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[quote=Anonymous]OP, I would encourage you to keep trying formula.  I agree that babies are finicky little creatures, and you can give them the same thing 15 times before they suddenly decide they like it.  In the meantime, if you do want to move to exclusively pumping, we can help you figure it out (it's not hard), but a lactation consultant can also be really helpful.

When I first started, I pumped every time baby ate to ensure I had milk for the next feeding.  I left the milk out (it can sit at room temp for 6 hours), which was handy.  Pumping every 2-3 hours was tiring and time consuming, but I really wanted to get my supply stabilized in a way that would mirror baby's feedings.  Around 3-4 months, I got to a point that I could pump about 5-6 times a day (and still have sufficient milk for daily feeds) and dropped pumps from there.  Around 4.5 months I dropped the middle of the night pump, which was wonderful, but it did noticeably reduce my supply.  I think around 6 months I was pumping around 7-8 am, 12 pm, 5 pm, and 10 pm, but I don't think I could have only done 4 pumps per day at 3-4 months without impacting my supply.  Everyone is very different when it comes to pumping/supply, so a lot of this is trial and error.  The trick is to just have as much milk pumped as baby needs, and figuring out what that amount is.  For me, I always fed baby the bottle until he refused it and made sure that my pumping was in excess of that (I'd freeze the extra).  Doing this, rather than targeting a particular amount, was helpful because babies aren't consistent in their needs (e.g., the amount of milk baby needs at 3 months may not be the same amount baby needs at 5 month).

As far as supplies, you don't need anything additional.  However, to help my sanity, I got a second set of pump parts and a ton of bottles.  This way I felt like I wasn't in an every-3-hour cycle of washing bottles and pump parts.  I would still hand was pump parts as needed, but would wash everything in the dishwasher every 1-2 nights.  Around six months I started using the "refrigerator hack" for pump parts and using the same set twice.

Do you have questions we could help with?    [/quote]

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