Many of the EPers I have come across have a specific schedule they pump by. However, that has never worked for me. I began pumping every 3 hours (8 x per day). I would feed her and then pump right afterward. (My supply was greater than her demand from the beginning, so I am able to pump after she eats instead of before.) I didn't pay attention to the time I pumped, I just pumped after she was fed. After about 2 weeks I began holding her and cuddling with her after she ate, pushing my pump sessions further back. I started pumping every 3-4 hours during the day and continued to pump with her feeds at night. At this point I was pumping 5-7 oz per session.
Once my body began to feel back to normal after my labor and delivery, I had an increased desire to get out of the house and have some adult interaction. With increased outings, I started testing the limits of how long I could go between pump sessions. I quickly realized I could go 4-5 hours and continue to maintain my supply. With this new schedule I was pumping about 7-10 oz per session.
Hannah is now just shy of 3 months and I am usually pumping 5 times/day. I have no set times, just whenever it fits into my schedule. Sometimes I will pump after 4 hours, sometimes after 7 hours. I return to work next week and plan to maintain my non-schedule schedule. Being a nurse, my breaks come whenever they come. I will not be able to say "it is 10 o'clock time for me to pump." I plan to pump when I wake up before work, 3 times at work (12 hour days), and then when I get home before bed.
I am a very relaxed EPer. I have never kept track of exactly how much I am pumping. I know that I continue to make more than Hannah demands by about 6-10 oz per day. I have 450-500 oz of BM in the freezer. My ultimate goal is to get Hannah to 1 year on BM. If my supply maintains with my return to work, then I plan to drop to 2 pump sessions at work when she hits 5 months. I hope to get a freezer stash adequate enough to stop pumping before we hit that year mark.
Some people find they need the consistency of a set schedule. That just has never worked for me. I plan my pump sessions around my day, not my day around my pump sessions. There are a million different ways to be an EPer, find out what works for you. There is no wrong way way.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Pumping Challenges: Living Arrangements - Ixelle
It really takes a special kind of perseverance to pump exclusively, naturally there are many challenges along the way. Here is one of my struggles.
Living arrangements.
Although my husband and I have a place of our own, we rent out a room to a friend of ours and also have been providing a room for my brother to stay. So it's always been a house full of guys and lil ol me. This puts a big restriction on where I can pump in my own house. For the first 3 months I was pumping in Thumpers room, and between pumping, skin to skin time and trying to get nursing going, I was basically a prisoner in the nursery. Once I went hands-free I started trying things like feeding Thumper, or changing him while I pumped, or sorting his laundry. For 2 months I re-read some of my favorite books (and would usually look up at the clock and realize that I pumped for too long). For right now I see my pumping time as 'me' time where I can do things that I want to do whether it's read, do chores, spend time with Thumper or even type up blog posts. Thinking about something other than pumping helps tremendously. In the past week, I moved the pump into the master bedroom (which has been in dire need of a good cleaning) and have been able to fold laundry, use my laptop to access the internet instead of just my phone, clean a little, relax a little. Just having a change of scenery is great for my mental state while pumping. I don't have to look around and be reminded of only baby things. This also means that I can use the master bathroom instead of having to worry about covering up to go use the bathroom or go wash up. I'm still cautiously exploring other places to pump and have successfully pumped in the car once (not while driving), and will need to do that again this weekend. A change in scenery makes quite a difference when you are getting frustrated or burnt out with pumping.
Living arrangements.
Although my husband and I have a place of our own, we rent out a room to a friend of ours and also have been providing a room for my brother to stay. So it's always been a house full of guys and lil ol me. This puts a big restriction on where I can pump in my own house. For the first 3 months I was pumping in Thumpers room, and between pumping, skin to skin time and trying to get nursing going, I was basically a prisoner in the nursery. Once I went hands-free I started trying things like feeding Thumper, or changing him while I pumped, or sorting his laundry. For 2 months I re-read some of my favorite books (and would usually look up at the clock and realize that I pumped for too long). For right now I see my pumping time as 'me' time where I can do things that I want to do whether it's read, do chores, spend time with Thumper or even type up blog posts. Thinking about something other than pumping helps tremendously. In the past week, I moved the pump into the master bedroom (which has been in dire need of a good cleaning) and have been able to fold laundry, use my laptop to access the internet instead of just my phone, clean a little, relax a little. Just having a change of scenery is great for my mental state while pumping. I don't have to look around and be reminded of only baby things. This also means that I can use the master bathroom instead of having to worry about covering up to go use the bathroom or go wash up. I'm still cautiously exploring other places to pump and have successfully pumped in the car once (not while driving), and will need to do that again this weekend. A change in scenery makes quite a difference when you are getting frustrated or burnt out with pumping.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
My pumping schedule through 6 months - Heather
One of the most common questions I see from new EPers on message boards and forums is "When do you pump?" It is often followed up by "...and for how long...and when can I drop a session...and what will happen to my supply?" While everyone's experience is different, hearing those experiences and their outcomes can help an EPer make their own decision on pumping schedules. Some of our Pumping Moms included their schedules in their "Intro" posts, and some others (like me) will offer an entire post about pumping schedules.
