Exclusively Pumping. *Long, Plz Read

Re: Exclusively Pumping. *Long, Plz Read

• cbolton19 member

  November 2015

  Are you hand expressing and massaging during your pumping sessions? Stanford has done some studies on pumping (link below). They may be helpful. Is there a place you could get some donor breastmilk so you can try to get ahead in your supply?
  
  https://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/MaxProduction.html
  

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• beccaburke22 member

  November 2015

  Thank you. No I haven't looked into a donor supply but that's an excellent idea. I do compressions when pumping sometimes but I don't really hand express first. I'll give it a shot, I'm desperate.

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• meganraschke member

  November 2015

  I felt like I was writing this myself reading your post, I'm in the same boat you are although I am having to supplement some days. I didn't start exclusively pumping because of latch issues, my LO was loosing weight and I wanted to be sure exactly what he was getting. One thing my LC has told me is the farther from your delivery date you start to try to increase supply the longer it takes. I was 3 weeks post pardum when I even started to know I had a supply issue, and it's almost been 3 weeks since and I am still working on my supply.
  Have you called mother love to talk to them about their supplements? I started with the more milk plus pills, when they didn't work I called the phone number on the bottle. After 10 minutes of talking to me about everything hormone, breast size, latch, etc. they reccomended the malunggay and shatavari for me to take. I've been taking the tincture because it's more potent but it tastes like complete junk! No idea if it will work, it was just delivered the other day.
  
  Good luck to you, I have cried a lot of tears over my milk production. I know how emotional and time consuming it is. The LC is telling you to keep doing what your doing because ultimately if you end up giving your LO half breastmilk and half formula they know it is still better than 100% formula.

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• beccaburke22 member

  November 2015

  Thank you. I'll call mother love and see what they may suggest. I was about three weeks in also when I started having issues. A lot of people ask why not just give formula instead of doing twice as much work and they just don't get it. It's like a gift I can give her and I don't want to just give up

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• sgoodsel member

  November 2015

  You are doing an amazing job, pumping is hard!
  
  Can you try renting a hospital grade Medela pump?
  Also, pump while near baby or look at pictures/videos of baby while pumping.
  Try to be warm while you pump, I always struggled to get milk when I was cold.

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• beccaburke22 member

  November 2015

  Thanks I'm waiting to hear back from the lactation group about renting a professional pump.

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• kaza512 member

  November 2015

  I second getting the symphony medela pump (hospital grade). I too am EP and my LC said that I wouldn't get my supply up near as fast with out it. My baby is one month today and I am pumping around 30 oz a day now. I pump she eats and every night at 9pm I do a "power pump". 20 minutes straight pumping, 10 off, 10 on, 10 off and one more 10 minute session. For regular pumping sessions I also always use a hands free bra sink can actively massage and hep express during pumping and my LC said to always stop for 2-3 minutes around 10 minutes in rest and the. Start again and pump until I am 2-3 minutes past the last flow. I generally will pump for around 20 minutes (active pumping) regardless of when I stopped producing. These have really helped me. I also eat oatmeal every day and take fenugreek tabs twice a day.
  
  I might suggest that you supplement a few feedings in the very beginning to get ahead of the baby to reduce your stress. My LC squad the first two rules of successful breastfeeding are to 1. feed the baby (anyway you have to) 2. Protect the supply. Sometimes a few supplements will do both of these for you. I had around 2 days where I gave formula for 2 feedings and I started to get ahead of her and was able to store milk in the fridge and it really reduced my stress and I immediately saw my supply go up. I am now happily starting to freeze!!

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• koriemo member

  November 2015

  I take Fenugreek and it immediately increased my supply. I know that it can feel like you aren't making enough, but you are! Your body has calibrated to what LO needs... You just aren't getting ahead.
  
  I am also exclusively pumping. I produce 20-22 ounces per day and he eats just about that much, so I understand what you mean. I'm going to try the hospital grade rental.

