Pumping Problem!

Hi! I guess I don't have any advice, but I'm in a similar situation. My daughter was born Feb. 19th, and just last week I started working Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have just a hand pump, but it has been working ok. There are a few times I have luck getting milk. One is right before I go to bed. I have fed her at about 7:30pm and then I drink water like crazy and pump at 11 or 11:30pm. This is for her feeding while I am working in the morning. When I am at work I also drink a lot and pump right before my lunch break. I come home at lunch, bring the milk for her afternoon and nurse like crazy at lunch. The 4-5 ozs. I am able to pump at each time is enough since she's not too fond of the bottle anyway, and we don't want her too attached to it. Also, if I don't pump at night and feed her from just one breast when she wakes 1-2 times at night, I can pump nearly 4 ozs from the other breast in the morning. Drinking a lot of water seems to help.

Hi K.,

If you can, make sure your pumping time is a time you would nurse him on your days off, that way it's in the schedule. You might also try bringing a piece of his clothing or blanket and a photo of him with you to pump, that might be enough to remind your body what you want to do and convince your senses that the milk you're letting out is for him, even though he's not there.

HTH
T.

PS Make sure you drink plenty of water... sometimes at work we foreget cause we can't just walk into the kitchen whenever like at home.

HI K.,

Make sure you are drinking enough fluids and you can try pumping more often. Sometimes your body starts to produce less milk because you are not feeding the baby as often and the pump is not as effective as the baby. Your body produces as much milk as it thinks it needs to. There are also some teas out (Mother's Milk) sold at natural food stores that can with increasing milk production.

Good luck!

Hi, K.!
I had to start supplementing with my first baby when I went back to work because I could only pump once during a 8 hour work day. I also noticed that I had to drink about 90 ounces of water during the day if I wanted to pump more milk. This for me was almost painful, and I just pretty much had to down 16 ounces at a time a whole bunch of times a day, but it helped a bit. Also, I haven't read all the responses yet, but there is a tea sold in health food stores that is for stimulating milk production. On the weekend, can you try pumping at a time you would feed your baby and see if part of it is that you are feeling tense at work and less is coming out because of that? I also had one of my pump tubes malfunction, and this brought my production way down for a bit until I figured out what was wrong. Make sure you are at the right settings if your pump has adjustable suck settings. Your lactation specialist can help you with that. It can be pretty intenxe getting used to a pump after the gentle rewards of nursing, but it really is great for your kid to get even half breast milk and half formula, so hang in there!!! Hope you get more milk started, and if you don't, try not to be hard on yourself. Every bit of breastmilk you get is beneficial, and it doesn't have to be exclusive to benefit your child. :)
M.

I had this problem.

1. Believe it or not drinking tons of water helps.

2. I also drank mother's milk.

3. make sure you are not stressed about anything too, that will affect it.

4. remember, at some point you will produce only what baby needs as your body comes to an equilibrium with baby. Don't expect your breasts to become engorged like they did before.

I pumped for 16 months with my youngest son. Whenever I noticed a reduction in the amount of milk I pumped, it was because the valves or the silicone diaphragms were getting worn. As soon I replaced those parts, my milk supply went up. This happened with me every 2-3 months. Of course, I was pumping full-time for at least 8 of those months. You might want to check with the manufacturer of your pump to see how often those parts need to be replaced.

If that doesn't help, Ameda makes a Flexishield Aeriola Stimulator that fits on most brands of breast shields. It's a soft, comfortable flexible insert that massages your aereola and mimics the feel of a baby's mouth to stimulate let-down, thereby increasing your milk flow and volume.

I replaced my worn pump parts regularly & used the Flexishield to increase my milk volume. I was able to pump sometimes 40oz a day, and had quite a freezer supply!

Good luck! I'm sure you'll notice a difference just by getting new pump parts.

It helped me to have a picture of my little one to look at any time I pumped at work. I also drank Mother's Milk tea any time my production slowed.

I had a picture of my daughter that I carried with me to work to help with the let down. Trying to fool my brain that the pump=daughter.

C.

I have been pumping for about 6 months now and I think that the one thing that helps me is just thinking about my daughter. The mental picture of feeding her seems to help. Also, I know what you eat or drink can effect it as well, so you might look at that.

Hi K.,
I pumped for my twins pretty much exclusively because it took so much time to breastfeed them both, & so that daddy could help w/the feeding. I noticed that if I went too long between pumpings that my milk supply diminished a little, even though I may have been a bit engorged some of the times. So I always tried to pump at least every 3 hours (sometimes more), which worked when I was consistent at it. What also might make a difference is the type of pump you use - electric as opposed to manual would express more milk. I was using a hospital grade pump along w/the Medela travel pump (electric) & would always pump both breasts simultaneously which saved time, but also for me expressed more milk than when I only did one at a time. I also used a hands free pumping bra as another mom had mentioned, which helped me relax because otherwise it was hectic to try to hold the cones while pumping & attend to one or both twins if they needed attention. Hope this helps you a little bit. I wish you the best of luck - I am all for breastfeeding/pumping or any way to be able to give your baby breast milk because I believe it really makes a difference.

I had to learn to pump, severe allergy problems, so I did for 18 months! Relax, bring a picture of your baby, a tape recording of him crying, drink lots of water and don't give up! When you are home, try and have him suck more...to keep your milk supply up...relax some more and change pumps. I seem to remember getting used to one type and changing it for a handheld one. Can't really explain why I had to change them, just seemed I would get used to one and then need to change to the other.

