My plan was to breastfeed for 6 months. However, life didn't go according to plan (as usual!). Our sweet baby boy was 6lbs, 3oz at birth and lost a lot of weight the first week of his life. I thought he was eating but he was fooling us! ;) The doctors and pediatrician recommended for us to supplement. What I didn't realize was that I could pump and still provide breast milk but we could at least see how much he was eating at each meal.
So here are some amazing helpful tips I've picked up along the way as an exclusive pumper -
Pump every 2 hours for first 12 weeks: If I could recommend ONE and only one tip...this would be it. It's so important to make pumping a priority those first few weeks so your milk comes in. It sucks, it's time consuming, and you'll literally feel like you're attached to that pump but your milk will come in and you'll probably even start a freezer stash during these first few weeks if you stick with this tip. We basically never left the house these first 12 weeks and I had to excuse myself or pump in front of family/friends but I decided to make this a priority for my sweet boy. For the first 12 weeks, I pumped every 2 hours for 20 minutes per session.
Pump while you feed baby: I don't know why it took me a couple weeks to figure this out but it saves SO much time! I used the bouncy seat (still do some mornings!) and fed my son a bottle while I was pumping. It would take just about 20 minutes to feed and burp him, which is exactly how long I was pumping. Now I actually had a few minutes to myself when he would nap (instead of worrying about when I would get a pump session in). It worked well for us and hope this trick works for you too!
Consider renting a hospital grade pump: I received a breast pump through my insurance - the Medela Pump in Style Advance. It's compact and works great. But I decided to rent the Medela Symphony through my son's pediatrician office. It's quieter and doesn't hurt as much, honestly. The pediatrician office allows me to rent it for a cheaper price if I rent it for 2+ months at a time so see if they have any incentives to offer you. It's not cheap but I figure I would be buying formula ($$) so I might as well invest in the pump. Since I'm exclusively pumping, if something were to happen to my pump (once I found mold in the tubing), I wouldn't know what to do. This is why I found it extremely helpful to have a back-up option. Also, I find it super helpful to have two pumps, especially once I started going back to work at 4 months. Which gets into my next tip...
Have two sets of pumping supplies: Flanges, tubes, bottles, membranes, hands-free bra, and even two pumps. I made myself a "pumping bag" so I have everything all ready to go for those days I head into work. It's already quite a task getting everything organized for the work day (daycare bag, diapers, extra change of clothes, bottles, laptop, lunch, water bottles, etc.). And since I wouldn't be able to pump at work if I forgot something, it was helpful to have my bag all ready to go!
Make sure you're using the correct Flange size: The lactation specialist at the pediatrician office recommended this. Initially, I had no idea there were different sizes available (#FTM!). I just thought the one you got through insurance was the only option. The Medela Website goes into more detail about what to look for but consider meeting with a lactation specialist to get sized correctly. If you are sized correctly, you could even produce more milk!
Once baby hits 12 weeks, slowly drop pumping sessions: Finally, I felt like I had my life back.....a little bit!! Well, I could at least leave the house for longer than 2 hours!! I was lucky enough to be overproducing for my son's needs (I think I owe this to being so consistent in the beginning). I had quite a stash saved up in our deep freezer and realized my milk's fully established and I can start dropping pump sessions. I started dropping down to 7-8 sessions/day. Once I went back to work at around 4 months, I was down to about 6 sessions/day. Now, at 6 months, I'm pumping 5 sessions/day at 20 minutes a session.
Try to pump at the same time every single day: I stick to my 3:00/4:00AM, 7:00AM, 11:00AM, 3:00PM, 8:00/9:00PM schedule now that I'm down to 5 pumps a day. I try my best to mimic a baby's feed schedule. Your milk works on supply and demand. I figure if your body knows baby needs 6oz at 11:00AM, your body will get it all ready for you, Momma. However, if you're pumping at 9AM some days and 10:30AM other days, your body won't really know what Momma needs.
Stick with that overnight pump session: This was hard for me. Like, really hard. This Momma loves and needs her sleep. Once my son was sleeping through the night (we put him down by 7pm and he's been sleeping until 7:30am...God, we're lucky!), initially I was sleeping through the night as well. I would wake up so completed engorged and it was painful. One day I experienced what I think was a clogged duct. Pretty painful so I pumped more often that day and really massaged that breast to get rid of it. So after this issue, I realized I need to wake up once a night (usually around 3-4AM) for a quick pump session lasting about 15-20 minutes. Not only could I sleep better because I wasn't so engorged but I got the most milk at this session. Always about 9 oz! I didn't want my body to think it didn't need to produce that milk anymore so I've been sticking with this overnight session and figure it's just a nice, quiet time to catch up on emails and social media while the rest of the family is sleeping peacefully!
Storage organization: At first I was buying countless Medela freezer storage bags but then I came up with a better system. My body is basically producing exactly what my son eats per day so I just keep the Medela bottles in the frigde (Medela Collection and Storage Bottles) and make 4 bottles in the evening for the next day. I was used to preparing bottles for daycare the next day so I just do this daily, even on the weekends and it works well.
Helpful items to buy:
- A nursing cover (I love the ones from Covered Goods) so you can pump in front of friends/family
- A car charging device for your pump (this way you can actually leave your house and pump in the car)
- A cooler bag (to keep the milk fresh until you get home if you're on the go)
- Hands-free bra
Please reach out to me if you have any specific questions.
Happy Pumping, Momma!
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