Breastfeeding
budgirl007
member
Question for EP'ers
budgirl007
member
I am wondering about how much you pump per day compared to how much LO eats and their age. Right now LO is 3 1/2 weeks and eating about 24oz/day. I started EPing 2 weeks ago and pumped every 2 hours for a few days to get my supply going. I then went to 8 times/day and then 6 times/day and now I am at 5 times/day and yesterday I pumped 29oz. I am hoping to eventually get to 4 times/day and still able to pump around 30oz. Will 30oz be sufficient until LO is a year old or what has been your experience? TIA!!
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Re: Question for EP'ers
you are going to KILL your supply at your LO's age. you need to pump every 2-3 hrs around the clock for at least 3-4 months so your milk supply regulates. just because you haven't seen a 'noticable' decrease in supply in the short amount of time you have been pumping doesn't mean anything. It takes 1+ weeks for your body to catch on and notice that you are requiring LESS from your body.
Get back to pumping more- or you are going to be here in a couple of weeks asking about fenugreek and increasing your supply.
FWIW- i pumped for my DD for a year and I am a lactation consultant.
you dropped SOOO many pumps so fast- your body is going to seriously do a double take and start producing a lot less. Especially at 3 weeks. You are only supposed to drop 1 pump a week. A gradual decrease in pumping will help your body adjust a lot better. Trust me. It takes 1+ week for your body to process the lack of demand (that you were once requiring of your body). It doesn't immediately respond to the lack of demand- like you are thinking. just because you are getting the same amount now- doesn't mean that is going to be the case when your body realizes, 'oooh. i am only being stimulated 5x a day- i don't need to make this much'
EPing is HARD. I did it for a year. If you want a successful GO at EPing put the time and effort into it now and build a healthy supply. You can't gauge a healthy supply at 3 weeks. It is impossible.
A decrease in pumping/nursing- is going to signal your body to start producing less prolactin hormones- and in turn- produce less milk. This happens until the 'regulated' period is over. Around 3months PP. Getting your supply to increase after 3 months PP is EXTREMELY difficult. Even more so with EP'ers.
Totally take my advice with a grain of salt- however long term EP'ers will tell you. As hard as it is- take the time and effort to put into pumping now. It will make your life so much easier. That is if this is something you want to do for an extended period.
Edit- and to answer your question- I can tell you I had a total milk baby on my hands. She drank A LOT. Around 3 months her daily intake of milk shot up really high and was drinking around 45-50oz a day and still increased as she grew until around 8 months when it leveled off - when she was on mostly solids (she was on total people/adult/finger food around 9 months when she wouldn't eat baby food anymore) and even then she was drinking around 30oz a day. until she hit 1 and it went down around 20oz.
Bloggin' It
Ditto everything that stacy625 said. You are signaling your body to produce less milk, and that will only hurt you in the long run.
DS was probably averaging about 30 oz up until he his 4 months, then after a growth spurt he started averaging about 40+ oz a day. Baby food still isn't his favorite, so he drinks a lot of milk still. I would say unless you are producing 50 oz a day, then you need to keep pumping 8x a day.
Your supply takes time to establish, by 12 weeks it will have leveled off. You need to pump 8x a day, plus once at night in order to increase your supply. I didn't start dropping pumps until 10-12 weeks, and that was even earlier than I should have.
DS #1 born January 2010. DS #2 due June 2014.