Most online resources (Kellymom, iVillage forums - see links at right) recommend pumping for 120 minutes a day total, and I loosely followed that guideline. At the hospital, the lactation consultant started me pumping every 3 hours around the clock for 15 minutes per session, a total of 8X a day and 120 minutes.
I had a severe problem with sleep deprivation the first week after going into labor, to the point I was actually hallucinating on the car ride to The Cupcake's first doctor appointment. I realized midway through a conversation with nobody that I was not all there. I went into labor on a Monday night after working all day and being up since about 7am, slept zilch that night, and got only a few 15 minute naps in the next two days of my hospital stay. Even when I sent TC to the nursery she was brought back to try feeding on demand any time she showed a hunger cue, and we've already discussed how frustrating those first attempts were. The first night home was perhaps the most stressful of my life so there was NO chance of sleep there...I absolutely understand now how sleep deprivation can be used as torture. Though my dear husband and mother tried to offer me some respite by taking on TC's care, I didn't really get over it for quite a long time.
This is a long way of explaining that something had to give, and I dropped the 3am pumping session at 1 month. I still had to feed The Cupcake every 2-3 hours, but it was much easier to give a bottle than try to pump also. If perchance she was sleeping at that point, I could get back to sleep quicker myself. I had built up 3-4 days of "fresh" milk in the refrigerator and a few hundred ounces in the freezer already. So for the next month I pumped 7X a day for about 17 minutes, which was still around 120 minutes per day. She was eating about 42 oz per day, which is way off the charts at any of the sites I mentioned above, but the pediatrician didn't bat an eye and she was "wasting" a lot with reflux. While I didn't keep track, looking back I estimate I was making upwards of 50 oz per day at that point
At 2 months I cut down to 5X a day for 20 minutes each session, 6, 10, 2, 6, & 10. Still covered what she ate + added to the freezer every day. My output was not noticeably different. I headed back to work just before 3 months, though I didn't experience the drop many women do when returning to work. I actually found pumping at work to be relaxing, it was certainly much easier than pumping at home and trying to entertain The Cupcake at the same time, plus it was a nice twice daily break from a less than exciting job :)
Once I was certain I wasn't going to have the back to work crash, I started itching to drop another session. While I didn't mind pumping at work, I had cut down to part time soon after returning, and on my days as a stay at home mom I felt greatly restricted by my pumping schedule and it was hard to leave the house or get anything accomplished. So at 3 1/2 months I changed my schedule again so that I pumped 4X a day, roughly 6am, noon, 5pm, and 10pm. 25 minutes per session, a little longer in the morning as my let down seemed to drag a bit. At this point I was still replacing everything TC ate in a day, and freezing 4-8oz additional, so again, around 45-50 oz per day. My deep freezer was full. I had farmed out storage of 2 large boxes, about 400 oz to my parents' house, and had yet to touch any of the frozen milk. At this point I had pretty much decided that 6 months was my goal, so I held my breath and took another big leap...
At 4 1/2 months I cut down to pumping 3X a day, every 8 hours. 30 minutes per session.
For the first two weeks everything was still great, I was getting 15 oz per session so I continued to produce everything my kid ate in a day and occasionally froze 4 oz here and there. I had a few more clogged ducts than the previous times I'd cut down, but that was to be expected when going 8 hours between sessions, I figured my body would adjust...
And then at about 5 months, my supply tanked.
TANKED. I lost 1/3 of my daily production. And TC seemed exceptionally hungry, despite the addition of rice cereal to her diet. In the next 2 weeks she consumed everything I was making daily plus a big chunk of the fresh reserves from the refrigerator, so all of a sudden my buffer was gone!
The Cupcake is just a few days away from 6 months old, and I started defrosting frozen milk for the first time tonight. Even if I completely stopped pumping TODAY, there's over a month of milk in the freezer...so we should be okay...but I feel extremely anxious. I'm definitely ready to "get my life back" and stop being a slave to my pump...my family is nothing but supportive...but I can't help but feel nervous about this next big step.
Wish me luck!
Most online resources (Kellymom, iVillage forums - see links at right) recommend pumping for 120 minutes a day total, and I loosely followed that guideline. At the hospital, the lactation consultant started me pumping every 3 hours around the clock for 15 minutes per session, a total of 8X a day and 120 minutes.
