When to pump milk while breastfeeding baby?
It’s a Girl! asked:
I 'm. breast feeding my baby from 6 weeks old every 2-2.5 hours during the day. But I want to pump and store some milk so my husband can contribute to a couple of times a week. If the pump when the power – nothing is coming out. I 'm. scared pumping between feeds because 2-2.5 hours is too soon and I 'm. Scared I won 't have enough milk to feed the following year. During the night – I 'm sleep … When should I pump?
February 18th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
1) Pump immediately in the morning when you’re the fullest.
2) nurse on one side all night and pump the other in the morning.
3) Wake in early mid morning and pump (not a fun thing though); or
4) Pump one side while baby nurses from the other (takes some balancing, practice and a boppy pillow).
That’s all I could think of.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
If you pump between feedings, even if nothing comes out, the stimulation will tell your body to make more (than just enough for the 2 hours feedings)
Also, try pumping immediately after she eats. Or only let her eat from one side and pump the other…and then do the opposite next feeding
And don’t judge the amount of milk you have based on what comes out of the bottle, babies are much more efficient at getting milk out than the pump.
Also, if you want to pump up your supply for a while so you can store bottles in the freezer and have some just around for you hubby to feed with, try taking the herbal supplement fenugreek. that way you’ll have enough for feeding and enough for pumping.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 am
I used to pump one side and feed on the other at that age…
Or Feed and then pump both…even if you only got a half ounce or so…you store it in the fridge and add to it at every pump until you have enough to freeze or feed with.
At this point…only 6 weeks into it…I could barely pump anything…so that doesnt surprise me too much…
What kind of pump are you using?
Generally this early on, you probably won’t be able to pump too much until you get on a regular pumping schedule…but if you don’t have a good pump…you wont get anywhere no matter how scheduled your pumping is…
I have found that the manual pumps are all garbage…I haven’t had success with a single one and I’ve purchased three or four.
And are you sleeping through the night already? If so…I would make sure that I pump right before you go to bed and then first thing in the morning or right after baby’s first feed.
Look at it this way…even if you pump one breast while baby feeds on the other and wants more….baby is more effiecient than any pump on the planet…so while you think you’ve pumped everything out…baby will still be able to get milk out of you ….and the side effect is that your body will think that baby nursed everything he ate and everything you pumped and consequently produce more milk to compensate…
So…if it were me..I’d probably pump one and feed the other and then alternate at every feeding just to stay even….at least until you have a good supply built and some milk stored up also.
Good luck!
February 25th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Your body will adjust to how much milk your baby needs by how much he/she eats. So if your baby only eats from one breast then you need to pump the other one. If he/she eats from both breasts, them pump in between. Your body will pick up on the stimulation, and you will begin to make more milk. This usually takes only a few days to a week. My daughter wouldn’t nurse at all for her first 6 months, so I pumped at every feeding. when she did start to nurse at 6 months my body was used to pumping and didn’t make as much, because pumping doesn’t stimulate as much as a baby does, but after her nursing for about three days, my milk was coming so much I had no choice but to pump between feedings sometime. And if you have to, set your alarm so that you can get up and pump at least once in the night, that way until your milk supply goes up your husband can feed the baby at least once a day.