Question About How Long to Pump Etc.

Hi there...only continue pumping if
A you want to keep producing ample amounts
B you are not wanting to do this long term (freeze)
C you want to donate to the hospital
D you don't have anything better to do :)

Pumping is not fun, but you don't want to be wasteful. It is considered liquid gold in my house.....I like to keep some in the freezer(just in case)
Remember you will continue to keep up with whatever is going out.I even just stick a bottle and when my milk lets down it will go into the bottle instead of the pad or use of a pump.

I would tickle her feet, wipe them with a cool washcloth, take her sock off and on, anything to bug her so that she stays awake to eat. That is if you don't feel like she is getting enough at each feeding. Is she sleeping very long between times? What kind of pump? I feed my lil boy and pump the other side if I have too much( I am back at work) and he is almost a year. I would try yo get Alexis a lil something special to play with just when you are pumping, to reward her for not touching. Kinda like th special toy I give for not flipping over while I am changing his diaper....I admire you for having them so...close. You will be glad you did this later....Mine are 16 years apart. I felt like a new mom all over again.
I hope this helps,If you'd like you can email me ____@____.com
Good Luck,
G.

Hey there. I had to rent a hospital pump as well when my son was born and in the NICU. When I didn't use the hospital pump or when I breastfed him I too had a problem leaking from the other side. But that only lasted a week or two after I quit pumping, then my brests began to get use to only letting down one side at a time. I quit pumping once he was strong enough to breastfeed every meal. Against all the neonatal doctors advices, I didnt' wake him up and try to force him to eat every 4 hours. They said it was impossible for a premature baby as small as he was to ever exclusively breastfeed and gain weight. I proved them wrong. I quit pumping and only breastfeed when he wanted to eat, and I had plenty of milk for him and my breasts began producing the right amount of milk that he needed. The only problem is that to this day I can't pump a darn thing out now. After I went to strictly BFing, my brain won't let me have any let down with that pump anymore if I do want to help up my breastmilk or something.
So I guess my advice is to try to let your baby eat when shes hungry. The NICU doctors told me I HAD To wake him up ever 4 hours and I couldn't let him eat longer than 20 minutes. But he wanted to eat every 5-6 hours and would nurse for an hour and gained weight just fine without a single bottle to supplement. Trust your baby. Give her a chance. My son was too tired to eat when I had to wake him up. When I just let him wake up with his own energy, he did fine.
Goodluck.
H.

Another thing that worked for me when I was breastfeeding and the other side would leak is to put pressure on that nipple with my arm or hand. This also worked when I got out of the shower too, for some reason I would get a let-down on both sides. Usually, 30 seconds to a couple of minutes of this would do the trick, so you may not have to do it the whole time you are feeding. I liked the other woman's idea to put a bottle under the nipple to collect the breastmilk, if you continue to bottlefeed her at times. Keep up the good work! ;)

what should you do with the leaking milk? KEEP IT!!!!! you would be amazed at how much milk you can build up just by holding an empty bottle under one breast while you feed mackenzie with the other!
i know pumping seems like a pain now but if you've heard the term that breastmilk is like "liquid gold"- it is!
i had almost fifty feedings frozen for my daughter when i went back to work at three months and, even though i continued to feed and pump FULL TIME, those fifty frozen bags of milk BARELY got us through six months of breastfeeding! and i was continually putting milk in the freezer too!
if you really want to breastfeed your daughter then keep every ounce you can catch. its totally worth it in the long run and pumping becomes a cinch in no time

Lots of helpful advice here. I would like to suggest that they only wanted you to pump until you were producing enough milk for the baby. The pumping was to get you and the baby started. Just a suggestion.

I leaked like that and I never pumped both sides at the same time. I could never figure out what to do, except for when I was home I'd feed on one side & hold a bottle under the other to catch all the milk that leaked out. I ended up giving up because I got so frusterated with it because whenever I'd go out the milk would leak thru my shirt & stuff...so if you can stick with it I give you all the props in the world!!!

If you have so much milk that you're leaking, you may want to stop pumping until you REALLY need to. If your milk starts getting low, and you start pumping again, your body will increase milk production. Pumping INCREASES milk production. I had LOW milk production and pumping helped me have enough milk for my baby. Otherwise I would have had to bottle feed. Make sure that you're outputting ever day, though, if not feeding your daughter, then to the pump. Otherwise you will stop putting out milk after about 3 days.

