Pumping

[justamum98]

Hi all, just a general question really.

when do you all pump so dad can give at least one bottle of breastmilk on the night so you can get some sleep?

im EBF at the moment, I have noticed that if my baby (she’s 4 weeks btw) gets a bottle on the night around midnight she will sleep better. Usually can go from midnight to about 6am (I try to feed her at least once around 3am whilst she’s sleeping because I don’t want my supply to drop). I have it in my head I need to feed her in the night because she’s so young.

so when do you pump? During the day her feeds are unpredictable. Yesterday was the first time she didn’t cluster feed at all, and had a few feeds every hour and then a few every 2 hours.

my worry is that I’ll assume she’ll go 2 hours between feed and whilst I’m pumping she wakes for a feed.

I think my supply has been established. My breasts seem to be quite soft all the time now and I only leak when she feeds on the opposite breast. I think i have a strong let down.

ideally I’d want dad to give her a bottle around 11pm - 1am, whenever she’s hungry between this time but to get her satisfied I’ve noticed she needs about 80-90ml and one pumping session only gets me about 60ml so I’ll need to pump twice to get her the amount she needs and more for next time.

any advice would be fab xx

If you have the baby next to you then you are going to wake up when she does. If you then have to wake DH and wait while DD gets more awake and distressed waiting for DH to get the bottle ready, is it really going help anyone? And if she wants more than is in the bottle you'll have to BF her anyway. The pattern of sleeping and feeding she has now will change.

IMO one of the benefits of BFing is you can feed a semi-awake baby who will then drop off back to sleep, particularly if you co-sleep and can BF lying on your side.

I only started pumping when I went back to work and could barely get more than a few dribbles out at a time. I used to freeze it and then DS1 would have one small bottle on the one day he was at nursery. In the end I decided that the hassle of it all, including cleaning and sterilising the equipment, was just not worth it.

I am rather bemused at how many BFing mothers these days feel they have to pump as well. I think the hard truth is, you are going to have to feed in the night and are going to be knackered, and the extra faff of producing one bottle of milk isn't going to drastically alter that. If DH wants to take some of the burden then he can step up in other ways - maybe do more around the house so you can catch up on sleep during the day when the baby is asleep?

Sorry, I'm sounding very negative here! I'm sure you will get some more positive responses.

If you leak on the opposite breast when you feed, then you could try in bra catch cups. They’re probably my favourite breastfeeding purchase, because they keep me dryer than a pad does, and I can save the milk instead of throwing it away in a pad. I think I also have a heavy let down, and I got nearly 2oz from one breast this morning, and over the course of a day it adds up.

When I’ve actually pumped, I’ve found that in the morning is when I get the most milk. My baby is also super unpredictable. You shouldn’t need to wake your four week old at night, unless there are concerns about growth. Your supply should be fine if she doesn’t wake to feed and she’s growing well, because she’s already taking what she needs from you. You might be super engorged and want to pump/feed for comfort then though. I wouldn’t know because my 5 week old won’t go more than three hours without a feed, so if I were you I’d grab the opportunity for 6 hours sleep with both hands!!

Also, while it’s normal to pump less than your baby would take because a baby is generally more efficient than a pump, she may be taking more than she needs depending on how she’s being fed. Sorry if you already know, but doing paced bottle feeding might mean she takes less than she would if the the bottle were really upright.

This might be controversial-but I really think if it’s just to give you the occasional break, expressing (sorry, can’t say pump for some reason!) is too much work and stress for too little gain. One bottle of formula isn’t going to do her any harm and will be sooooo much easier. Incidentally, when I had mine we were told not to express until at least the 6 week mark to make absolutely sure that supply was properly established-a healthy feeding baby is much better a stimulating supply than a pump.

Your supply feels established but it's not yet, you have 2-4 more weeks.

You are right to be feeding her at least once in the middle of the night for your supply. Pumping a lot at random times means you might risk blocked ducts etc.

She is brand new. Just keep feeding her direct on demand for now. Finding time to pump when you have your first tiny baby can feel impossible! You may just need your husband to do holding/comforting/changing while you sleep and just give her to you for feeds for the moment.

oh gosh I wish it was just me and the baby at times - I also have a toddler running around the house so pumping during the day would be crazy. wow I didn't realise establishing supply is that long, good to know. ill just keep at it, at the moment dad is out 5am-9pm working so he can't really help, doing one bottle between 11pm-1am would be all he can do so hence the idea, :)

So it's 6-8 weeks for your supply to be fully established although you can feel less full earlier - if you BFed the first baby your body might be finding it easier to adjust.

