Exclusive Pumping? - Spring,TX

I exclusively pumped with my first for a whole year. Like many, my son was a preemie and never took to the breast after being tube fed for an extended period of time. I pumped ever 2-3 hs at first and then 4-5 times per day after a while. I had a TON of milk. So much that we actually bought a freezer that I ended up filling with milk. In my case I think pumping increased my supply.

I won't lie, it was hard making it to the year. It is a huge commitmemt and a lot of work, but you won't regret it!

Best of luck!

I exclusively pumped after the first 4 weeks. When I went back to work, my daughter took to the bottle more than to me, with the exception of her middle of the night feedings, so it just evolved into that over time. I pumped 6 times per day to start, and then gradually lessened it. My supply was huge in the morning with the first pump, and then was less and less as the day wore on, but I kept doing it until she was over a year old.
Good Luck.

I pumped every 3-4 hours for 13 months. My little ones latch never was good and she bit. Ouch! I was determined to breast feed since I did it with my first so I pumped. I did not enjoy it much at all and was tempted many times to quit but again, I wanted her to be breastfed. You can do it! It takes up more time but can be done.

I pumped for my first because they could not latch on. You need a really good pump. I rented one from the hospital. I pumped every 2 hours, which was kind of hard at work but I did it. I also had a good boss at the time. It also gets to be really annoying because you are tied to the pump and cannot really do anything else but maybe read. If you stay home, it can be really easy to get busy doing something so set an alarm or something or pump as you feed the baby. As they got older, I was able to go a little longer and when my milk did go down, I put in an extra pump time. I pumped until they were 9 months. I thought the importance of them having the breastmilk outweighed my inconvenience so that is why I did it. They also supplemented with formula though and were very healthy for being 6 wks premature. I was told it was because they did receive the additional antibodies in breastmilk. My kids got their first sickness when they were 1 1/2 . Get a good pump, do what you can for as long as you can and there is nothing wrong with supplementing if you have to.

I don't know that my answer is going to be all that helpful, but it's my experience so take it for what you will!

When I had my son I attempted to nurse in the hospital, it ended up that he had really bad reflux, but basically what happened was I was nursing (and doing pretty well) and suddenly he stopped breathing and turned blue. Now, I'm an RN, and when I say blue, I mean blue, as in blue and dusky, and generally not good. He ended up in NICU ruling everything other thing out (and did it a bunch more times with bottle feeding) but I basically was freaked out about the whole stopping breathing when I was nursing and I just couldn't do it. In hindsight I know the nursing had absolutely nothing to do with the problem, but hey, I was post-partum and post section and not thinking all that clearly! So, I decided to pump as much as I could and supplement with formula.

I have to say, it was a disaster. I never was able to pump very much, I was pumping every 2-3 hours and having to wash everything from pumping then feed my son, then wash his bottles. I felt like all I did was work on feeding him! After about 6 weeks he was doing well on medications and no longer turning blue nearly as often so I decided to try putting him back to the breast. Thank God, he actually took to it, I didn't think he would, but I still only nursed with him on his apnea monitor so I would notice faster if he stopped breathing or his heartrate dropped too low from lack of oxygen. Anyway, it was my first child and I just was never confident that he was actually getting enough and ended up supplementing still and to try to keep production up I was pumping after each feed, so I was still spending most of my day focused on feeding.

After I went back to work part time things actually got a little easier. I pumped as much as I could on days I was at the office, nursed at home, and just resigned myself to doing a mix of formula and breast milk, then finally at 6 months I threw in the towel and switched to all formula (and solids.)

So, I would say that attempting to exclusively pump was a disaster for me, but on the flip side I do know other mama's that have made it work! My thought on the issue is that I love the benefits of breastfeeding, it's a great thing, but, when all is said and done I was formula fed, along with millions of other children around the globe and frankly have turned out okay. Yeah, I like the cost savings and I hope to have success with the baby on the way, but if it's stressing me out and I'm not getting any sleep or time to simply bond with the baby because all I'm doing is washing pump parts and bottles then I'm just going to formula, bonding time is important! Good luck with your attempt, I hope it goes better than mine did, you probably will have better luck if you have nursed in the past and know your milk supply is at least in.

Yes, I am exclusively pumping with my second child currently. My first had latch issues and I pumped for her for a year. I was DETERMINED to successfully breastfeed with my second, but after she was born she would SCREAM every time I put her to the breast and I could not figure out why. I thought there was something wrong with me, my breast or my milk. Come to find out, she had torticollis and was literally in pain due to the feeding positions. She was not getting enough milk and was severely dehydrated so out came the pump. I figured I had done this once, so I would do it again. IMHO you need the following to successfully pump:

1. A good double electric pump
2. A supportive spouse who is willing to help you out at any and all hours to help you out. Getting up in the middle of the night to pump AND to feed will put you on the fast track to burnout pretty quick.
3. A good pumping bra so you can keep your hands free.

In the first weeks, you need to work hard to establish that supply. With both of my kids, I have been able to taper off the pumping around 6-8 weeks. I am not sure why, but in my case, it has been so critical to work hard in the first weeks to establish a good supply, then I've been able to cut back. My little one is now 6 months old and I pump 3-4 times a day and that provides enough for her.

