Breastfeeding or pumping?

[Anonymous]

Don’t pump so much - just nurse. It’s so much easier and move convenient.

[Anonymous]

OP, I mean this sincerely and with compassion -- stop reading these posts.

I was one of the PPs who also pumped. For some reason, you seem to only be replying to the negative comments. I totally get wanting to defend your actions, but I think you already know what you want to do. That's totally valid. You don't need to come on here and keep defending your choices.

Best of luck! It's all tough right now but it'll get better

[Anonymous]

OP here. For those who pumped, did you follow your current feeding schedule or did you spread out your pumps? How often did you pump at 2 weeks old? Did you go a long period between pumps to get sleep at night? Did your supply decrease?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. For those who pumped, did you follow your current feeding schedule or did you spread out your pumps? How often did you pump at 2 weeks old? Did you go a long period between pumps to get sleep at night? Did your supply decrease?

I’m the 4.5 month EPer. At 2 weeks I was pumping 8 times per day, every 3 hours.

[Anonymous]

From the time my second was born, I pumped twice a day and that was the breastmilk baby got. The rest of the feedings were formula.

I never boiled water though did use distilled water; I asked our pediatrician and she said we were doing everything we needed to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t pump so much - just nurse. It’s so much easier and move convenient.

And for me (not OP), nursing was the most miserable part of having a baby and literally made me want to crawl out of my skin. I didn't have any supply/latching issues, just straight-up hated breastfeeding. Baby and I ended up thriving with formula, it was like night and day.

OP, just do what feels right for you.

[Anonymous]

I found pumping to be a pain and BF to be easy, so maybe my experience is different. I had a slow eater with my first and my LC got me to limit him to 15 min per side. He grew and got more efficient in time. He also started sleeping and so did I - no MOTN pumping needed.

Formula is fine. It sounds like you do not enjoy BF and that’s ok. I really liked having that snuggle time with my baby and resented any time pumping. Not everyone loves BF and that’s perfectly normal! I think the benefits of BM are oversold and the best feeding option for a baby is the one that results in a mentally and physically healthy mom. Take it a week at a time and adjust as needed.

[Anonymous]

If you’re pumping a lot, you’re signaling to your body that it needs to make more milk than it actually does, and this could lead to oversupply which is it’s own type of hell.

And, it also doesn’t help when you feel like all you’re doing is feeding, because you’re pumping for 20-30 minutes multiple times a day, on top of nursing. Maybe start phasing out the pumping sessions so that you can do other things between nursing sessions. Just pump for 5-10 minutes after your baby nurses - that will still help you build a stash but won’t take as long.

[Anonymous]

Pumping is a nightmare you want to avoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

OP here. The pediatrician said formula was fine. I’ve always had family members and friends who exclusively breastfed and had an oversupply in the beginning until their supply regulated.

Okay, OP, you win! I guess I don't know what I was talking about. Wish I hadn't spent all that time typing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

OP here. The pediatrician said formula was fine. I’ve always had family members and friends who exclusively breastfed and had an oversupply in the beginning until their supply regulated.

Okay, OP, you win! I guess I don't know what I was talking about. Wish I hadn't spent all that time typing

NP, why are you taking this personally? Take a lap, your response isn’t doing what you think it’s doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

OP here. The pediatrician said formula was fine. I’ve always had family members and friends who exclusively breastfed and had an oversupply in the beginning until their supply regulated.

Okay, OP, you win! I guess I don't know what I was talking about. Wish I hadn't spent all that time typing

Not OP but what you said made very little sense. Even if OP added in one bottle of formula, it would drastically change her supply. There are many exclusively breastfeeding moms who have an oversupply. This has little to do with OP feeding or not feeding her baby when he cries. Breastfeeding is supply and demand. Hormones can cause an oversupply. This has nothing to do with OP supplementing a bottle of formula since she is feeding her baby 10 times a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re pumping a lot, you’re signaling to your body that it needs to make more milk than it actually does, and this could lead to oversupply which is it’s own type of hell.

And, it also doesn’t help when you feel like all you’re doing is feeding, because you’re pumping for 20-30 minutes multiple times a day, on top of nursing. Maybe start phasing out the pumping sessions so that you can do other things between nursing sessions. Just pump for 5-10 minutes after your baby nurses - that will still help you build a stash but won’t take as long.

OP here. I pump at the same time I feed my baby. The feedings take long because he takes a long time to eat. I’m done with pumping the side he doesn’t eat from much faster than he is done eating. I only pump 4 times a day and need those pumps because that’s when I make the most milk and he will only eat on one side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. For those who pumped, did you follow your current feeding schedule or did you spread out your pumps? How often did you pump at 2 weeks old? Did you go a long period between pumps to get sleep at night? Did your supply decrease?

I stopped breastfeed and switched to exclusively pumping at 2.5 months with each of my two children. At 2 weeks, you should be removing milk every 3-4 hours, including overnight, to establish your supply. I slowly stretched that out and eventually dropped overnight pumping at about 4 months with my first and a little earlier with my second. But it is hard to give specific advice because a lot depends on your supply (I had an oversupply, and also wanted to build up a supply of frozen milk).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and haven't read the replies. But I feel like I'm really expert at this question--expert at what I did wrong.

My brother was getting married when my first would be 5 weeks old, and I was to be a bridesmaid. Baby #1 was too young to be in a mass crowd situation (no shots yet), so I pumped. We were in a different town and it was maybe a week of me pumping.

Drinking from a bottle is a bit easier for the baby as it flows out and they don't have to work as hard. So after the whole experience, Baby #1 would not go back to the breast.

I didn't think much of it because it was easy to pump.

Well that's because she's a newborn, and is immobile and sleeps a lot!...I did not anticipate when she was awake, crawling around and getting into things.

It became progressively harder to pump. I was determined to give her breast milk for a year, and it became really hard to pull off by the time she was 6+ months.

So if you want to continue to bf, just be careful of falling into this trap.

Also, you say you make more milk than your baby needs. I suspect it's because you are giving formula. The way the hormones work, if you are not supplementing, there is a balance between baby and mom (the crying and also the sucking action signal when milk comes down and how much to make). Feeding formula or other foods messes with that balance. (there is also an issue with the baby's gut being a bit porous at that time so shouldn't have other than breast milk if possible)

With my #2, I pumped only if I had to go somewhere for the evening (so not that much) and it really was easy to bf until #2 was 1 year old.

OP here. The pediatrician said formula was fine. I’ve always had family members and friends who exclusively breastfed and had an oversupply in the beginning until their supply regulated.

Okay, OP, you win! I guess I don't know what I was talking about. Wish I hadn't spent all that time typing

OP here. Sorry that you feel that way but your offering your opinion and that doesn’t mean I have to accept it.

I’m confused by your post. I understand breastfeeding is supply and demand and hormones play a part, but I feed my baby when he cries and until he is full. I’ve done this from day 1. I feed him every two hours during the day and every 3 hours during the night. I supplement 2-4oz of formula a day but that’s in the evenings after I breastfeed when my supply is low. I don’t see how that can affect or alter my supply since I’m not skipping any feelings.

My pediatrician has never said his stomach can’t handle formula. Many babies are formula fed without issue.