Feeding DD after work and starting to use freezer stash for when she’s extra hungry. Should I add formula in mix for that feed to ensure longevity of bmilk
With my first I used all freezer stash until my body stopped producing then I fully switched to formula- but im thinking maybe I can just give little bit of formula for the small feeds I’m having to take freezer out? It’s only like 2 oz so not a lot but my work pumps aren’t making extra to store...
To all my pumpers, about how many times at work do you pump? I'm going for 3, but it's hard and takes so much time from my work. I feel like I'm doing the minimum amount of pumping sessions without losing production.
Second, how many oz does your babe drink during the day. I haven't been measuring this out and just breast feeding during my leave. I've been super surprised that she only take 7 - 12 oz during the day at daycare. She's there for 10 hours...!!! Then we just nurse all evening. I'm worried she's not getting enough. She's little still 14 lbs... but she's content. Doesn't seem hungry.
We still nurse every two to three hours when I am home and I try to pump three times a day. When I am at work I am there for 12.5 hrs. I pump four times in that day and get about 20 to 22 ounces. My baby takes four bottles about four to five ounces each when I am at work.
@megpeg Thank you for sharing Does ep mean exclusively pump so not breast feeding at all? Good to know that he eats more in the evening. Ev barely has much when she wakes up now.... and def feeds more at night. She's also getting up at 3 AM to feed, which I really want to ween.
@DDRRT1982 do you pump 3 times in addition to breast feeding? And that's great that your baby takes 4X five oz bottles. Ev is drinking like 1 - 3 oz at a time unless it's evening.
@sarabeth5678 yes I only pump- he freaks out when I try to breast feed. Declan doesn’t eat at all when he first gets up. After an hour he has 3-4ounces. At night sometimes he sleeps through sometimes he gets a bottle at 3 or 4am.
My baby takes 3 5oz bottles at daycare (4 months and 1 week old) and just this past week I’ve slowly lost production at work pumping. I pump 3x a day and get 5 oz first session, then 3 the next leaving 4 oz short for next days bottles. It’s getting frustrating but I’m accepting reality. I have stored milk and will just use that to cover the difference until it’s all gone.
edited to add: Production pumping also slowed down once she started sleeping through the night.
@megpeg Thank you for sharing Does ep mean exclusively pump so not breast feeding at all? Good to know that he eats more in the evening. Ev barely has much when she wakes up now.... and def feeds more at night. She's also getting up at 3 AM to feed, which I really want to ween.
@DDRRT1982 do you pump 3 times in addition to breast feeding? And that's great that your baby takes 4X five oz bottles. Ev is drinking like 1 - 3 oz at a time unless it's evening.
Thanks ladies!
Yes, but I stimulate an oversupply from the beginning and hold on for dear life to keep it. When my cycle starts it’s going to dwindle and pretty fast. Samantha is better at taking a bottle than the rest of my kids. I started her from day one knowing she could get confused, but she never did. I’be dealt with the stress of them not eating while I am at work and I couldn’t do it this time. I would have rather EP’d than deal with that stress. However, I have lucked out. She’s pretty laid back so her personality probably also plays a part.
I've been given a few tips to try to keep going but I'm not sure it's going to work. I'm going to try but he just needs so much more than I can produce. It's truly heartbreaking
My advice, don’t worry about not meeting all of his demands. Supplement when you have to and keep going if that’s really what you want to do. Breastfeeding doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You could maybe figure out a nursing routine when your supply is most abundant and supplement in between. Like morning and night with bottles in between. Or, nurse and then top him off. There are so many options.
Also, have you started your cycle again? My supply takes a heavy dip right after ovulation, but comes back a couple days after my period starts and the progesterone is gone. Maybe that has something to do with a supply dip?
@mccurleya I don’t have enough supply to fulfil my baby’s needs either. I nurse when I’m with her, before and after work, and if she’s still hungry I make a formula bottle. She gets frozen milk to top off whatever I fall short with pumping. My body is still generating milk, just not 6 oz a feed/pump. It’s sad but still offer until you’re completely dry. You’ve made it so far- some can’t do it out of the gate so take that as a win! I still enjoy giving her a bottle and just thankful I have a baby to hold.
I am thankful I've made it this far. He needs 8oz per bottle now and I can only get 3oz per pump. My supply hasn't dipped because he gets full when I nurse. But I plan to continue as long as my body will let me
How do I stop LO from biting my nipple? Now that he has teeth is almost giving me anxiety to put my boob in his mouth especially if he gets frustrated which happens a lot he will just instantly bite. It hurts!