If you can work toward getting her to latch on correctly, it is much easier and much less hassle, but pumping exclusively CAN be done if you have to go down that road.

If you find that you are only able to pump for your little one and you are able to establish a good supply, I would love to tell you more about milk donation if you are interested. With both of my kids, I have ended up with an oversupply and have donated my milk to medically fragile premies that need human milk to survive. Oversupply tends to happen to mom's who exclusively pump. Rather than let all that good milk go to waste, you can donate it to babies who need it, whose mom's are usually not able to provide for them. PM me if you would like more details or if you have any questions. I'd love to help you in any way that I can.

Keep trying mama!!! You'll get there! It took me 5 weeks (very frustrating weeks) w/ our first born son to get a knack for nursing, but we got it! Each feeding I offered the breast first & worked no longer than 10-15 minutes to give him the opportunity to get the hang of it on each side. I would pump after giving a bottle of breast milk if nursing wasn't successful. I would pump as many times as I would feed him to keep my supply up. At 5 weeks, he got it and I only pumped at work. At 9/10 months, he didn't concentrate very well at the breast, so I pumped exclusively for another 4 months and just gave him the bottle of breast milk. Keep trying :-)

I pumped for my twins for an entire year. Yes, it was hard, but for me it was totally worth it. I had one daughter who could not drink thin liquids due to severe reflux, so everything she drank had to be thickened. That eliminated breastfeeding, but I knew she needed the antibodies and better nutrition of breastmilk. My other daughter had a terrible latch, so I gave up on breastfeeding both of them. For the first few months I pumped every three hours for 20 - 30 minutes. Once my supply was established I cut down to pumping just during the day and evening, and once in the middle of the night. At seven months when my kids were sleeping through the night I cut out the middle of the night pumping.

My advice is to get the absolute best pump you can afford. I had a Medela Symphony and it was absolutely worth it. At the time, the pump cost $1300 and I was able to resell it a year later for $900, so it really only ended up costing $400. And I saved the money for formula!

The only thing I wish I had done differently is that I wish I had tried to breastfeed my other daughter after a month, two months, etc. I know now that her latch could have gotten better - just wish I had tried to make it work after a few weeks.

I did with my middle son. He was on a feeding tube, so I had to pump and put it in the tube. I pumped every 3 hours around the clock for the first couple months. My supply did diminish, but I think it was stress. (My son had 2 open heart surgeries before he was 6 months old.) You can do it! I rented a hospital grade pump (I can't remember how much it was).

My gf did it for over 5 months, and has just introduced cereal. Pumping worked for her and her baby.

Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.

I pumped for one year with my son. He was lazy and didnt want to latch. I started out pumping every 3 hours until I felt that my supple was high enough and I had enough in the freezer. I produced a lot of milk. Once I stopped pumping so much my supply went down. I hope this helped.

There is also a great website that was really helpful.
http://forums.ivillage.com/ivillage/?category.id=iv-ppexc...

I exclusively pumped and am still doing it. Our youngest ended up in the NICU so I had to pump. It worked out better for us b/c then Daddy or a sibling or grandparent could feed the baby..it wasn't all on me all the time. Get yourself a good pump. I will tell you I had an abundant supply, I had a grocery bag full of frozen milk in my freezer. It was such a good problem to have. I will say now that hes close to 6 months my supply has gone down but so has my pumping. I pump about 3 -4 times a day for 30 min each. I work from home so luckily I can do this while typing. It gets old after a while but still doable. Also when you get a good pump, get the car adaptor so you can pump if you are traveling. This comes in handy too. Best of luck to you & pm me if you have any questions.

I personally attempted to do this and failed. I was pumping every two hours during the day and a couple times a night and my supply dwindled to nothing within a couple of weeks.

However, one of my girlfriends successfully pumped exclusively for nearly 6 months, and then she chose to stop (she didn't run out). I have struggled with supply even when nursing, so the problem could be mine.

With my first child, I tried latching on for 4 weeks. It never happened. I was frustrated and she was frustrated.

At that time, I exclusively pumped. She was on a 3 hour feeding schedule so I pumped every 3 hours either before or right after she fed.

I pumped for 9 months. I did only produce enough for half of her feedings but I was happy with that. The other half of her feedings were formula.

With my second child, he did latch but I still did not produce enough.

Yes, with my first I pumped for 8 months, then my supply diminished because I cut down to pumping only 4 times a day. I did supplement with formula. I pumped for 6 months with my second, then quit because of repeated infections in my breasts with blockages and pain the entire time. I kept trying to get a latch, because some babies just need to grow a little bit. Keep trying, but you will need to pump the same number of times that you normally feed, about every 3 hours to maintain supply, and this means in the middle of the night, too. That is what the lactation consultant told me, and it worked to maintain supply. I also used supplements - Mother's Milk tea, etc.

http://www.inhabitots.com/feeding-baby-breast-milk-via-ex...

The above link is an artical I red about exclusive pumping. Although I never made enough milk (too much stress, large babies and all the other factors that they only admit after you tried your heart out) I did read about this after. If your not making enough milk there are other things you can try as pumping alone might deminish your supply. There might be other articals about it also on the site www.inhabitots.com

You can do it, but you really have to be determined, it's a lot of work, your milk is THE BEST thing for your baby, so keep it up. My sister did it for a year, I have a friend that did it for 18m.