Do you pump enough

[dewoman81]

when you pump at work to feed your baby or do most of you have to pump extra to make up the difference> I usually get 12-18oz per day an my 11wo eats between 10 and 15 oz when im gone. (depends if I feed her or pump before work). I have a supply building, but this doesn't seem to be the norm for most.

[ashtonsmom]

I alawys just pump enough to feel baby while I am @ work. I never pumped @ home but I was like a milk cow with all the extra I got every three hours.

I would pump any extra you can b/c your supply will probably drop considerably when DC starts solids. Mine did. It took almost an hour to pump enough @ 9 months and @ 9 weeks it would take 10 mins.

[Tufftitty]

I almost always pump a little more than he takes.

[Stephanie]

With ds I never did. Dd hardly took any milk at daycare, so I always had enough. After about 9 months, I would have been pumping just enough, and she didn't eat solids at that point.

[hotlama]

I pump between 8 to 12 ounces a day and dd eats 8 ounces from a bottle each day.

[southinmom]

I pump about 4-6 oz and dd takes about 2 oz (and sometimes not any) The longest I'm not there to nurse is 5 hours so I just pump once in that time.

[dockim328]

I have always struggled with pumping enough for ds1 and now ds2. He takes 12 oz/day with dcp (4 oz every 3 hours) and I maybe on a good day pump 8-9 oz! On a good day! So I eat oatmeal, take fenugreek, pump after nursing sessions in am and before bed and pump at work every 2-3 hours to try and make up that one extra bottle! But I plan to do this for as long as I need to so that ds2 gets all that great boobiemilk!

[paigesmomma]

I usually am somewhere in between just enough and a little extra. DS usually doesn't eat until 9 or so in the morning, so even on my days off I pump a little when I get up to store. I can usually freeze anywhere from 6-18 oz per week.

[lovely_tuesday]

i'm not getting enough with what i pump at work to feed my baby girl. i'm getting about 8 ounces total. i try to pump in between feedings when i get home but i get negligible amounts - less than an ounce combined. so my hubby has been supplimenting with formula while i'm at work, and i'm not happy at all about it. i would rather that she just be exclusively fed breast milk. but what am i to do? he has even cut down the amount of each feeding to 2-3 ounces at a time, and he says she still runs out. i've been pumping like a fiend and my milk supply just keeps getting lower and lower. i'm almost at my wits end. i've been drinking tinctures of brewer's yeast and eating oatmeal in the morning. i am going to buy some fenugreek and try that too. i thought just keeping up with the pumping and allowing her to feed on demand would keep my supply up, but it's not. i'm worried.

[debrosskyle]

Make sure you drink enough water (you should drink so you're not thirsty)? I took fenugreek for weeks and it seemed to help me. When I stopped taking it, I didn't see a drop. I pump enough to keep up as long as I pump at night, as well as at work. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I would recommend pumping even if you don't get much because it tells your body to make more. Also, does your little one sleep through the night? If so, perhaps you could wake up and pump (sorry to even suggest that). I woke up at 2am for months to keep up with ds. ds is 7 months old and drinks about 21 oz while I'm at work (7 oz bottles, 3 times). I pump 15 to 18 oz at work. To keep up I now pump before I go to bed. He never gets a bottle while I'm home or on the weekends. I nurse lots on the weekends and that seems to keep thinks my supply up. Also, I have a freezer stash that we use when I have a bad pumping day or week. I notice that he'll drink more before my body gets the message so I'm usually a little bit behind him with the growth spurts. Hope this helps!

[Stephanie]

Lovely Tuesday- You also have to remember, that any breastmilk your baby gets is beneficial. Pump what you can and nurse often when you are home.

If you can, once a month or every other month try to have a 3 day weekend where you do nothing but lay in bed and nurse.

[gamrgrl]

I always had much more than I needed. There were two main reasons for that though, 1. I am a big milk cow and pumped very well and 2. both of my kids hated the bottle and only ate what they absolutely HAD to while I was away. After a while when I had a bunch frozen already most of the point of pumping at work was to maintain my supply for weekends when I was home and the little ones nursed all day. I ended up dumping a lot of milk down the drain with my son (though it about broke my heart) and with my daughter I donated to the National Milk Bank.

[Jmom1010]

^ I agree. And yes pumping even if you do not get much will tell your body to make more milk. Just make sure to keep up your fluids and eat enough calories to support your body. And yes as dreadful as gettng up in the middle of the night to pump is, it worked wonders for me. When my son was a newborn I could get up at 4 am and pump 6oz per side every night. It went a long way to building a good freezer supply. Once I went back to work, my supply started to dwindle and I no longer got the big payoffs from getting up and DS started sleeping through the night so I gave up 4 am and traded it for midnight which worked better sleep wise for me and maintained just enough of an edge to say a little bit ahead of DS.

~Karen

[lovely_tuesday]

hi all,

well, i tried the fenugreek and only got marginal results- unsure as to why. i've also started my period again, so i wonder if something hormonal could be causing a low pumping supply. but it could also be that i've been so exhausted lately that i haven't been pumping as much at home as i should. i pump three times at work, then nurse her when i get home. i haven't been pumping between nursing. i do pump between 2 and 3 am on work nights (5 nights a week) but just can't seem to get myself up to do it on my two nights off.

i have relaxed considerably about the whole thing- i was so serious about it that i was driving myself nutso. so i give her as much milk as i pump and if she has to have formula to suppliment then she has to have it and i'm not going to freak about it anymore. the formula was causing her a problem so we switched her to a 'sensitive' formula.

but having said that, i am going to commit to myself to get up and pump on my nights off and to pump in between feedings at home. i really do want my baby to have breastmilk exclusively.

thanks to everyone for the information and words of encouragement.

susanna

[melissa216w]

I have only been back at work for a week but so far i've been keeping up. My dad only had to supplement with one 2oz bottle of formula last Tuesday. Most days he ate between 10 and 10.5oz, he ate 13oz the day my dad supplemented. I pump once before McKade wakes up in the morning, three times at work, and most nights I pump once before heading to bed. I seem to be getting 3 to 3.5oz in the morning and each pumping at work, but only 1 to 1.5oz in the evening. This weekend I have also pumped between feedings. So I have over two days worth of BM in the fridge for McKade. I should be able to freeze some this week!