Hey! I'm a FTM and I went to pumping exclusively after my little girl was 5 days old because she is tongue tied and latch was horrible! So I have been told to pump until there is nothing left and then keep pumping for 5 min longer. I have a Medela double pump and I will pump for a hour+ and im just wondering if that is excessive? today I have had symptoms of mastitis: fever, Breast pain, body aches, etc. I am just wondering what I could possibly be doing wrong! I massage during pumping when I can to make sure I do not have any clogged milk ducts. Any advice would be so helpful thank you!
Re: Exclusively pumping question!
I have been EPing for a month now and I was pumping for 15-20 minutes, ended up with mastitis, I now pump until I am empty. I pump every 3 hours.
It takes you an hour to get empty?
If you are on facebook, I HIGHLY recommend Exclusively Pumping Moms PRIVATE GROUP. They have been so extremely helpful in my EPing.
ETA: It takes around 25 mins for me to empty
Also if you have any flu like symptoms, I would call your doc right away.
I'd get about 5-6 oz each time from the left side and 8-12oz from the right side. 13-18oz every time I pumped, about 60 oz a day, he ate about 8-4oz bottles a day so I always had a ton of extra for growth spurts, dips in supply, etc.
The biggest thing is to give yourself time. It takes a long time to pump sometimes and it's hard to be patient! It's easier when you are only pumping a few times a day though.
Weaning was not that bad - I just started spacing out the pumping, dropped the one after work, then dropped the lunch pump, then the before bed pump. If I felt full or in pain I would hand express in the shower a little or break down and pump about 15 min. It took maybe 3 weeks to not need to pump again and a few months for the milk to completely dry up. Due to my freezer stash he had milk for over a month after I stopped.
Now I'm breastfeeding my new baby and pumping too. She feeds mostly from the left because it has a less forcible letdown and the right nipple is harder for her to latch on to. I pump the right on the same schedule as above and am getting 6-8 oz each time (she's 3 weeks). I have more than 200 oz frozen already. She occasionally gets a bottle of breastmilk and when she does I pump the left too. I am trying to reintroduce the right side but her latching is still bad on that side so we will see...
I hope this helps!