I had a severe problem with sleep deprivation the first week after going into labor, to the point I was actually hallucinating on the car ride to The Cupcake's first doctor appointment. I realized midway through a conversation with nobody that I was not all there. I went into labor on a Monday night after working all day and being up since about 7am, slept zilch that night, and got only a few 15 minute naps in the next two days of my hospital stay. Even when I sent TC to the nursery she was brought back to try feeding on demand any time she showed a hunger cue, and we've already discussed how frustrating those first attempts were. The first night home was perhaps the most stressful of my life so there was NO chance of sleep there...I absolutely understand now how sleep deprivation can be used as torture. Though my dear husband and mother tried to offer me some respite by taking on TC's care, I didn't really get over it for quite a long time.
This is a long way of explaining that something had to give, and I dropped the 3am pumping session at 1 month. I still had to feed The Cupcake every 2-3 hours, but it was much easier to give a bottle than try to pump also. If perchance she was sleeping at that point, I could get back to sleep quicker myself. I had built up 3-4 days of "fresh" milk in the refrigerator and a few hundred ounces in the freezer already. So for the next month I pumped 7X a day for about 17 minutes, which was still around 120 minutes per day. She was eating about 42 oz per day, which is way off the charts at any of the sites I mentioned above, but the pediatrician didn't bat an eye and she was "wasting" a lot with reflux. While I didn't keep track, looking back I estimate I was making upwards of 50 oz per day at that point
At 2 months I cut down to 5X a day for 20 minutes each session, 6, 10, 2, 6, & 10. Still covered what she ate + added to the freezer every day. My output was not noticeably different. I headed back to work just before 3 months, though I didn't experience the drop many women do when returning to work. I actually found pumping at work to be relaxing, it was certainly much easier than pumping at home and trying to entertain The Cupcake at the same time, plus it was a nice twice daily break from a less than exciting job :)
Once I was certain I wasn't going to have the back to work crash, I started itching to drop another session. While I didn't mind pumping at work, I had cut down to part time soon after returning, and on my days as a stay at home mom I felt greatly restricted by my pumping schedule and it was hard to leave the house or get anything accomplished. So at 3 1/2 months I changed my schedule again so that I pumped 4X a day, roughly 6am, noon, 5pm, and 10pm. 25 minutes per session, a little longer in the morning as my let down seemed to drag a bit. At this point I was still replacing everything TC ate in a day, and freezing 4-8oz additional, so again, around 45-50 oz per day. My deep freezer was full. I had farmed out storage of 2 large boxes, about 400 oz to my parents' house, and had yet to touch any of the frozen milk. At this point I had pretty much decided that 6 months was my goal, so I held my breath and took another big leap...
At 4 1/2 months I cut down to pumping 3X a day, every 8 hours. 30 minutes per session.
For the first two weeks everything was still great, I was getting 15 oz per session so I continued to produce everything my kid ate in a day and occasionally froze 4 oz here and there. I had a few more clogged ducts than the previous times I'd cut down, but that was to be expected when going 8 hours between sessions, I figured my body would adjust...
And then at about 5 months, my supply tanked.
TANKED. I lost 1/3 of my daily production. And TC seemed exceptionally hungry, despite the addition of rice cereal to her diet. In the next 2 weeks she consumed everything I was making daily plus a big chunk of the fresh reserves from the refrigerator, so all of a sudden my buffer was gone!
The Cupcake is just a few days away from 6 months old, and I started defrosting frozen milk for the first time tonight. Even if I completely stopped pumping TODAY, there's over a month of milk in the freezer...so we should be okay...but I feel extremely anxious. I'm definitely ready to "get my life back" and stop being a slave to my pump...my family is nothing but supportive...but I can't help but feel nervous about this next big step.
Wish me luck!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Rachel, Hannah, and our Milk Machine: An Introduction
Hi, my name is Rachel. My daughter Hannah was born on April 5, 2011. Being an RN in labor and delivery, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed and I also was very familiar with the struggles that accompany breastfeeding. I always had a feeling that BFing wouldn't go well for us, but I really wanted to give it a try. We had latch issues from the very beginning. Hannah preferred her upper lip to my nipple, making it very difficult to get her to latch. With the help of an LC, we were eventually able to get her well latched and she did ok for about a day. However, my milk came in full force on day 3, and she would no longer latch. I tried to pump and was only able to get 1 ml. At her first pedi appointment her weight had dropped from 7 lb 12 oz to 6 lb 13 oz. We were told to continue to try BFing, but we were to give her 1-2 oz of formula every 3 hours.
