Pumping schedule

[Anonymous]

1-1.5 oz per hour is a great rule of thumb if you plan to nurse through the night forever! Mine started sleeping through the night as soon as she started daycare and ate 16-20 oz during the 9 hours she was there, plus an additional 8-10 at home upon wake up and before bed. We didn’t do pace feeding either.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids needed AT LEAST 32 oz a day by 3 months. 4-6 oz a feed, every ~3 hours, that could be up to 24 oz of the course of 9 hours.

OP, don't worry if you have to start thinking about supplementing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is just anecdotal information. I think you may need one more pumping session very soon after your 7:30 a.m. nursing. Generally, I needed to pump 1.5 times for every time my baby (both of them) needed to drink a bottle. (My understanding is that babies are much more efficient at nursing than pumps are at pumping, so you're not going to get as much milk from the breast when pumping as you'd need for one bottle feeding.) I was able to keep up by adding one pumping session soon after the morning nursing. It's very hard to find time for, but morning is when you have the most milk. You've probably already thought of this, but just to make sure you have enough production, you may want to keep your calories up and stress down to the extent that you can!

+1

Also one way to lower stress is to supplement with formula.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your caregiver is two OZ short? Most babies drink 1-1.5 oz an hour. So if you are not feeding 7:30-5:30 you need 10-15 oz and you're producing 16. That should be enough. A working mom should pump 3 times over 9 hours away. With me working from home, I'm pumping twice and feeding the baby directly once.

The only thing I would suggest doing different is switching sides at 7:30. If you feed for 10 minutes, do 5 on each side. If you're still 2 oz short then drink a ton of water, do a TON of breast massage (I basically squeeze it out like an orange the entire pump session) and check your flange size.

False. This is baby-starving, lactivist BS. I think the original advice was intended for short periods away from the mother. To advise it for a full day of daycare is unbelievably irresponsible. This type of nonsense is why I hate breastfeeding advocates.

+1. Listen to your caregiver when they tell you your baby wants more milk.

[Anonymous]

Can you add a dream feed? Wake baby at 10-11 to nurse? That might either a) lead to dropping the 3am feed or b) lead to her needing fewer calories during the day. Seems like a win win.

Remember you’re also getting 4 oz from the Haakaa each weekend, so that aught to help a bit. Could you also use the Haakaa at 3am? Maybe get another 2 oz then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you add a dream feed? Wake baby at 10-11 to nurse? That might either a) lead to dropping the 3am feed or b) lead to her needing fewer calories during the day. Seems like a win win.

Remember you’re also getting 4 oz from the Haakaa each weekend, so that aught to help a bit. Could you also use the Haakaa at 3am? Maybe get another 2 oz then?

PP just with another thought - I’m a big-time “fed is best” person, so of course if you want to add some formula, do it! But also - its been one week and you’re SO close to having enough, I personally would try at least another week to see if you can make it work. Maybe baby will start taking more per nursing session in the evening and be okay wit’s a little less during the day. Maybe you’ll get more efficient with pumping as your body figures it out. Maybe one of the tricks here will work. It’s only been a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your caregiver is two OZ short? Most babies drink 1-1.5 oz an hour. So if you are not feeding 7:30-5:30 you need 10-15 oz and you're producing 16. That should be enough. A working mom should pump 3 times over 9 hours away. With me working from home, I'm pumping twice and feeding the baby directly once.

The only thing I would suggest doing different is switching sides at 7:30. If you feed for 10 minutes, do 5 on each side. If you're still 2 oz short then drink a ton of water, do a TON of breast massage (I basically squeeze it out like an orange the entire pump session) and check your flange size.

The bolded is only true if you look across 24 hours. Then yes, 24 - 36 oz is about right for a 15 week old.

But OP isn't feeding at all between 7 pm and 3 a.m.. I'm not saying she should, but if she isn't then the kid is going to need to make up those calories during the day, so daytime feeds will be bigger than 1 - 1.5 an hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To anyone that is breastfeeding and pumping, can you share your pumping schedule? Most of the sample schedules I found online are for exclusive pumping moms and the others seemed like far too many pumping sessions.

I am just getting back to work this week and am trying to get the hang of it again. I hated pumping with my first and struggled to produce enough to get by day to day (5-6 pumping sessions a day).

Right now, I am coming up about 2-3 ounces short - trying to figure out if I should try to do longer sessions during the day, use the Spectra letdown settings more effectively or add in another session. My supply tanks in the evening so not sure if its even worth the effort to add it in the evening.

Here is what my pumping/feeding day looks like right now:
3AM - breastfeed
7:30 AM - breastfeed on one side, Hakaa collection on the other (2oz)
10:00 AM - pump at work - 25 mins (8oz)
1:30 PM - pump at work - 20 mins (4oz)
3:30 PM - Pump at work - 15-20 mins (2oz)
5:30 PM - breastfeed
7:00 PM - breastfeed

Thank you!

OP, I breastfed and pumped at work (but a little bit later, when baby was 6 month and lactation was established). I am not sure if my schedule will help you. I would keep in mind that at 15 weeks baby normally is not on a set schedule and if you would feed on demand, the lactation will be established proportionally to baby's needs. Because it is impossible, I would let baby to hang on your breast longer in the evening, and maybe add one more session around 9-10 pm. Because the baby is so young, I would try to go off schedule wherever you are with the baby and let him/her be with you as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

When I went back to work at 6 months PP, this was my nursing/schedule:

- 6 am: wake up and nurse (no idea how many ounces she got at this session, but I was always super engorged after she STTN, and she aggressively ate, so I imagine a lot - like 8 ounces?)
- 10 am: pump (8 ounces)
- 1 pm: pump (5 ounces)
- 3:30 pm: pump (3 ounces)
- 5:30 pm: nurse (no idea, probably not much - 2-3 ounces? My boobs were never very full by this time)
- 9:30 pm: pump (5-6 ounces).

That added up to about 30-32 ounces in one day (admittedly guessing on the nursing amounts).

Baby got the 9:30 pm pumped bottle for her bedtime bottle the following night (I always preferred giving her a pumped bottle before bed so I knew for sure she got a good full feeding).

She got 16 ounces while away from me during the work day, which was enough. If I ever had a slow pumping day at work and couldn’t hit that amount, I’d pull from my freezer stash.

Overall,

[Anonymous]

Adding to comments about supplementing, I combined formula with breastmilk to get DS used to the taste of formula once I started supplementing around 8 months. You can do half a bottle with milk and half formula. In my experience, the taste difference wasn't noticeable and he drank it right up! Also doing this with kiddo #2 and so far so good.

[Anonymous]

OP here! Thanks to everyone for their advice.

I am experimenting with bumping up pumping sessions 30-60 minutes earlier, adding in a morning pump and adding in a dream feed. I also have a freezer stash from my maternity leave/weekend Hakaa collection (wish I knew about it for my first - its been really helpful) to help make up the difference if needed for low production days.

I have managed to break even this week so seeing some progress!

I'm open to supplementing at some point but want to see how these first few weeks/months go. I don't think I was prepared for how hard breastfeeding/pumping would be with both a toddler and a newborn!

[Anonymous]

Try hand expressing along with the Haaka - you should get at least one more ounce from your 7:30am feed that way.