Transitioning from pumping to breastfeeding

[Saskia98]

Hi all, I have a 12 week old son and due to poor and painful latching for the first few weeks when he was born, I decided to mainly pump but also do some formula feeds as I don’t pump as much milk as he needs. I’ve slowly started adding breastfeeding into his daily routine for the past couple of weeks, now doing it around 3 times a day. I have a few questions though, how do I know that he’s getting enough milk? As usually I would pump for around 20-30 minutes each breast but with nursing he only latches between 10-20 minutes on one breast each session then will fall asleep until he wakes up for his next feed. I’ll pump the other breast and fully empty the one he nursed from if not already empty. He seems more content after nursing than when he has a bottle. But I’m worried he’s not having enough. Would love to hear anyone’s experiences from transitioning from pumping/formula feeding to exclusively breastfeeding as in the long run it’ll save me so much time with not having to wash/sterilise everything and pumping then having to feed it to him. I also love the bond it gives me and LO. So any advice would be much appreciated!

I hear you, the problem with bf is you can’t see if they are getting enough. But you can pretty much rely on them crying, trying to latch and letting you know if they’re hungry. So that may mean feeding more on demand than at pre-planned times.

But overall you’re in a good position if you can bf, formula feed and pump. There is no one size fits all approach. Just phase away/ reduce pumping and ff in a way that you’re happy with. Good luck.

Invest in scales to weigh him. As long as he remains on his centile or goes up, you are good.

I transitioned almost overnight at 8 weeks.

I became really protective over breastfeeding to the extent I didn't want my OH to feed him because I would just have to pump to maintain my supply/ replenish what my OH would feed/stay comfy. Try and avoid doing what I did!

I was told by the feeding specialist midwives who'd helped with naps:
If the baby is putting on weight tracking their centile, and doing plenty of wet and dirty Nappies, and seems satisfied after a feed, you're bang on.

Feeding c 8 times per day? They do get more efficient at taking the nutrition they need, the duration you're talking about sounds OK I think. Are your nipples sore?

You know you don't have to sterilise every time, just every 24 hours?

You can let him try to feed from your breasts each time and just top up with expressed milk or formula if required.

Olivia lactation consultant on Instagram is great, so is lucy Webber icblc. They Don't do private consultations so not selling.

Are you doing breast massage/compressions? Helps to yield more during pumping and also to transfer milk during feeds.

*ibclc !