Pumping to supplement

bainidhedub · October 2014

sorry if this has already been talked to death somewhere, but what is the typical pattern for pumping to supplement? LO was down 10% at his 5-day appt this morning so the doctor wants us to supplement. We have a few bottles of Similac but I'd rather give BM if I can. (Plus I'm grumpy bc the real problem, I think, is not that he can't get enough, or there isn't enough, it's that he can't stay awake long enough for a full feeding - I'm lucky to get 6-7 minutes with lots of prodding before he 100% passes out before my eyes.) So tonight he nursed for 7 minutes before crashing, then 20 minutes later DH gave him 1.5oz of formula while I pumped a total of 3oz from both sides. Since I pumped both, does it matter which one I start with next time? Should I not have done both? We haven't been making it long enough to get around to offering the other side so both were hurting. I don't know what I'm doing here so any advice is appreciated.

bainidhedub · October 2014

I wouldn't consider the 3oz "after nursing" really. I got 1oz from the side LO had just dropped off from and 2 from the side he hadn't touched in about an hour and a half. Since milk came in late Friday I think he's had a little more trouble latching but he just .will.not. stay awake when he does get it ok. And it's been getting worse since he hasn't nursed long enough to empty them.
I'm really wondering what schedule I should try to do w/r/t nurse-pump, at least until his next weigh in appt Monday afternoon.

Ju111310 · October 2014

^^From what I've seen, AmyG is the breastfeeding/pumping guru around here.

As far as the schedule goes, I'm not sure what typical is but I'll share what I did. My situation was not quite the same bc my LO had no problem nursing for what seemed like hours on end. My LO was jaundiced upon hospital discharge and had lost a lot, so we were told to supplement with a syringe until f/u pedi appt (3 days). I would allow him to nurse as long/often as he'd like. When he finished/took a break from nursing I would pump for 15-20 mins and save that milk for supplementing after the next feeding. DH would give him the supplement via syringe while I pumped. During the day, I made sure to pump at least every 2 hours as I wasn't getting much milk & wanted to encourage an increase in supply.

I would absolutely continue to pump both sides so you don't see a dip in supply. It doesn't really matter which side you offer next time, but I'd go with the opposite side just to give the nipples a break by alternating. Also, my LO really struggled with latch for a few days when my milk came in due to engorgement, it helped if I pumped a few mins prior to nursing to soften things up and allow him a better latch. As far as the sleepy baby goes, try stripping down to diaper, tickling feet, rubbing along the spine, cool washcloth to the face & frequent attempts to burp.

nilvero · October 2014

When I had to supplement, we did a nurse, pump, supplement schedule given to us by our LC at the hospital.

I would nurse him for thirty minutes as best as I could, then I would pump. While I would pump for fifteen minutes, DH would give him 1 oz of supplement using a syringe. If my pumped milk or was enough, that's all we would use. If it didn't equal an ounce, DH would finish him off with formula. We did this every two hours. He gained really fast and we were told to stop supplementing at his weight check appointment.

Good luck!

bainidhedub · October 2014

Thank you so much for all of that, AmyG! I was doing every 2 hours on Saturday night and yeah, that sucked, a lot.
LO was 9-3 at birth, 8-4 at the appointment Saturday morning, and 8-14.5 at the check Monday afternoon. So we left with no more supplementing, cleared to go 3 hours at night, and the doctor from Saturday wondering if they read the scale wrong.

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