Edit because my phone is a butt and decided to submit before I was ready.
I unlatch and walk away from the session if it looks like it’s intentional. Maybe I started doing that when they were a bit older than four/five months, but that was the best technique that had the most effective response.
Ladies, I fought bacterial vaginosis when I was pregnant and it didn’t go away after a few different treatments. So we left it alone since the only time it bothered me was during sex. I haven’t messed with sex much so I stopped thinking about it post partum and assumed any discomfort during sex was just final healing. Now I’m pretty sure I still have BV. I’m going to get checked today but I’m pretty positive the test results will say I have it. Which means I’ll need to go on an antibiotic. Whether topical or oral, I know there’s differing thoughts on the safety for baby while breastfeeding. And pumping and dumping isn’t an option since I still can’t get LO to take a bottle.
Any experience or wisdom on the safety of treatments or other ways to treat it with stuff that is accessible at stores (not random herbs to get at fancy stores that don’t exist in my town)?
I’ve tried eating more yogurt with good bacteria and that’s not doing it.
I would just look up the medication and see what class it is. I have taken antibiotics pregnant and nursing with no issues. Not sure if the med you need is one that I took with no problems, but I do know a variety of antibiotics are safe short term.
My main thought is you need to treat this. Prolonged infections are bad for your body and will continue to cause problems. I hope they can give you something that is safe for breastfeeding.
@StephBrim24. I'm not really well versed with what's safe for breastfeeding but if it's safe during pregnancy I'd say it's likely safe during breastfeeding (I'm sure there are exceptions). Up until the end of last year I was working in a hospital as a microbiologist and we saw this a lot. The yogurt trick is typically for yeast infections, where yeast over grows because the good bacteria has diminished. Where as vaginosis is an overgrowth of the normally present bacteria. When we saw infections that weren't cleared up by oral antibiotics (metronidizole ot clindamycin)you typically try a topical (so you can kill it at the source). I dont know of any OTC stuff that would work. I feel for you though, I had a horrible yeast infection in the second trimester. It is awful!
Thank you @sgrn18 and @DDRRT1982! Hopefully I get the call today about the results of the swab.
Hey another question for you guys. Cora has always been very quick and efficient with feedings. Even at 2 months old, she would average less than 10 minutes for both breasts combined. But now she’s been more distractable and seems done in 5-6 minutes. Is this just a phase or do some of your LO’s eat that fast? I just want her to get enough and I don’t want my supply to plummet while she goes through this phase.
We are having very distracted feedings here too. It’s pretty annoying bc I am back to nursing her pretty frequently bc I don’t think she is getting a full feed each time. That’s basically my solution so my supply doesn’t die. Sam definitely doesn’t look like she is starving, but there is no way she’s getting her usual five ounces in three minutes when she pops off distracted by the rest of the world. I try to redirect her incase she is hungry, but it usually doesn’t work. She’s a really interested and playful baby, so she’s stimulated easily.
I've started using a nursing scarf. He doesn't mind being covered and I think he might actually like it. Either way, he doesn't have the distractions and actually feeds straight through instead of constantly popping off. Swaddling blankets work as fantastic/breathable covers too.
Yippee, I got sleep with a baby attached to my boob all night probably bc she didn’t fully nurse all day. She’s usually a pretty good sleeper and will only nurse a couple times. Last night was frantic, here-mom-i’ll-help-you-with-your-shirt nursing. I might have to start taking her into a quiet room during the day to nurse. I don’t want to start this whole nursing all night long BS with her.
@DDRRT1982 we had to do that especially in the morning. I EP so he's taking a bottle so I really didn't have time/reserve for him to play around with his feeding. So at 4 months, I was like let's go to mom and dad's really quiet and ultra boring room to eat.
Other eping moms- how long do you think you’ll last pumping? This is my third baby and this is the longest by far that I have pumped. I am trying to figure out how long I can keep going with dance classes and soccer games and school.
@megpeg EPing here too. I'll be going back to school next week and have my prep period and lunch scheduled so I can still get my pumps in and spread out enough. I made it to around 10 months with DD - my cycle returned, my supply tanked, and then got pregnant. My first goal was to make it 3 months pp, then until school started. Next I'll try to make it to winter break and go from there. I actually have a decent freezer stash, so if I need/want to stop earlier I can still give him some breastmilk with formula until a year.
