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Breastfeeding
nienot
member
Manual pumping?
nienot
member
Possibly a silly question, but here goes...
I've been back at work since LO was 4 weeks, he is currently 9 weeks. I find it harder and harder to get in 2 full pumping sessions a day at work (I go home over lunch to nurse him...DH stays home). The room I have to pump in is pretty far from my office and it's quite a bit of work to get there twice a day and get set up, pump, clean up, etc.
I was able to build up quite a stash in LOs first four weeks thanks to a stay in the NICU, and terrible oversupply that forced me to express before and after nursing. We use that to supplement LO during the day, because I'm not pumping enough at work by about 1-2 ounces.
I also noticed that when I'm home over the weekends I can't keep up with feeding him. It's like he nurses 24/7 and can't get full like he does during the week when he is bottle fed.
So, since I can't add a pump session, I picked up the Avent handheld single pump. I have a sliding door on my cube that makes it semi private. So, I figured I can just periodically do 5 minute handheld pumps on each side every hour and that will help me build my supply and feed the babe better.
Turns out this has been working really well so far. I haven't even been doing my normal machine pump any more because I just do 5-10 minutes an hour every hour and it works better for me.
Since the handheld is presumably not as strong of a suction, am I going to lose supply, or is supply regulated by the emptying of the breast and not the actual act of the sucking? Does the manual pump still do enough to maintain my supply?
Appreciate any advice. Thanks!
I've been back at work since LO was 4 weeks, he is currently 9 weeks. I find it harder and harder to get in 2 full pumping sessions a day at work (I go home over lunch to nurse him...DH stays home). The room I have to pump in is pretty far from my office and it's quite a bit of work to get there twice a day and get set up, pump, clean up, etc.
I was able to build up quite a stash in LOs first four weeks thanks to a stay in the NICU, and terrible oversupply that forced me to express before and after nursing. We use that to supplement LO during the day, because I'm not pumping enough at work by about 1-2 ounces.
I also noticed that when I'm home over the weekends I can't keep up with feeding him. It's like he nurses 24/7 and can't get full like he does during the week when he is bottle fed.
So, since I can't add a pump session, I picked up the Avent handheld single pump. I have a sliding door on my cube that makes it semi private. So, I figured I can just periodically do 5 minute handheld pumps on each side every hour and that will help me build my supply and feed the babe better.
Turns out this has been working really well so far. I haven't even been doing my normal machine pump any more because I just do 5-10 minutes an hour every hour and it works better for me.
Since the handheld is presumably not as strong of a suction, am I going to lose supply, or is supply regulated by the emptying of the breast and not the actual act of the sucking? Does the manual pump still do enough to maintain my supply?
Appreciate any advice. Thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Manual pumping?
i believe the answer is supply is regulated by the stimulation of breast emptying. if you're pumping more frequently at your desk rather than in that room it's signaling your body to produce more.