I called my friend (an LC) and she came over to the house right after the appt to see what she could do. Hannah still wouldn't latch, so we tried the pump again. At this point I was too engorged for the pump to even effectively draw out the milk. She showed me how to hand express and I was able to get 1 oz out of just 1 side. We syringe fed her that and planned to continue to hand express/pump until my breasts would soften enough for her to latch again. I hand expressed every 3 hours for 2 days. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I was exhausted, my boobs hurt, and my baby had lost too much weight. I realized very quickly that the syringe feeding was not something I could handle at that time and we started giving her the expressed milk in a bottle. Once the engorgement was under control, I began trying to put her back to the breast. I tried without a nipple shield, I tried with a nipple shield. Occasionally she would latch and suck, but mostly she just screamed. I have a very strong letdown and she just couldn't handle it. I knew that breastmilk was the best thing for her, but I also knew that her and I both crying every time I she tried to breastfeed wasn't good for anyone. It was then that I made the decision to EP. She was still going to get the good stuff, and her and I were going to be much happier.
Why it works for us:
A lot of people I have come across think pumping is the devil. To be honest, I have come to enjoy EPing. Not the pumping itself, but it really works in my life. At this point, I am only pumping 5 times a day. I am pumping 10-14 oz per session. While I somewhat have to schedule my life around pumping, it really hasn't been that difficult for me. I love that I can just pack a bottle for her and don't have to worry about feeding her on the go. The very best part has been the opportunity it has given my husband to bond with her. He feeds her whenever he is able to and it really makes him feel connected to her. I think he would have felt really disconnected in the beginning if he wouldn't have had that opportunity. This has also been a big key in me keeping my sanity. Someone else can feed her while I nap. Someone else can feed her so I can sleep through the night. (I am now able to go 7-8 hours at night without pumping.) I think my postpartum experience would have been a lot different if it were solely up to me to feed her.
When the time comes for baby #2, I will absolutely try breastfeeding again, but if it doesn't work out I know that EPing is an excellent option for my family.
My pumping must haves:
- I have a Hygeia Enjoye breastpump. I love it. It is small and easy to use. It is the only closed system pump on the market.
- Hands-free pumping bra. I have the Simple Wishes bra and it might just be my best friend
I called my friend (an LC) and she came over to the house right after the appt to see what she could do. Hannah still wouldn't latch, so we tried the pump again. At this point I was too engorged for the pump to even effectively draw out the milk. She showed me how to hand express and I was able to get 1 oz out of just 1 side. We syringe fed her that and planned to continue to hand express/pump until my breasts would soften enough for her to latch again. I hand expressed every 3 hours for 2 days. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I was exhausted, my boobs hurt, and my baby had lost too much weight. I realized very quickly that the syringe feeding was not something I could handle at that time and we started giving her the expressed milk in a bottle. Once the engorgement was under control, I began trying to put her back to the breast. I tried without a nipple shield, I tried with a nipple shield. Occasionally she would latch and suck, but mostly she just screamed. I have a very strong letdown and she just couldn't handle it. I knew that breastmilk was the best thing for her, but I also knew that her and I both crying every time I she tried to breastfeed wasn't good for anyone. It was then that I made the decision to EP. She was still going to get the good stuff, and her and I were going to be much happier.
Why it works for us:
A lot of people I have come across think pumping is the devil. To be honest, I have come to enjoy EPing. Not the pumping itself, but it really works in my life. At this point, I am only pumping 5 times a day. I am pumping 10-14 oz per session. While I somewhat have to schedule my life around pumping, it really hasn't been that difficult for me. I love that I can just pack a bottle for her and don't have to worry about feeding her on the go. The very best part has been the opportunity it has given my husband to bond with her. He feeds her whenever he is able to and it really makes him feel connected to her. I think he would have felt really disconnected in the beginning if he wouldn't have had that opportunity. This has also been a big key in me keeping my sanity. Someone else can feed her while I nap. Someone else can feed her so I can sleep through the night. (I am now able to go 7-8 hours at night without pumping.) I think my postpartum experience would have been a lot different if it were solely up to me to feed her.
When the time comes for baby #2, I will absolutely try breastfeeding again, but if it doesn't work out I know that EPing is an excellent option for my family.
My pumping must haves:
- I have a Hygeia Enjoye breastpump. I love it. It is small and easy to use. It is the only closed system pump on the market.
- Hands-free pumping bra. I have the Simple Wishes bra and it might just be my best friend
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Heather and The Cupcake...an Introduction
Hi everyone, my name is Heather. I usually blog over at Heathers Creative Life, where I share craft and party ideas, and cool things I've made - including my 5 month old daughter, AKA "The Cupcake". While I've been kicking around the idea of talking about my EP life for a while (milk still counts as a cool thing I've created, right?), I'm just not sure how much that crowd wants to know about my boobs, so this is a great opportunity and I'm hoping to contribute several posts here. While I never intended to EP, it has actually worked out great for my family and I don't regret it one bit.
