeding, that should help increase your supply -it’s a really effective method and has the bonus of collecting more milk for bottle feeding. It increases the rate at which the milk flows too so will have the added benefit of getting more milk in to your baby whilst feeding.
Milk is produced on a supply and demand basis so unfortunately giving bottles will affect your supply as your baby is taking less from you so your body makes less -it’s a catch 22 . Pumping and feeding at the same time will help mitigate that.
Good luck, it’s tough the first few weeks and congratulations on your baby 🙂

@feelingmywaythrough I suppose before the baby had had a go, because the haakaa was getting some milk and then by the time they latched on the milk was flowing so easier. I did a lot of switching sides too, some say it helps with supply (not sure if that is evidence based but it seemed to work for feeding in any case).

Hi OP,

I had a pump I was attached to and because I was always stressed about now being able to move around and get stuff done I hardly got anything. I then bought the new MAM one that you shove in your bra and it’s brilliant. I get over 150ml from one breast in the morning and about 90 from the other. Also what I found works is through the night I only feed baby on one boob then in the morning the one that they haven’t fed on is always really full. This has caused my boobs to be a bit lopsided as one boob produces way more milk but I am getting the milk I need x