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!