My story of why I ended up pumping is a pretty familiar one to many EP moms:
My daughter didn't eat. She was too sleepy for her first few days in the world, and despite undressing, tickling, and trying every other distraction technique the nurses showed me, she just wasn't into it. We kept trying every few hours, including with a nipple shield and eventually they had me pump. Those first couple days are kind of jumbled together in my memory, but each new nurse/doctor/lactation consultant brought in different ideas about what should and should definitely NOT be done - and everything contradicted. Mostly I remember being very frustrated and anxious.
As a first time parent, when someone in the hospital tells you your baby is losing too much weight, you tend to get a little freaked out. This in no way helps the situation.
At one point on the 2nd day she latched on and seemed to go to town...for 2 hours. She chewed and chewed until I was raw and weeping, but I endured it because I thought my baby was wasting away. Then she went back to not wanting to latch again, and still wanted to sleep. We tried syringe feeding the pumped milk/colostrum, which was when I realized I was losing my mind. I was exhausted from 36+ hours without sleep, not to mention the trauma of labor, and here I was trying to pour this liquid gold into my baby's mouth. She, of course, had no idea how to swallow and just let it all leak out. It was a thousand times more frustrating than the cliche of herding cats, and the stakes were much higher. She cried, I cried...At one point in between droplets we tried giving her a pacifier to stimulate the sucking reflex and encourage swallowing...but wait, introducing other nipples was what we were trying to avoid with syringe feeding, right? Somehow in my fog I recognized the lunacy and just called an end to the whole agonizing process. We slapped a nipple on the bottle and she took it like a champ. A million pounds were lifted from my shoulders as she sucked it down with ease, and we've really never looked back.
At our weight check the next day our pediatrician announced "She is perfect!" and brushed aside my worries about her nutrition. He explained that all babies lose weight early on, and that they bring in those who lost more than 10% for a weight check as a precaution, but really I need not worry. She was perfectly healthy and doing great. She had already begun to gain back her early losses which he said was quite impressive, and by 2 weeks she was well over birth weight again.
My milk came in quickly and with a vengeance, I was able to get 4 days of bottles into the refrigerator and start building a freezer stash, all while still producing her daily needs. I knew exactly how much she was eating, which was so reassuring for me that it alone was enough to keep me pumping (and I tracked each bottle by writing it down for the first month or so, just to be sure).
The LC's, doctors, and nurses all instructed me to keep trying to get The Cupcake to take meals straight from the tap, but she was never interested. Truthfully, pumping worked out really well for my lifestyle and personality so I didn't try all that hard to force it. I was able to set a schedule, maybe the only thing in my life at that point that ran like clockwork, while still feeding TC on demand. I was able to control the suction and latch of my pump, something I couldn't do with my infant, and though I was still dealing with the pain from her hospital chew-a-thon (important note: you can totally bite without teeth. That hard little gum ridge they come with is plenty painful when tender body parts are smashed between it), eventually my nipples healed.
In my pre-birth breastfeeding class and in the countless books I'd read prior to trying, I kept hearing that "breastfeeding doesn't hurt if you are doing it right." Well, that's great - but what if MY BABY wasn't doing it right? I think this attitude is actually extremely detrimental to new mothers, and coupled with the variation and contradiction in advice each different "expert" gave me in the hospital, only serves to prove how subjective the field of breastfeeding really is. Everyone had different opinions, but presented them as hard core facts, which left me confused, frustrated and skeptical.
At 5 1/2 months, my beautiful little girl is tipping the scales at 16 1/2 lbs, and I no longer worry if she is getting enough to eat. She LOVES her bottle, and because of that she can be comforted by numerous caregivers, something which really helped me be able to get out and about once in a while and transition back to work without too much trouble. She's still getting breast milk, and as the fist baby (and first grand baby on my side) I have zero worries that we are missing any bonding time (I swear I held her for the first 6 weeks straight). In addition, while she still eats every 2-3 hours, I've been able to cut back on my pumping sessions so it is less of a burden and we have a little more freedom in our schedule, and even though she still wakes several times a night it is less of an interruption and both of us can go back to sleep quickly.
I never would have thought to choose exclusively pumping, and outside of my family I have not found much support for it - but I'm almost to my goal of pumping for 6 months (with plenty in the freezer after that), and the piece of mind it has given me was worth all of the bottle washing and then some :)
My story of why I ended up pumping is a pretty familiar one to many EP moms:
My daughter didn't eat. She was too sleepy for her first few days in the world, and despite undressing, tickling, and trying every other distraction technique the nurses showed me, she just wasn't into it. We kept trying every few hours, including with a nipple shield and eventually they had me pump. Those first couple days are kind of jumbled together in my memory, but each new nurse/doctor/lactation consultant brought in different ideas about what should and should definitely NOT be done - and everything contradicted. Mostly I remember being very frustrated and anxious.