Relax, you will find the right trigger! Mom of 3 boys

Make sure you still have adequate fluid intake. With both my daughters, I always saw a difference if I wasn't drinking enough. Once I upped my fluid intake, normal breastmilk levels returned.

Try contacting your local chapter of the La Leche League. There is almost no BF question they can't answer.

http://www.llli.org/Web/California.html

I saw a lactation consultant when I was pumping and she told me to try to lay the baby close to you or on your lap and touch and smell her while pumping. This helped the letdown response and I got more milk.

With my first child when I noticed my supply starting to wain at the work pumpings, I started to pump after my morning feeding, with my son on or near me so let down was esay. I always got alot from this pumping (about 6 oz or more) which was enough to supplement what I was pumping at work. Also, do some breathing exercised at work before pumping to relax yourself, your letdown will be better. Keep in mind if you take any decongestants, that can also dry up your milk, which I was unaware of in the beginning. I also used a picture of my baby, but more important, at the beginning of pumping really focused on him and it seemed to get letdown to occur very quickly. I don't know how many times a day you are pumping, but if you add an extra session during the time away from baby, after a few days you should start to produce more during those work pumping sessions. As the bottles get bigger I started to stress over how much I needed to pump, and that also effected my supply. Also, to take the stress off, try to pump extra during the week and on weekends so you can have a backup supply in the freezer, it takes the stress away and makes it easier to be stress free during those work pumpings. My youngest is two, and I was just cleaning out the freezer and found about 40 oz buried at the bottom of the freezer. Never thought I would throw away breastmilk, but she has been weaned for months and it was quite old. Good luck, try not to stress out, and your supply should kick back into gear.

Hi K.,

I used the medala pump and it worked great for me. I did it for 7 months. I never got a lot of milk so I had so supplement. Hopefully with my next one it will be different. Did you talk to your lactation nurse about it. They are very helpful. Also maybe you stopped producing as much milk. I heard oatmeal, beer helps. Hope this helps a little.

R.

Hi K.. My daughter is 8 months old and I work full time and pump at work. The biggest thing for me is to drink plenty of water and relax while you pump! Don't worry about how much milk you are getting or worry about work-related stuff. Eating oatmeal also helps to increase your supply. My Dr suggested drinking a dark beer to increase your supply, but I wasn't brave enough to try that!!(I can't stand dark beer!!)
Try thinking about your baby/looking at a picture as well. Sometimes you just have to play mind tricks with yourself!! Good luck and hope this helps!

I had this same issue and right at about 4 months. My baby is now 5 months and my pumping is a bit better, but still a constant concern to be able to pump enough. I talked to a lactation consultant who recommended I pump for 15 minutes after EVERY feeding for 3 days, this was to "trick" the brain into thinking baby was still sucking and thus increase the milk supply. She also said to really increase my water intake. This took some tremendous will power on my part, esp. because I have a 3 year old too who didn't want to sit around at home for me to pump every 4 hours. So for those 3 days I did exactly that. By the middle of the 2nd day, I was so frustrated. The pumping after each feeding netted ZERO milk, my nipples were raw and chapped from "dry" pumping. I was about to give up when I talked to a friend who recommended I pump one side while baby nursed on other side. This worked! I would only get about 2 ounces pumped - and baby would only get 1/2 a feeding so I found myself nursing and pumping again within 2 hours instead of 4 hours. But I was getting milk in the bottle from pumping. The next morning, I woke up engorged. Of course that was the day for me to check back in with the lactation consultant. So, I guess her advice worked - I just needed to be patient for that 3rd day of pumping - I guess it took that long for the brain to kick into needing to produce more milk. She said I no longer needed to pump after each feeding, just keep pumping more than once each day - and still drink a lot of water. Personally, I think that was really the key too. With all the HOT weather we've been having I don't think my 64+ ounces of water/day was enough. Bottom line is that I went from getting barely 2 ounces each pumping to getting 3 ounces - not a huge difference, but as the lactation consultant said, is probably how much baby is getting when she nurses (ie: 2-3 ounces per side). Sorry to be so LONG. I hope this helps.
W.

I pumped for about 8 months, and throughout, occasionally I would not get as much as I typically did. Some days were different than others. Having said that, you might try taking lots of More Milk Plus capsules for a few days. And try looking at pictures of your little one when pumping, relax, try to think of it as a break for yourself. Good luck, and I am sure it will work out for you.

With my son, my second child, I found a hands free pumping bra. It looks like a tube top with holes to stick the cones in. My milk supply was much higher with him after I used that and I used it with my third child too (I pumped at work for 12 months with the first and second, and for about 15 months with my third). I think that not having to hold the cones and continually look at how much milk was coming out helped me relax and focus on other things - a book, work reading that I'd bring in, anything but constantly staring at the milk coming out. And actually, when I brought work reading in, I felt less bad about taking time away from work for pump, which also, I believe helped me produce more milk. I also agree with the other mother that you should check the pieces of the pump (the little white flaps wear out and get holes, sometimes after washing it, those flaps are not clipped in as tightly and don't create the same suction). Finally, I found that other things going on in my life could suddenly increase or decrease the amount of milk I'd be able to pump- planning a party, having to find or change child care - but when the stress went away, the milk came back.
Good luck!

Hi,
I had the same problem with my baby a year ago. I heard that around the 3-4 month there is a "natural" down in the milk supply, plus the stress of going back to work, can worsten things up... Don't worry.. milk supply will go up again.. you just need to keep nursing as much as you can, and pumping when you are away from your baby. Try to relax!! (that is key!). Think about the baby (use whatever will help you to do that) while pumping, and breastfeed baby as frequent as possible while you are with him. In a few days you will notice that the milk production is coming back to normal!!