Hi M.
My name is A. and I have 2 kids and I breast fed them both. Your breasts are operating normally. If she falls asleep try tickling the bottom of her foot to wake her up or change her diaper. Also you can freeze breast milk in a stand up freezer for 3 months and in a chest freezer at the bottom for up to a year just make sure you date it. I used to hold the breast pump container under my other nipple when they are attached to the other one that way you don't waist the milk. Your breasts automatically know how much milk to make so don't worry about them leaking. They get used to producing a certain amount up to and beyond what baby needs. If you drink a lot of water or fluids you will make more. If your breasts are hurting take a hot shower and let the water run on them or use a hot cloth and hold it on them. I know it sounds stupid but you can milk your breasts with your fingers like you would a cow and it will relieve some of the pressure. A lot of babies have a hard time catching on to breast feeding in the beginning. I think I was told that they still have reserves from being inside so they are not really all that hungry in the beginning. Just be glad that your body is producing milk like it is it is definatley the best for baby and it is definatley less expensive!!! My sister in laws breasts would squirt milk out across the room by themselves! I have found that if you keep your bra really tight with the pad I would only leak when feeding. If i wouldn't wear a bra they would leak all over the place. Just make sure if you get a hard lump on your breast and it gets really painful you may have a blocked gland and they can become infected this happened to my sister in law and she had to get some kind of shot. It is'nt the "my boobs are so full and engorged lump" it is different and i think it gets red. Not the nipple the tissue part. Good luck hope this helped you.
P.s. remember to follow your own instincts sometimes they just want to feel close to mommy. You can take the breast away easier than you can take a pacifier away. Neither of my kids ever used a pacifier. I liked to lay down on my bed on my side to feed also so it didn't hurt my back so much. My little boy is 17 months old now I quit breast feeding when he was 7.5 months old he kept biting my nipple and it seemed like I was forcing him to nurse. One day I handed him a bottle and he has never ever even tried to nurse again. My daughter was easy to break away she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Luekemia when she was 12 mo's old and the chemo ruined her taste for milk. She is 4.5 and doing very well now.

It sounds like your supply is sufficient. But if you want to keep pumping to get a supply of milk in the freezer (if you don‘t already have enough). I would recommend pumping while you are nursing her. My doctor recommended this to me with my son. He will be 3 months old next week. It works better because your brain is getting the message to make your milk let down so you will be able to pump more. It also saves a ton of time. I used the football hold in order to get the pump on the other breast but with a little practice it works great. When I switched my son to the other side I switched the pump as well. I didn’t get nearly as much out of the second side but still pumped the whole time he was nursing. I haven’t pumped for awhile because I hate it too, and I already have quite a bit of milk in the freezer. I hope that helps. :)

When my son was brand new, he would often fall asleep after barely 5 minutes of nursing too. My mother-in-law (a retired labor and delivery nurse of 30+ years) told me to wake him back up, even if it pissed him off, and get him to latch on again. Ways to wake him up - tickle his bare feet, rub his back upwards and vigoursly (but gently), or whatever wakes your daughter up well. And actually if it does piss her off, it may be easier to get her latched on because she'll open her mouth wide to cry - at least that was my experience, he'd open his mouth to wail and I'd bring him right to the breast, he'd latch on and nurse well. If he started to doze off again, I'd tickle his feet a little and that usually did the trick.

As for pumping - do you think you are producing enough milk even with her sporadic feedings? Is she always nursing for 5 minutes or is it 5 minutes one time and 30 minutes the next time? Take a break from the pump for a day or two and see how it goes - you can always get on it if you think you are starting to produce less. As for leaks, there's not much you can do besides padding. When I letdown a lot I would place a burp cloth inside my bra against the opposite breast before I started nursing on the other breast.

The main issue here though is that you need to keep her awake when nursing - don't let her treat you like a snack bar. Make sure she goes 10-15 minutes on each breast at each feeding. Breastmilk (and being cuddled close to you) naturally makes babies sleepy, but you will find ways to keep her awake. And then she'll catch on and pretty much always nurse for longer periods. Good luck to you and congratulations on your new baby.

look i know the consultants mean well but have you ever heard of the term 'breastfeeding nazi's? they tend to go overboard and seem really adamant that you do exactly 15 minutes on each side. i listened to them with my first daughter, despite the fact that my nipples were scabbed and bleeding (most excruciating pain ever!), they still insisted that i follow the schedule. once i left the hospital, i started pumping until my nipples healed (luckily we didn't suffer from nipple confusion). with my second daughter, my consultant would come in every so often and ask the last time my daughter ate and how long on each breast. since i knew the drill, i told her what she wanted to hear but fed my daughter when she was hungry and didn't try to keep waking her up. she had no trouble gaining weight.

as for pumping, it's a pain in the butt, not to mention it means you get less sleep. your body will adjust to what your baby needs. the advice to quit for a day or two seems good. of course your breasts won't be too happy about that.

a tip on breastpads, use a sanitary napkin when you're home. it soaks up way more. actually now that i think about it, i think i used some newborn diapers too but that gel stuff makes them get colder.

i was never lucky enough to have one breast letdown at a time. my left breast for some reason was always a leaker, even after a year, but if i pressed on my nipple when i letdown, i didn't leak. of course it sounds like you let out a lot so i don't know if it will work for you. my coworker told me she was in the grocery store and some other kid started crying and she was pouring milk. it ran down her legs and into her shoes and she had to squish out of the store.

anyway, good luck :)

I think that they only wanted you to pump after she ate in case you couldn't get her to latch on if she is latching on for 30 min the last thing you want to do is pump for 15 more because that is what your body will expect to make milk for 30 min she is getting all she needs I would only pump when she may have had a bottle or if you are at work and it should be her reg. feeding time it sounds like she is latching on fine and babies do like to just nibble now and again so if she nurses for 5 min between long feeds that is ok she actually does know how much her body needs and forcing her to wake up and eat more can cause her to lose that judgment. also don't wake her up she will wake when she is hungry this will cut out a lot of frustration and let your body adjust to her needs. there are so many people that want babies to conform to strict guidlines of eating and they are finding that this may be causing over eating later in life so try to relax about it stop pumping so rigorously and enjoy your time with the baby.