As a first time parent, when someone in the hospital tells you your baby is losing too much weight, you tend to get a little freaked out. This in no way helps the situation.
At one point on the 2nd day she latched on and seemed to go to town...for 2 hours. She chewed and chewed until I was raw and weeping, but I endured it because I thought my baby was wasting away. Then she went back to not wanting to latch again, and still wanted to sleep. We tried syringe feeding the pumped milk/colostrum, which was when I realized I was losing my mind. I was exhausted from 36+ hours without sleep, not to mention the trauma of labor, and here I was trying to pour this liquid gold into my baby's mouth. She, of course, had no idea how to swallow and just let it all leak out. It was a thousand times more frustrating than the cliche of herding cats, and the stakes were much higher. She cried, I cried...At one point in between droplets we tried giving her a pacifier to stimulate the sucking reflex and encourage swallowing...but wait, introducing other nipples was what we were trying to avoid with syringe feeding, right? Somehow in my fog I recognized the lunacy and just called an end to the whole agonizing process. We slapped a nipple on the bottle and she took it like a champ. A million pounds were lifted from my shoulders as she sucked it down with ease, and we've really never looked back.
At our weight check the next day our pediatrician announced "She is perfect!" and brushed aside my worries about her nutrition. He explained that all babies lose weight early on, and that they bring in those who lost more than 10% for a weight check as a precaution, but really I need not worry. She was perfectly healthy and doing great. She had already begun to gain back her early losses which he said was quite impressive, and by 2 weeks she was well over birth weight again.
My milk came in quickly and with a vengeance, I was able to get 4 days of bottles into the refrigerator and start building a freezer stash, all while still producing her daily needs. I knew exactly how much she was eating, which was so reassuring for me that it alone was enough to keep me pumping (and I tracked each bottle by writing it down for the first month or so, just to be sure).
The LC's, doctors, and nurses all instructed me to keep trying to get The Cupcake to take meals straight from the tap, but she was never interested. Truthfully, pumping worked out really well for my lifestyle and personality so I didn't try all that hard to force it. I was able to set a schedule, maybe the only thing in my life at that point that ran like clockwork, while still feeding TC on demand. I was able to control the suction and latch of my pump, something I couldn't do with my infant, and though I was still dealing with the pain from her hospital chew-a-thon (important note: you can totally bite without teeth. That hard little gum ridge they come with is plenty painful when tender body parts are smashed between it), eventually my nipples healed.
In my pre-birth breastfeeding class and in the countless books I'd read prior to trying, I kept hearing that "breastfeeding doesn't hurt if you are doing it right." Well, that's great - but what if MY BABY wasn't doing it right? I think this attitude is actually extremely detrimental to new mothers, and coupled with the variation and contradiction in advice each different "expert" gave me in the hospital, only serves to prove how subjective the field of breastfeeding really is. Everyone had different opinions, but presented them as hard core facts, which left me confused, frustrated and skeptical.
At 5 1/2 months, my beautiful little girl is tipping the scales at 16 1/2 lbs, and I no longer worry if she is getting enough to eat. She LOVES her bottle, and because of that she can be comforted by numerous caregivers, something which really helped me be able to get out and about once in a while and transition back to work without too much trouble. She's still getting breast milk, and as the fist baby (and first grand baby on my side) I have zero worries that we are missing any bonding time (I swear I held her for the first 6 weeks straight). In addition, while she still eats every 2-3 hours, I've been able to cut back on my pumping sessions so it is less of a burden and we have a little more freedom in our schedule, and even though she still wakes several times a night it is less of an interruption and both of us can go back to sleep quickly.
I never would have thought to choose exclusively pumping, and outside of my family I have not found much support for it - but I'm almost to my goal of pumping for 6 months (with plenty in the freezer after that), and the piece of mind it has given me was worth all of the bottle washing and then some :)
Monday, June 20, 2011
Pumping Vocabulary & Acronyms - Medela PISA
If you've been searching the blogosphere for information on pumping, chances are you've come across a few terms or abbreviations that you may or may not have figured out. Here are a few frequently used words and phrases relating to the Medela PISA:
First, how about PISA:
Pump In Style Advanced - Medela's everyday use double electric pump. It is widely available and very popular. There are several varieties differentiated by the type of bag they come in - for example, this is the shoulder bag:
The little yellow cube in the lower right with the tubing coming out of it is the actual pump, it is built in to the bag (though removable, you wouldn't usually operate it outside of the bag).
The predecessor to the PISA was the Pump In Style (PIS) - pretty similar, but a little bulkier and heavier.
Membranes: these are the tiny white rubber circles that seem unimportant until you tear or bend one, then you realize they have a HUGE effect on the suction!