That's a tough time for your husband to be out of the house - witching hours and toddler bedtime 😖do you have any family or friends who could come over for baby cuddles while you put the toddler to bed?

In terms of pumping, remember that you can top up a bottle, so maybe 5-10 mins into a bottle in the morning, then again at lunchtime into the same bottle, then maybe in the evening. Ideally you want to pump at roughly the same times in the day so you don't get crazy oversupply/blocked ducts etc.

You are fully in the weeds of it with two right now! Does your toddler go to childcare, and/or still nap?

Never did. It was far more work than any benefit it gave me. DH made sure I got to sleep in at weekends to catch up and he took over resettling post feed in the night if it was taking a while.

Expressing and all the faff that involves would not have been any help at all.

Those are some extremely long hours for your DH to be out the house.

I'm still breastfeeding my 8 month old and the early days were so hard. I remember, vividly, trying to pump to give myself a break but it just made more work for me.

Trying to pump at night won't work, your supply is lower and you won't get much out.

Pump in the day is the only solution but it sounds like your days are full on anyway.

I'd maybe look at what else dad could do to help instead.

no, toddler is home with me all day, closest family is 4hours away, so no help there. I did it all myself with my first born, didn’t think it’d be much different but wow was I surprised. I oddly love the busy days, I sort of give myself a pat on the back at the end of the day when my toddler goes to bed because I known did it all myself and it’s not easy especially when my first is potty training now too. Nightmare 😂

I will try pumping at night, because sometimes I can’t wake her for a feed and can’t even get her to open her mouth 😂 sometimes she is just in such deep sleep you can’t help it. So those nights I might pump when her feed was due instead. If it won’t work then it won’t but worth a try. ☺️

Sounds like a plan!

New baby with a toddler is a whole different challenge! You've got this.

You need in bra breastmilk catchers and a haakaa. While baby feeds on one bust I either have the catcher or the hacca on the other. I can get 8 ounces from one feeding session using the haakaa. The bra catchers are great, if I get a strong let down I can catch 2 ounces from the other bust. It all adds up x

Little tip, when my DS wakes in the night I feed him from one side and haakaa the other side, and then I hand DS over to my Mrs with the milk from the haakaa in a bottle so I can have a wee and snack, and then I take him back 🤣

https://amzn.eu/d/3fuMnNo

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9480360

Is the advice now to wake babies to feed?

It seems counter productive to actively wake a sleeping baby and then try to have DH feed a bottle so that you can get some sleep!

Get a Hakka to catch the leaks and you might have enough for a bottle by nighttime

Pump between feeds. Your boobs will make more for your baby but you won't get much out after baby feeds as it's a downgrade for them.

You could also get premixed formula milk

It does impact their gut bacteria a bit if formula is introduced. I combo fed but was told the ideal was to try to be exclusively breastfed

My youngest is 5 weeks old. He dropped quite a bit of weight initially and I was told he might need top-up feeds if it continued, so I started collecting milk using a “bumblebee wearable milk collector” that I popped in my bra whilst feeding from the other side. Pretty cheap from Amazon, and if you used it a couple of times during the day it might just give you enough to boost the pumped volume to make a full feed?

With my eldest, I had to pump regularly for the first month or so as he was quite unwell and hospitalised for jaundice. I pumped immediately after every feed, then when he got better I ended up just pumping at bedtime whilst my husband did bath and bottle with pumped milk - essentially pumping in place of the missed feed. I did it for ages until I realised that I actually hated pumping and it was more faff than it was worth for me.

For babies two and three I have decided not to pump and accepted that I’d rather miss a few social occasions over a relatively short period than deal with the palaver of pumping.

The hormone that stimulates milk production is higher at night so you’ll likely get more milk pumping at night.

i used to feed baby on one side in the night and put him to bed then pump on the other side and that would give me a bottle for husband for the following evening. Then I’d go to bed at 9pm and get 4-5 hours sleep before being “on duty” during the night. By about 7 weeks (can’t remember exactly) baby dropped the late feed from my husband.

I read that once baby regains birth weight you can leave them until they wake at night. In practice I left it a bit longer than this but by 5 weeks I was leaving baby to sleep.