- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Houston Babies
Another pumping question...
I am feeding DD on demand right now and pumping only when I get engorged (usually once at night and maybe once during the day). All this supply talk is making me think I should pump if even if DD is napping. She's sleeping 4-7 hours at night right now so I wake up full and have to pump even if she doesn't wake.
For instance, she's gone over 3 hours right now since her last feeding and I'm full. Should I pump or just wait until she wakes to eat? If I don't pump, will my supply go down? If I do pump, I usually leave it out in case she wakes up in the next hour and give her the freshly pumped milk otherwise it goes in the fridge or freezer. So, should continue on demand or try to maintain a schedule with my body?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Another pumping question...
mostly because there is usually 3 bottles already in the fridge and i don"t want to add to it. like right now there are 4 bottles - 4 to 5 ounces in each.
put it in the freezer! you can not have enough frozen milk (you're going back to work, no?)
i have always fed on demand. granted, it's been easy as a SAHM. the best part is when you are a long term demand feeder, your body is very regular. it always has just enough milk, no matter what, b/c it never knows when the baby is going to eat but i after 3-4 mos old, i never had any engorgement issues. even now, mathis only nurses once in the morning and once at night but if we were out and, say, got stuck in traffic at dinner time i could nurse him, there would be milk and i wouldn't be engorged at that time the next day.
This post made me think of the Salt N Peppa song, "Pump It, Pump It Good"
Pump and store what you can now, especially if you will be going back to work.
Thanks ladies - I do have an oversupply (DD chokes on it and I have to lean back so that my letdown isn't so forceful) and I'm just trying to find a balance. She's only eating about 10-15 minutes now (sometimes less than 10 minutes) so I'm only nursing on one side most of the time - we get about 2 or 3 feedings where she'll nurse on both sides but typically she pulls off after 10-15 minutes and won't nurse anymore. So then I pump the other one when it gets too full. I will try the "grin and bear it" to see if it levels off. Any idea how long it may take?
I think if you "grin and bear it" you'll only need to do so a few times. But really, I can count on one hand the number of time I was engorged. I think it took 2-3 days for my body to realize C was going to STTN and that was it.
Also, I asked in the other post - do you have a deep freeze that you can use? If so, freeze as much as you can! I'm going OOT next month and I'm going to have to start figuring out how to get more out of my body before then so that I can have 100ish oz in the freezer for C. So far all I have is that I'll have to wake up in the middle of the night so that I can pump only for the freezer. I didn't plan on needing that much until I realized that Cooper eats 30-34oz per day. I know you don't plan to travel much for work (if any) but you never know.
My understanding is that Kreeper's experience is pretty normal - that your body should adjust within 2-3 days. Worst-case scenario, definitely within a week. And, likewise, if Layla's patterns change and she starts wanting to eat more frequently (like waking more often in the night for a while), within a few days your body will get that message and adjust in that direction too.
The others are right, most bodies will adjust w/in a week or so. If you want to stop the over supply try not to pump. But just so you're warned, your body might just be over zealous. I tried for weeks and weeks (like 3 or 4) to "grin and bear it." I nursed DS laying flat on my back so he didn't choke and I would only pump a little off for relief when I absolutely couldn't take it any longer. I tried ice, heat, cabbage leaves, went on the pill, nothing made my supply drop. So after a few weeks I decided I just didn't care. I suppose I could continue to work on it (only pump what I know DS will eat the next day, i.e. cut both pumping sessions at work short) and my body might regulate. But I'd rather deal w/ the occasional engorgement and donate the extra milk I pump.
Oh but the cabbage leaves did really help, I just got sick of smelling like cole slaw so I quit.
I wish but no - just a french fridge so we don't even have a "back side" of the freezer. We don't have the room in our garage for another fridge or freezer though we really really need one. Dang new construction homes with their tiny garages. I have nearly 100 oz saved already. I have been pumping and filling 5 oz bags at each pumping so we're building up A LOT of supply.
I know that this sounds like a lot, but ultimately, by the time you need to use it, she will probably be on 4-5 ounce bottles, and probably feeding at least 6 times a day. Therefore, it's really only maybe 3-4 days of milk (straight). That's really only a long weekend if you have to go out of town for any reason. I would continue to freeze what you can. I guess you WFH, so it might be a little easier for you to pump and/or nurse directly when you go back to work, but when I went back, I could only squeeze in 2 maybe 3 pumping sessions in, and my supply decreased b/c of it. I had to start giving freezer supply, so what I stored (which was more like 250 ounces by the time I went back) really saved me.
I agree with pp that I would rather have more freezer than less. I stored everything in 6 ounces and laid the plastic bags flat to freeze. Then, eventually, I stood them all up and put them all in order (oldest first) in a big tupperware in the freezer to save space. And I used our big drawer at the bottom of hte freezer for storage, too. Let's just say we at a lot less frozen pizzas during that time! lol.