Breastfeeding Questions

bonnylass

If you pumped and bottle fed breastmilk, do you remember how much your child was eating per feeding at different ages?  Right now Carina has only had a bottle a few times but she tends to take 4-5 oz per feeding.  I'm wondering how quickly that will increase.

 Right now she is eating every 3 hours during the day and I'll wake her to feed her if she's asleep.  How often was your child breastfeeding at 2 months of age?  When did that change?

One more - I'm going back to work the end of this month.  Did you have any trouble pumping at work?  Did your supply suffer?  Any tips for making breastfeeding work for a working mom?

Thanks ladies!

rlthomas7

The most Adam ever took from a bottle, BM or formula, during the day was 6 oz. every 3 hours. Eventually he could do 8 right before bed and 7-8 when he got up, but even at a year old, 6 oz. mid-day was the max. I went back and forth with breastfeeding, pumped milk and formula for the first four months, and he was going every 3 hours basically until we started solids.

I didn't really try hard to pump at work. I work 3 days a week, so I'd pump when I went home for lunch, but didn't even attempt to pump at work. My supply was starting to go down during this time, but at 4 months I got very sick with a very high fever for a week. I had no supply after that.

PAAZwife

DS only took 4oz for a long time.  I think he increased to 6oz around 6 months or so, but never really got above that.  Once DS was sleeping through the night (around 3.5 to 4 months) he ate 6x a day.  Around 6 months we bumped that down to 5x a day and around 8 months he dropped to 4x a day.  That's where we are now. 

I only worked part time from 6 weeks on, but I ended up getting my first period when he was 12 weeks old.  My supply would totally tank right before AF, and increased immediate after.  At 6 months the increase after AF never happened and I started using Fenugreek.  I don't know that I really noticed a huge increase, but I do think it helped a little.  At 10 months I had to start supplementing with formula 2 of the 4 daily feedings, but nursed the AM and PM feeding.  Just last night at 10.5 months, he completely rejected the night feeding, so we're on all formula now.  I really think that it was working and pumping that caused my supply issues.  I don't know what you can do to prevent it other than pumping a lot!

I hope things work better for you.  Good luck!

Christina617

Up until he started refusing bottles about a month or so ago Ethan was taking 4oz.  I think if he were still taking them now he'd be up to 6oz b/c that is what I've been pumping. 

At two months Ethan was eating every 2-3 hours but I wasn't waking him to eat.  That hasn't changed much.  He still nurses every 2-3 hours.  Sometimes he'll go 4 or more though.

I haven't had trouble pumping (knock on wood) but I started pumping once a day when E was only a few weeks old to build my (sadly lost) freezer stash.  I think it helped me that my body was used to responding to the pump daily.  My LC suggested that I pump every 3 hours so I did that when I first started back to work.  After a few weeks, if I had to, then I would go 4-5 hours between pumping sessions. 

Good luck!!!

KellyND04

I don't remember very well re: your first two questions.  I did have trouble pumping at work, mainly because I just couldn't get my left side emptied with the pump. I'd always get 3-4 times the amount out of the right side.  MY left side would start to ache and feel full if I was away from her all day because she could just get so much more out than the pump. There wasn't much I could do about it except not work more than 5-6 hours.  The thing that made it work best was giving some formula so I didn't have to be so stressed about having enough BM for all the time I wasn't there!