What does your pumping schedule look like?

daphne814 · April 2012

I'm about 5 weeks into this, and for the past few weeks I've been pumping every 2.5-3 hours during the day, but sleeping through the night. I'm lucky in that my milk has come in and stayed pretty consistent, and I'm getting enough ounces per day for what my LC would like to see. I'm just wondering if I need to keep pumping this frequently, or if there comes a time when I can start spacing out the pumping sessions a little bit, like every 3-3.5 hours, and still get the same amount of milk.

When I pumped at work for my daughter, I noticed that if I pumped at recess AND lunch I would get the same amount of milk as when I skipped recess and just pumped at lunch because it would build up more and I'd just get more milk during that one session. Does this make sense? Or am I going to risk hurting my supply? I'm going to ask my LC what she thinks when she calls me this week, but I am hoping for some real life stories because I'm guess she'll err on the side of caution and tell me to keep up this schedule (which I will, if necessary). TIA

Ashoney1 · April 2012

In the very beginning I was pumping every 2.5-3hrs while I was on maternity leave, worried that my supply would get low. But now that I am back working I have been stretching it out to every 4-5 hours during the day, and sometimes longer at night (if DS allows it). I have not had any less produced, but I do have a large supply..

JuliaJAG · April 2012

At five weeks pp, I was pumping every three hours. Since then, I've gotten very sloppy. My supply has tanked in the last week, but I had become really lazy and would sleep through the night, miss pumping sessions, etc. Even with all that, until about 8-9 weeks, my supply was fine. I've heard that you really want to keep up the frequency as much as you can these first 12 weeks, and empty the breast as often as possible, or you risk your supply diminishing down the road (you may not necessarily see an immediate effect).

Now that my baby is home and we're settling into a routine, I'm back to pumping every three hours. I'm only producing one to 1.5 ounces per pumping right now, which is appalling (and not even enough to feed him since he's shot up to 70-80ml per feeding, up from 47ml just a week and a half ago), but I'm hoping the ramped-up pumping schedule + starting a lactation-friendly diet will get my supply back up there pretty quickly.

vsalt31 · April 2012

I only pump 5x/ 24 hr period. I'm sure the LC will tell you to stick to every 3, but I couldn't handle that. So, I pump at: 8am, lunch (noon-1pm), 6pm, 10pm, and sometime in the night when I'm already up to feed LO. When LO was still in the nicu, I'd set an alarm for around 2am. I havent had any trouble maintaining my supply. I have a huge freezer full. Hope this helps.

rparks8467 · April 2012

I pump every 3-4 hours and get up twice in the night as well. The amount I pump has always stayed the same even if I am out and get behind an hour or two, I just pay for it with swelling and pain. I have tried to keep it consistant since my little boy is still in the NICU getting feedings every three hours. I want to be able to hold up to his demands when he comes home!

DoingItRight · April 2012

I pump every 3-4 hours during the day. During the night I pump after I feed them their final bottle and then before they get their morning bottle. I am trying to keep up with two and my supply is not great, but decent. We do feed them formula for their morning feeds now they they are sleeping longer than 4 hours so that we don't have to worry about warming up a bottle. This has helped a ton. We are now feeding on demand. They normally want to eat every 3-4 hours during the day and then at night they normally make it 6 hours.

urbanflowerpot · April 2012

I'd keep pumping every three - I didn't let myself STTN w/out pumping that early, though. I let myself have a four hour stretch but that was it. I don't think your supply is established until around 6 weeks but preemies make everything trickier. For the first couple months I stuck to the schedule. They start eating more and that's when I've seen a lot of moms who thought that had good supply get into trouble. I know it completely sucks, it's the worst! but if you're doing well I'd opt to build a stash. It was around 2 or 3 months that I let myself have 6 hrs at night. DS got nipple confused in NICU so it was a hot mess of a situation. I EP'ed for four months - now EBF/solids.

Nicole8184 · April 2012

I pump 7x a day. It is pretty much every 3 hours, with the exception of the nights where I pump every 4 hours. Depending on how my day is going, I sometimes push the lunchtime pump to 4 hours also.

daphne814 · April 2012

BostonKisses2:
I stuck to the every 2-3 hour mark in the beginning, but by the time Judith was about 3-4 weeks old I spaced myself out to every 3-4 hours during the day and once overnight because I had a well-established supply by that point, and I was starting my freezer stash.
Out of curiosity, do you have a freezer stash started yet? If you're getting enough fresh milk for your son that you can take to the NICU and have leftovers to start a freezer stash at home, you should be ok to start spacing yourself out a little bit.

My freezers are full. I'm using the freezer here, an extra freezer at my mom's house, and the hospital freezer. We're overflowing with freezer stash. My little guy had a bowel perforation at just over a week old, and he hasn't been able to have a BM feeding since then, so I've been freezing everything. I typically get 25 ounces a day. I'm wondering if my supply might have had an easier time establishing itself because I BFed my daughter until she was 14 months and she weaned when I was 6 weeks pg with Ryan. So really there wasn't a whole lot of time between when I stopped nursing her and started pumping for him, know what I mean? But that said, I don't want to risk the chance that I could hurt my supply for later on when he could potentially start nursing. I'm hoping and praying that he can eventually nurse full time when he's ready, and I want to be sure I have enough milk in me.

DrRx · April 2012

I was pumping about 4 times a day since Adalyn was about 4 weeks old up until the last few days, when I went down to 2 to 3 times a day. I've been living at the hospital, and honestly, I'm just so over pumping! I think that once I get her home this week, I'll probably go back to pumping 4 times a day.

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