Me: 30 H: 30 Dx: PCOS Married: June 2013 TTC#1: January 2015 BFP #1 8/24/15 | MC 9/3/15 at 6w2d BFP #2: 12/12/15 | DD born 8/29/16 TTC#2: June 2017 BFP #3: 7/15/17 | DS born 3/20/18
@megpeg my first goal is 6 months, but now it's looking like we will go longer. I'll probably stop when my supply dips below 1/3 of what he needs. I have some freezer stash that will last maybe a month (of giving him just bm) if I stopped outright. I'll just keep adding formula as his needs increase.
As for timing of pumps and such, I found I was always due to pump when I was supposed to be driving somewhere so I bought a car adapter and pump in the car with a cover while driving.
I went to a lactation consultant office today to rent a baby scale (weighted feedings to get an idea of how much to put in bottles for with LO starts daycare in a few weeks) and saw this sign. It talks about a nutritional test available for breast milk. Thought that was pretty neat.
My brilliant self decided that I was going to pump and do a quiz for class after I put the LO down for bed tonight. Multitasking at its finest. The quiz was a little harder than I thought so I took a bit longer than i usually do. I tend to get caught up in school work and wasnt really looking at the time anyway but I stayed on the pump for close to 40 mins when usually I do 20 or 25. I pulled the flanges off and there was some light bleeding that looked like it's coming from the outer side of my nipple. I didnt even feel it until afterwards. Now it stings and is uncomfortable in my bra. Next time I'll pump after my quiz.
If your BF and doing solids at 6 month mark - how many sessions a day are you doing? My supply seems to being going down and I’m not sure why. I’m nursing about 5 times and pumping 1-2 times. He also eats solids 2x a day now as well. Tips?
We’ve made it to our 6 month goal, supply went away quickly after being back at work and held on with frozen milk as long as I could. Sad but that’s okay, she’s still cute watching her eat a bottle. Good luck to all of you still going strong!
So LO is a little over 5 months old. She’d been doing little snacks and pulling away throughout the day, so I kept trying to feed her more often to make up for it. She wasn’t interested so I decided to follow her lead to see if she just wanted to space out her feedings a bit. For the last couple of days she will go 5 hours and often still not fuss or act hungry so I just try to sneak in a feeding when she’s napping. Anyone else have this happen? She’s still having enough wet diapers and BM’s. But I want her to be getting enough to thrive and grow, not just enough to stay hydrated. Did this happen to anyone else?
Re: Breastfeeding Megathread
Second, how many oz does your babe drink during the day. I haven't been measuring this out and just breast feeding during my leave. I've been super surprised that she only take 7 - 12 oz during the day at daycare. She's there for 10 hours...!!! Then we just nurse all evening. I'm worried she's not getting enough. She's little still 14 lbs... but she's content. Doesn't seem hungry.
@DDRRT1982 do you pump 3 times in addition to breast feeding? And that's great that your baby takes 4X five oz bottles. Ev is drinking like 1 - 3 oz at a time unless it's evening.
Thanks ladies!
edited to add: Production pumping also slowed down once she started sleeping through the night.
Also, have you started your cycle again? My supply takes a heavy dip right after ovulation, but comes back a couple days after my period starts and the progesterone is gone. Maybe that has something to do with a supply dip?
Edit because my phone is a butt and decided to submit before I was ready.
Any experience or wisdom on the safety of treatments or other ways to treat it with stuff that is accessible at stores (not random herbs to get at fancy stores that don’t exist in my town)?
I’ve tried eating more yogurt with good bacteria and that’s not doing it.
* Edited because The Bump cut off the text.
My main thought is you need to treat this. Prolonged infections are bad for your body and will continue to cause problems. I hope they can give you something that is safe for breastfeeding.
Hey another question for you guys. Cora has always been very quick and efficient with feedings. Even at 2 months old, she would average less than 10 minutes for both breasts combined. But now she’s been more distractable and seems done in 5-6 minutes. Is this just a phase or do some of your LO’s eat that fast? I just want her to get enough and I don’t want my supply to plummet while she goes through this phase.
Dx: PCOS
Married: June 2013
TTC#1: January 2015
BFP #1 8/24/15 | MC 9/3/15 at 6w2d
BFP #2: 12/12/15 | DD born 8/29/16
TTC#2: June 2017
BFP #3: 7/15/17 | DS born 3/20/18
As for timing of pumps and such, I found I was always due to pump when I was supposed to be driving somewhere so I bought a car adapter and pump in the car with a cover while driving.
Did this happen to anyone else?