The membranes plug in to the
Valves: These are yellow hard plastic and generally come attached to connectors, so you may not even know they are removable (I had no idea)
If you have a sudden loss of suction, it's often because you've bent or torn one of these tiny membranes, or cracked the valves (or tucked your bra under the edge of the breast shield).
Breast shield: AKA funnels or cones. The PISA kit comes with 2 piece breast shields that are the funnel and the connector (and the valve & membrane are in the connector), but when you buy replacement pieces they often sell them as a single piece like this:
Breast shields come in multiple sizes. The 24mm is the most common, and the PISA kits come with that & the larger 27mm. They also make 21mm shields. For the 2 piece shields, any size will fit on the connectors, and the funnel part can actually be used as a funnel if you are filling freezer bags - remove the connector, put the spout end into the bag, and pour into the wide end.
What other pumping terms & acronyms are you running across?
All photos from Medela
First, how about PISA:
Pump In Style Advanced - Medela's everyday use double electric pump. It is widely available and very popular. There are several varieties differentiated by the type of bag they come in - for example, this is the shoulder bag:
The little yellow cube in the lower right with the tubing coming out of it is the actual pump, it is built in to the bag (though removable, you wouldn't usually operate it outside of the bag).
The predecessor to the PISA was the Pump In Style (PIS) - pretty similar, but a little bulkier and heavier.
Membranes: these are the tiny white rubber circles that seem unimportant until you tear or bend one, then you realize they have a HUGE effect on the suction!
The membranes plug in to the
Valves: These are yellow hard plastic and generally come attached to connectors, so you may not even know they are removable (I had no idea)
If you have a sudden loss of suction, it's often because you've bent or torn one of these tiny membranes, or cracked the valves (or tucked your bra under the edge of the breast shield).
Breast shield: AKA funnels or cones. The PISA kit comes with 2 piece breast shields that are the funnel and the connector (and the valve & membrane are in the connector), but when you buy replacement pieces they often sell them as a single piece like this:
Breast shields come in multiple sizes. The 24mm is the most common, and the PISA kits come with that & the larger 27mm. They also make 21mm shields. For the 2 piece shields, any size will fit on the connectors, and the funnel part can actually be used as a funnel if you are filling freezer bags - remove the connector, put the spout end into the bag, and pour into the wide end.
What other pumping terms & acronyms are you running across?
All photos from Medela
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Ixelle and Thumper...an Introduction
I'm the mom (Ixelle) of an almost 4 month old baby boy (Thumper), and after much pain and tears I made the decision to pump exclusively to supply milk for him. I always expected to breastfeed my baby, especially being a stay at home mom I never intended to have to pump except to relieve engorgement. When my baby was born, he wouldn't latch at all and had no interest in the breast. When we would try to encourage him to latch with the help of nurses and LCs, he hated it and would scream and scream. It was urgent that he be able to eat since he was jaundiced enough to keep him in the hospital a few extra days but not quite enough for them to admit him to the nicu. Since he was not nursing, I started pumping the day after he was born. The LC in postpartum worked with us extensively during our hospital stay and finally got baby to take the nipple shield, which he would do only after at least 20 minutes of hysterical screaming. We also had to set up a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) and mixed what little I could pump out with formula and he would rarely take more than 2 ml at a feeding. The LC arranged for us to rent a hospital-grade pump after we went home.
After we were finally discharged, we had to bring him back to the hospital the next 3 days for appointments (and blood draws) to check on his bilirubin levels. At the first appointment, we met with another LC who was shocked at how he just would not take the breast, even when she was pouring milk into his mouth next to the nipple shield. She advised us to get rid of the SNS since it was causing us so much stress, and to give baby a bottle as long as we weren't opposed to it. I had no problems, I just wanted to be able to feed my baby. He took the bottle like a champ and was finally getting some milk into his system (at this point my milk had already come in and I was making enough for him). We bottle-fed him while trying to offer the breast whenever we could and doing a ton of skin to skin (kangaroo care).
It was 2 weeks of LC visits before baby would take the nipple shield without screaming, and another week before he would do it consistently at home. It was going well, and baby even nursed without the shield three times! Then we got thrush. Between baby squirming and fighting me at the breast and the shooting pain in my nipple when he nursed, breastfeeding was a miserable experience but I couldn't imagine quitting. On top of that, a tenant and my brother are living with us, so between trying to nurse and pumping I felt like a prisoner in the dungeon of my baby's room. As time passed I was less and less motivated to nurse and eventually stopped offering him the breast altogether and was purely bottle-feeding him breast milk.
