Hellobee

Let’s talk about pumping! My preferred title was already taken by Mrs. Yoyo, but I think this one is appropriate too. :) This is an area where I have a lot of experience but am thankfully done forever. I nursed K for 13 months (pumping at work for 10) and pumped for D (mostly at the hospital, but some at home) for about 6 months.

I got a Medela Pump In Style shortly before K was born (this was before the Affordable Care Act was passed, s0 I coughed up the money myself!), although I didn’t really explore it until the time I decided I would try pumping at 6 weeks. I was on maternity leave for 12 weeks – I wanted to figure out the whole pumping routine, build up a small freezer stash, and get K used to taking a bottle before I went back to WOH full time.

Unrelated to pumping – how ridiculous is this photo of K! Look at that hair…

First time pumping

I had just fed K and put him down for a nap, so I got out the pump, planning to pump the other side (he only ever took one side at a time) and hoping that when he woke up the last-nursed side would be ready again. It took me a while to put the pump together simply because I had no idea what I was doing or what it was supposed to look like. If you’re pregnant now with your first, I recommend playing with your pump before your baby shows up! By the time I got it together and pumped, K had woken up and wanted to comfort nurse. I was all out, so we tried to give him the bottle, which he refused. A day or so later, I had to go for my postpartum checkup, so Mr T and my MIL had K at home with that bottle of milk. Somehow they got him to drink some, but he was very happy for me to return with his preferred delivery method. He got bottles occasionally during the next 6 weeks before I returned to work, but never from me or in front of me – I preferred nursing when I could! I got into the routine of pumping both sides directly after putting him to bed, just to start my freezer stash.

Returning to work

I was very paranoid about losing my supply, so for my first week back to work I went a little overboard. I left before K got up for the day, so I would give him for a quick early morning dream feed (one one side), pump both sides before I left, and then pump 4x at work (in an 8.5 to 9 hour day), for about 20 minutes total. K rose to the occasion and learned to take the bottle like a champ, although he almost always took it right before a nap, so he was tired. I would ask my MIL to not feed him a bottle too close to the time I would get home, so he would nurse then. After a few weeks I determined I was just fostering an oversupply with too many sessions, and stopped pumping before work. A month or so later I dropped to pumping 3x a work, which is what I stuck to until K was 1y old. My work has a mother’s room with a sink and fridge, which was pretty convenient. I actually reread the whole Harry Potter series while pumping at work that year!  I only pumped in the evenings or on the weekends if K was having an unusually long nap/sleep and I was engorged.

Weaning 

Having reached my goal of exclusively breast-feeding until a year, I began spreading out my pumping sessions at work with the goal of weaning K in the near-ish future. When I dropped to 2 sessions, my supply started to nosedive, and when I dropped to one I really started to dry up. I know that many people are able to keep enough supply to continue nursing their babies to sleep every night – I was not one of those people! K was actually still not sleeping through the night at that point, and he would get up and want to nurse and I would be totally empty. After a day of him being upset, I wised up and sent in Mr T to tend to the night wakings. After less than a week he gave up (no more incentives!) and started sleeping through the night for the first time EVER at 13 months. It was so glorious. I happily tucked the pump and supplies away for the next baby! He also never asked to nurse which kind of hurt my feelings, but it was better than the alternative of him missing something that was impossible for me to continue.

1 year old K

I never did end up using the pump In Style again; because of D’s hospital stays and inability to nurse I was able to get my insurance to cover a hospital grade (symphony) rental the whole time I pumped. Let’s begin that part of the story…

Pumping for a preemie in the hospital

D was born around 11pm, and I didn’t make it back to my room until about 2:20am. I dutifully started my first pumping session right then – he was 2 months early and I wanted to jump start my supply. The hospital-supplied Symphony was definitely more powerful than my old pump, and I could barely handle the lowest setting. I persevered for 20 minutes and was rewarded with (literally) one drop of colostrum. I tried very hard to get it with a syringe but it was too small. I set my phone alarm for 2 hours later (yes, I was crazy) and went to sleep. Mr. T had gone home to sleep and relieve my MIL, who was staying with K after our big emergency. The 2nd time I pumped I got about 1mL total – a huge improvement! Over the course of the first 24 hours I went from basically nothing to filling up the 3mL colostrum syringes, so I had to start asking for the little bottles. I had neglected to bring my hands free pumping bra, so I just cut holes in my sports bra and stuck the horns though so my hands could have a break. I pumped every 2-3 hours for the first several months, both when I was in the hospital and then going between visiting D in the NICU and home.

Pumping for a NICU baby

Thankfully the NICU had the symphony pumps for use either at the bedside, or in the designated pumping room. They also had these big white room dividers which they would take out if you wanted, but they were pretty cumbersome and I eventually learned to be fine with pumping at the bedside with a cover and a handsfree bra. I would always wear a tank top so I could pull the top down – no belly hanging out! I kept pumping every 2-3 hours, depending on D’s schedule and what was happening at the NICU. He was taking almost nothing through his NG tube at the time, so I gave some to the NICU to use and to freeze, but took most of it home to transfer into freezer bags and keep in our deep freezer – planning to use them when I went back to work (ha!). I now know that I was just fostering an oversupply by pumping so frequently, so ahead of D’s needs, but at the time I was still hopeful he would soon be able to nurse, so I wanted to be ready for it. I got up to pump every 3-4 hours at night, and would surf the internet on my phone, or call the NICU to check on D to stay awake.

Pumping with an infant and toddler at home

I was only in this stage for about a month, but it was probably the hardest! I transitioned to pumping every 3-4 hours around the clock to spread things out, and would try to time it during naps or just let K play with the iPad and pump while D slept. K was quickly conditioned and when he would see the pump come out he’d nicely ask for the iPad – oh well! Several times I would end up holding and play with D while pumping (and hoping the whole thing wouldn’t slide off and dump the milk everywhere). I don’t have any real advice if you find yourself in this situation – it’s tough!

One of a very small number of pumping selfies. Don’t D and I look thrilled?

Weaning off exclusively pumping

When I chose to stop pumping (about a month after D had been switched to formula – what can I say, I’m eternally optimistic!), D was about 6 months old. I had already gotten mastitis once with him, and took the weaning process very slowly. When D was admitted back to the NICU at about 3 months old, I dropped to pumping every 4 hours. When I began weaning, I just added an hour each day. For example, on Monday I pumped every 4 hours, on Tuesday every 5 hours, on Wednesday every 6 hours, etc. When I got to 8 hours I stayed at that rate for a few days, since I didn’t want to rush it. I worked back to pumping every 12 hours, but I was still getting a ton of milk! I stayed at every 12 hours for a few days and then pushed it to every 24. I didn’t quite make it to the first 24 hour mark, but I pumped just enough to relieve the engorgement and then stopped. During this process I also started pumping for 10 minutes instead of 20, although it was a little uncomfortable at first. I never used cabbage leaves or any cold medication. After a day or so of pumping once a day I just stopped entirely. One boob (good old righty) got engorged after a few days so I pumped that one for a few minutes, but then was done forever!

The boys (and our chaos) when we were done with the pump!

If it’s not obvious, I had WAY more milk than I needed, especially when D was switched to formula. To date I’ve donated over 2,000 oz to a breast milk bank, and still have some in the deep freezer I have to send off! I plan to write a post about donating milk in the near future.

Man, that was a novel! I’m proud of you if you made it all the way through!

Did my pumping experiences mirror any of yours? Did I miss any good shortcuts?