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• mom4liak member

  November 2015

  Lots and lots of skin to skin just prior to pumping and also lots of water. I too have a preemie and am EP. I now only pump 6 times a day and get 10-12 ounces with each pumping. At first I struggled with my supply and then I noticed that I always seemed to get more milk if I bottle fed my DD with skin to skin and then immediately pumped.
  I also eat oatmeal daily and drink about a gallon of water daily.

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• Mjwal member

  November 2015

  meganraschke said:

  I felt like I was writing this myself reading your post, I'm in the same boat you are although I am having to supplement some days. I didn't start exclusively pumping because of latch issues, my LO was loosing weight and I wanted to be sure exactly what he was getting. One thing my LC has told me is the farther from your delivery date you start to try to increase supply the longer it takes. I was 3 weeks post pardum when I even started to know I had a supply issue, and it's almost been 3 weeks since and I am still working on my supply.
  Have you called mother love to talk to them about their supplements? I started with the more milk plus pills, when they didn't work I called the phone number on the bottle. After 10 minutes of talking to me about everything hormone, breast size, latch, etc. they reccomended the malunggay and shatavari for me to take. I've been taking the tincture because it's more potent but it tastes like complete junk! No idea if it will work, it was just delivered the other day.
  
  Good luck to you, I have cried a lot of tears over my milk production. I know how emotional and time consuming it is. The LC is telling you to keep doing what your doing because ultimately if you end up giving your LO half breastmilk and half formula they know it is still better than 100% formula.

  In the exact same boat as well!

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• JaqiDec04 member

  November 2015

  mom4liak said:

  Lots and lots of skin to skin just prior to pumping and also lots of water. I too have a preemie and am EP. I now only pump 6 times a day and get 10-12 ounces with each pumping. At first I struggled with my supply and then I noticed that I always seemed to get more milk if I bottle fed my DD with skin to skin and then immediately pumped. I also eat oatmeal daily and drink about a gallon of water daily.

  I'm totally jealous of your production. I'd only have to pump like 3 times a day if I could produce that much.

  
  

  OP - I pump about 2-3 oz s from each breast, and I pump every 3 hours, and only once overnight (bottle feeding, and pumping is just too much when LO gets up every 2-3 hours). Drink lots and lots of water, make sure your messaging your breasts when you pump, to get every single drop out, and then I usually go 3-5 minutes longer after that to increase my supply.

  
  

  Also, do you "try" to latch? Even if your LO won't latch, if he/she will fuss at your breast, it introduces hormones to increase your supply (my pedi recommended that). Also, supplementing is fine. I know it feels like a failure, but sometimes it really helps. When DS catches up to my fridge supply, I'll just feed him a bottle of formula. And then I'm a bottle or two ahead, and it really helps reduce my stress level. (Especially when sometimes he wants 2 ozs, and sometimes 4 ozs, and throwing away breast milk stresses me out).

  

  

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• chris&haley member

  November 2015

  I rented my hospital grade from Babies r Us. Cost about $200 for 3 mos and insurance reimbursed us. I'm EPing for (8 week old) twins so I also struggle to have enough even though I regularly get 6-8oz per session. We still have to formula feed 2-3 times per day! I have to echo the oatmeal and water--I notice a difference if I don't eat oatmeal for breakfast. I make steel cut each day. It takes longer but more health benefits! Just keep it up and know that however baby gets food is fine!

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• lindsayp916 member

  November 2015

  I'm so glad I found this post- my LO lost 15% body weight at the first check up and we discovered she had a tongue tie and wasn't actually latching. Had the tie snipped and it helped some but after triple feeding and going to the LC every day for a week to weigh-feed-weigh, she still was only getting about 25ml per nursing feed. After feeling totally deflated we resigned to pumping. I'm still nursing two feeds a day just for the connection and then supplementing after. I've been going crazy now trying to build up my supply. Going to try some of the tips you ladies suggested!! Thank you!!

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