Right before he was 3 months old I decided to give nursing another try, I had been getting slightly more sleep and was more accustomed to taking care of a baby daily and thought that I would be in a good state of mind to try again. I decided to try nursing him on the nipple shield at least one feeding per day and see where that led me. I did that for 2 days and was immediately frustrated again with nursing a squirming, kicking baby. I thought about it and realized that I wasn't trying to nurse for the benefit of my baby, it was just for my convenience and appearance. Baby was already getting the best nutrition he could have, he was just getting it from a bottle. After another few days of praying and contemplating I officially made the decision to exclusively pump. It was so heart breaking to 'give up' after all the time, effort, tears I put into trying to get my baby to nurse. Once I made the decision, I was able to move on with my life. I bought a hands-free pumping bra and switched baby back to regular bottles (we had been using Breastflow bottles in an effort to get him to nurse without a nipple shield, and they were hard to wash). At this point pumping became downright enjoyable. I played games on my phone or called up friends while I pumped and it gave me time to sit and relax a few times a day. I was able to prop baby up on my Boppy and feed him or change his diaper while pumping.
I wasn't passionate about EPing until I looked online for resources and realized how slim the pickings are yet how many women actually EP. Let's face it, it takes a real woman to pump exclusively to feed her baby! I'm hoping to continue through one year. If my story can in any way help or encourage someone else who wants the best for their baby and is willing to spend weeks of her life tied to a pump to get it then it all becomes worth it. Currently I am applying to donate milk since I have a nice oversupply and I desperately need to reclaim my freezer space.
I have been pumping for almost 4 months, I use the Medela PISA, Simple Wishes hands-free bra and Playtex VentAire Advanced bottles.
I pump for 20 minutes at a time at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm and then around 3am when baby wakes up.
Tips:
Hands-free is the only way to EP
Refrigerate your pump parts instead of washing them every time you pump, and then you can just wash them once a day
After we were finally discharged, we had to bring him back to the hospital the next 3 days for appointments (and blood draws) to check on his bilirubin levels. At the first appointment, we met with another LC who was shocked at how he just would not take the breast, even when she was pouring milk into his mouth next to the nipple shield. She advised us to get rid of the SNS since it was causing us so much stress, and to give baby a bottle as long as we weren't opposed to it. I had no problems, I just wanted to be able to feed my baby. He took the bottle like a champ and was finally getting some milk into his system (at this point my milk had already come in and I was making enough for him). We bottle-fed him while trying to offer the breast whenever we could and doing a ton of skin to skin (kangaroo care).
It was 2 weeks of LC visits before baby would take the nipple shield without screaming, and another week before he would do it consistently at home. It was going well, and baby even nursed without the shield three times! Then we got thrush. Between baby squirming and fighting me at the breast and the shooting pain in my nipple when he nursed, breastfeeding was a miserable experience but I couldn't imagine quitting. On top of that, a tenant and my brother are living with us, so between trying to nurse and pumping I felt like a prisoner in the dungeon of my baby's room. As time passed I was less and less motivated to nurse and eventually stopped offering him the breast altogether and was purely bottle-feeding him breast milk.
Right before he was 3 months old I decided to give nursing another try, I had been getting slightly more sleep and was more accustomed to taking care of a baby daily and thought that I would be in a good state of mind to try again. I decided to try nursing him on the nipple shield at least one feeding per day and see where that led me. I did that for 2 days and was immediately frustrated again with nursing a squirming, kicking baby. I thought about it and realized that I wasn't trying to nurse for the benefit of my baby, it was just for my convenience and appearance. Baby was already getting the best nutrition he could have, he was just getting it from a bottle. After another few days of praying and contemplating I officially made the decision to exclusively pump. It was so heart breaking to 'give up' after all the time, effort, tears I put into trying to get my baby to nurse. Once I made the decision, I was able to move on with my life. I bought a hands-free pumping bra and switched baby back to regular bottles (we had been using Breastflow bottles in an effort to get him to nurse without a nipple shield, and they were hard to wash). At this point pumping became downright enjoyable. I played games on my phone or called up friends while I pumped and it gave me time to sit and relax a few times a day. I was able to prop baby up on my Boppy and feed him or change his diaper while pumping.
I wasn't passionate about EPing until I looked online for resources and realized how slim the pickings are yet how many women actually EP. Let's face it, it takes a real woman to pump exclusively to feed her baby! I'm hoping to continue through one year. If my story can in any way help or encourage someone else who wants the best for their baby and is willing to spend weeks of her life tied to a pump to get it then it all becomes worth it. Currently I am applying to donate milk since I have a nice oversupply and I desperately need to reclaim my freezer space.
I have been pumping for almost 4 months, I use the Medela PISA, Simple Wishes hands-free bra and Playtex VentAire Advanced bottles.
I pump for 20 minutes at a time at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm, 11pm and then around 3am when baby wakes up.
Tips:
Hands-free is the only way to EP
Refrigerate your pump parts instead of washing them every time you pump, and then you can just wash them once a day
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