Breastfeeding into pumping?

emmamaddi3

Im 35 weeks along with our first boy, this is our 3rd pregnancy so we decided to do things a little differently since its been six years since our second daughter. I plan on breastfeeding... More so, pumping than actually on the breast. My question is... How long after giving birth can you start pumping? My older two girls are very active with extra activities on top of me working full time so I was hoping to pump and keep my sanity lol. Any breastfeeding tips and pumping tips are welcome too as its my first time going down this road

MyCousinVinny

To answer your question, you can start pumping immediately after birth (I mean, once you're in your room and all).  The first 6 weeks after giving birth is super important in establishing your milk supply so if you intend to pump and not breastfeed, be prepared to spend a lot of time pumping.  

I'll be honest, with two other children and a full-time job, it may be hard for you to be super dedicated to pumping and keeping your supply up.  Many women can do it but it's mentally and physically exhausting.  To me, breastfeeding is just so much easier than having to constantly deal with cleaning pump parts and being hooked up to a machine for 20 minutes every 2-3 hours.  

Breastfeeding tips:

* Put baby to breast as often as possible.

* Feed on demand, not a schedule.

* Drink lots of water and eat.  Your body needs fuel in order to make food for your babe.

* Lots of skin to skin.

Pumping tips:

* If you're planning to pump full-time, you'll want a double-electric pump.

* Change your membranes once a month.

* Make sure you have the correct size flanges.

* Pump every 2-3 hours but every 2 hours in the beginning if you won't be nursing after birth.  Pumping should mimic your baby's feeding schedule as closely as possible.

Good luck!

MyCousinVinny

Also, a feeding session counts from when it began, not when it ends.  So if you're pumping every 2 hours, you'll start a new pumping session from when the last one began and not when it ended.

Example:

If you pumped at 2pm and stopped at 2:20pm, you'll pump again at 4pm and not 4:20pm.   

emmacake08

Good advice above. I had to exclusively pump for the first 4 months. You do have to be super diligent or else your supply won't be enough. I did every 2 hours for the first month, even through the night. After that I did 2 hours in the day and 3 hours apart at night. If you're set on pumping, that's great but it a lot of work. Pumps can also stimulate an oversupply so you have to be careful to always pump on schedule. The one time I missed a pump, I had mastitis 12 hours later.
If breastfeeding is an option, I would try both and decide what fits your lifestyle better (like maybe BF through the night). For me, once mine could BF, it was loads easier but I don't want to pretend to know what would or wouldn't work for you.

jessandandy09

these are very good tips that PP posted.  

I thought pumping was much harder and more time consuming than nursing and I never could let down well enough to establish a good stash of milk.  

SassetteSmurfling

MyCousinVinny said:

To answer your question, you can start pumping immediately after birth (I mean, once you're in your room and all).  The first 6 weeks after giving birth is super important in establishing your milk supply so if you intend to pump and not breastfeed, be prepared to spend a lot of time pumping.  

I'll be honest, with two other children and a full-time job, it may be hard for you to be super dedicated to pumping and keeping your supply up.  Many women can do it but it's mentally and physically exhausting.  To me, breastfeeding is just so much easier than having to constantly deal with cleaning pump parts and being hooked up to a machine for 20 minutes every 2-3 hours.  

Breastfeeding tips:

* Put baby to breast as often as possible.

* Feed on demand, not a schedule.

* Drink lots of water and eat.  Your body needs fuel in order to make food for your babe.

* Lots of skin to skin.

Pumping tips:

* If you're planning to pump full-time, you'll want a double-electric pump.

* Change your membranes once a month.

* Make sure you have the correct size flanges.

* Pump every 2-3 hours but every 2 hours in the beginning if you won't be nursing after birth.  Pumping should mimic your baby's feeding schedule as closely as possible.

Good luck!

All of this is great advice and I really don't have anything to add. Just wanted to say that pumping is a LOT more work than nursing. Plenty of people exclusively pump so it is doable, but if your reason for doing it is because you think it will be easier or less time consuming, it's not. Good luck either way!

KateDerek

I was going to echo that pumping is definitely the most work out of all feeding methods. I do know a person or two that has exclusively pumped and that is wonderful. I have to hand it to them since its quite the job. I just know that I assumed I would pump with my first after nursing didn't work out. Yeah, I gave up on that in 1-2 weeks. Best of luck on whatever you decide to do!

ashbash1012

Once milk is in, start pumping! You'll need the back up supply!!!!

kedbach

I'm currently (almost) pumping exclusively, as baby isn't all too interested in breast. The lactation consultants attribute this mainly to the fact I didn't get to do skin-to-skin, I literally held baby for 20 seconds after birth before they took her again. I wasn't able to breastfeed or hold her for days. My medela pump has a nipple attachment that is supposed to be for bottle-breast bridging so my sweet husband went and got those today so I'm interested to see! But anyways, to mirror what PP's have said- exclusively pumping is sooooo difficult, especially in the first few weeks when you have so many visitors and you're a zombie! I try to pump every time baby eats but sometimes in the middle of the night I just can't force myself too. I don't have a problem with production, thankfully, as I tend to produce about 4-5 oz let pump (between the two).

jesselayne8

Pumping and bottle feeding is far more time consuming than BFing straight from the source. Plus you never forget to take your boobs with you