remind me: pumping

balihaigirl

my milk came in about 4 days ago.  when is it an appropriate time to start pumping?  i'd like to pump 1x/day to get a little freezer stash but i've been worried about pumping too soon because i would like to try to avoid oversupply issues this time around if possible. 

TIA! 

BLONDIE6FT

i pumped in the evenings before bed or in the morning. the lowest supply is in the late afternoon, so that's the worst time to pump.

i found i wasn't shooting out milk as much with the 2nd baby, so your supply may not be as crazy with #2!

oh and i didn't start pumping til 10 days or maybe 2 weeks after milk came in--i think there was some kind of reasoning for it, like the first milk isn't that great, so you wouldn't want it in a few months? don't quote me on that. but if you are gonna use it in the first few weeks,you are ok.

bluestreet

Kellymom may say different, but this last time I waited a few weeks to pump for a few reasons.

One, I wanted to focus on getting the hang of nursing, and pumping was just one more variable I didn't need. I was also worried about oversupply, but like Blondie, I didn't have that issue the second time around.

Two, I wanted to make sure all of the residual colostrum and super-power early milk got to the baby directly. Freezing and reheating milk depletes the nutrients slightly (e.g., killing the anti-microbials), so if you are at liberty to wait a couple of weeks, I'd wait. 

ebat

BLONDIE6FT:

i found i wasn't shooting out milk as much with the 2nd baby, so your supply may not be as crazy with #2!

I had the opposite problem,  I've had way more milk the 2nd time.

 

I started pumping at about 3 weeks  and still ended up with an oversupply.  I HAD to pump everyday of the rest of my mat. leave,  but now I have a nice big stash.