BF and pumping

ocnfish4

Hi all. FTM here, and curious about how to add pumping into my breastfeeding schedule. Do you have experience with trying to do both? I would love to have a few bottles occasionally so that DH or babysitters will be able to feed baby too, but I'm just not sure how to add pumping into the schedule. We took a breastfeeding class at the hospital, but it was no help to me at all.

surpriseaddition

Now that my LO is STTN at 4 months, I've been pumping at night to build a freezer stash. I usually wake up on my own around 2am and am able to get 7 oz then. LO eats so much during the day, I can't work in an extra pumping time. It stinks to get up, but I'm yielding a lot so it seems worth it.

mdlorenz

I started pumping 5-10 minutes (double electric) about 30-60 min after the 6:00 am-ish feeding when my LO was 3 weeks old. Started a small freezer stash that we probably won't use, and now I have some fresh milk on hand to start introducing a bottle ahead of my return to work. If LO is eating frequently in the morning I might skip my pump session that day. I've also pumped manually if LO has gone longer than 4-5 hours without eating and I'm getting uncomfortable. But that is much less often.

Just as a heads up, don't be alarmed if you get very little milk when you pump... exclusively breastfeeding mamas may only express 0.5-2.0 oz TOTAL per session. Check out kellymom if you need more official reassurance.

HTH!

YellowLily2013

I moved my morning pump to before lo eats. This is because after having this pumping session and since he only eats at one side typically. My breast are engorged! Well atleast one of them. I pump the engorged breast or a little from both.

When I first started I didn't get much. Now I can get 6 to 8 oz this pumping session!

Pumping before he eats helps him not drowned at the breast! (I wouldn't recommend doing it before unless you are engorged though or if you know he only eats from one side.)

kkmlafferty

I have no luck fitting anything in during the day since my LO nurses all day but once she started STTN at 5wo I started pumping after she goes to bed and I get 4-6 oz for my stash. I have about 80oz in the freezer and I always keep a couple in the refrigerator in case we go out and I want to give a bottle instead of BF. Just remember whenever you give a bottle you should pump in order to keep your supply up

musicalsilver

My LO mostly only eats from one breast - so I'd pump the other side during our morning nursing session.  This was enough to build a goodly small stash before I went back to work and not make my supply go too over-crazy.

blu-eyedwife

I started pumping at 4 weeks - after the 3 week growth spurt so my supply was more established and he spaced out feedings a little.  At that time I just pumped right after my first morning nursing session (about 2:30am) for 20 minutes.  At first I got barely anything, but it trains your body to produce more at that time, so eventually I would get a full bottle's worth of milk.