XP Oct 2012: pumping and supply

RockyRoad3

Aria is not the greatest eater--I barely get fifteen minutes out of both breasts, and that's with a lot of stopping because I can never get her to stay awake.  I constantly have one (or two) engorged breasts and it's been killing me all day and all night.  I started pumping after she finishes eating to drain them and just get some relief.  But now I'm afraid that, by doing that, I'm just keeping up the same amount of supply and making my body think I need as much breastmilk as I've been producing.  

If I just suffer through it, will my supply eventually even out to what she actually needs?  Is pumping just making things worse? 

km3

I'm a FTM of a 7 week old so I don't have a lot of experience but I think that pumping is making it worse because you're telling your body that you need to make all that milk. I've heard others say to hand express a little bit of milk to relieve engorgement when talking about reducing supply.

RockyRoad3

Thanks for the tip.  Guess I'll just suffer through it until my body realizes I don't need that much.

kegallagh

km3:

I'm a FTM of a 7 week old so I don't have a lot of experience but I think that pumping is making it worse because you're telling your body that you need to make all that milk. I've heard others say to hand express a little bit of milk to relieve engorgement when talking about reducing supply.

This. I'm not sure why you think your DD is "not a good eater." All of what you described sounds completely normal for a 6 day old baby and mom. 

PeonyPumps

Definitely hand express a bit to ease the discomfort. I did pump an extra time each day though to build a freezer stash and my extra milk was able to continue to feed DS for at least a month or two after we weaned.

danieliza1127

kegallagh:

km3:

I'm a FTM of a 7 week old so I don't have a lot of experience but I think that pumping is making it worse because you're telling your body that you need to make all that milk. I've heard others say to hand express a little bit of milk to relieve engorgement when talking about reducing supply.

This. I'm not sure why you think your DD is "not a good eater." All of what you described sounds completely normal for a 6 day old baby and mom. 

 

Yeah ditto that, at one week old, it's totally normal for her to fall asleep at the breast.  You need to tickle her chin or her ear or her feet to keep her awake.  Pumping is definitely going to affect your supply.  They say you shouldn't start pumping until about 4 weeks to establish your supply.  It's normal to be engorged that first week, I was really bad the first couple of days that my milk came in and I had to use nipple shields to get the baby to latch.