Pumping

[Mrsmad3]

Hi everyone. 👋 first time posting 🤦🏼‍♀️
just had my baby boy he was preterm 35+ and am exclusively pumping but feeling a bit overwhelmed with it and thinking of adding formula for night feeds. Has anyone else done this and how did you find it, what milk did u use.
tia

Adding formula will most likely reduce your feelings of overwhelm, but you may also experience a dip in milk production, which can also be stressful... You don't have to answer any of the following questions if you don't want to, but it would help to know: Is your baby struggling to latch? (forgive me, but I don't know how premie 35 weeks is, developmental-wise.) Have you had a visit with a lactation consultant? Do you plan on having him nurse in the future, or are you planning on continuing to exclusively pump?

Personally I found that pumping was a HUGE pain and it was much easier to just nurse as much as possible. Whenever I did collect milk to store, I usually just washed my hands and expressed it manually, directly into the storage bags. While I actually had to focus on doing it (whereas with a pump you can zone out/do other things), I found that I emptied my breasts more efficiently and got more milk that way, plus I didn't have to worry about cleaning pump parts. Maybe that's something to consider.

Hi OP

Yes for a while I exclusively pumped for my little one when we had trouble breastfeeding at the start.

To take the pressure off, the bottle before bed was always formula - we used the Aptimel ready made bottles as we didn't use enough formula to use up a box of the powder by the time it went out of date. She didn't have any issues with this and I just pumped to miss the feed.

Nothing wrong with formula as a supplement to breast milk, or entirely depending on what way you choose to feed in future!

Good luck and congrats on your little one xx

Why are you pumping? Is feeding difficult?

No i just prefer to pump than on the breast

I found pumping an absolute ball ache. What sort of pump have you got? I had a double pump and that saved time. Realistically, in the early days you need to pump every two hours including overnight. My supply was pretty shit and after about a month I gave up and swapped to aptimal. My daughter stomach didn't like it. Eventually, we changed to Aldi formula which she tolerated much better.

In the early days you need to pump at least once between 1am and 4am to get your supply up. Night time feeding / pumping is what really builds your supply so you will probably notice a dip in your overall supply. In addition, you should also aim to express any time you miss a feed in order to maintain your supply so I am not sure it will solve your problems. If your baby is able to latch, would you consider just feeding during the night? It's much easier than pumping.

I have had two babies - one formula fed and one breastfed. Breastfeeding is harder for the first 6 weeks and then much much easier.