I always planned to exclusively breastfeed my babies for at least the first 6 months and then continue until at least the first year. However when my son was born it didn’t end up being as easy as I had envisioned and I ended up turning to exclusive pumping.
My son had a really hard time waking up at night enough to get food in him. He just couldn’t get a good latch. This was combined with misinformation from our pediatrician. When my son was just 3 days old the pediatrician we were seeing bullied us into feeding our son formula at night. She was concerned he hadn’t gained back enough weight yet. He was still in the normal range but my husband and I didn’t know anything about it. Literally the next day after we fed my son formula my milk came in.
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However, my son still struggled to latch on during the night. So I started pumping at night time but continued nursing during the day. I was having a huge struggle with when to switch between nursing for the day and when to start pumping for the night. I also felt super awkward about nursing in public so I preferred to pump before leaving the house.
Bottle feeding became easier and more convenient for me. So I started nursing less and less and pumping more and more. By the time my son was 2 months old I decided that I would just exclusively pump.
I was probably pumping way too much, especially towards the end. I had no idea what I was doing or how long to pump or anything. No matter what I researched it didn’t seem to help me figure out how to pump when to pump how to take care of a baby while pumping.
Pumping Schedules
For many of my pumping times, if I were to do it again, I would decrease the amount of time I pumped as I decreased the frequency of pumping. I think the times were pretty good until 6 months, then I should have decreased the length of time as I dropped pumping sessions. I think I also should have experimented a bit with dropping a session, but keeping the length of time exactly the same and seeing if that would make my supply drop. I was also just trying to make sure I made enough milk so I could stop earlier.
Pumping schedule (3 months)
- *3 am – 30 min – 8-12 oz
- *8 am – 30 min – 7-10 oz
- 10:30 am – 20 min – 3-4 oz (9 am sun & t & th)
- 1 pm – 20? min – 5-7 oz
- 3:30 pm – 20? min – 5 oz
- 6 pm – 20? min – 4-5 oz (5:30 pm w & f)
- *9 pm – 30 min – 5-7 oz
Pumping schedule (4 months)
- 1 am- 25 min – 10 oz
- 7 am- 25 min – 9 oz
- 9 am- 20 min – 5 oz
- 12 pm- 20 min – 6 oz
- 3 pm- 20 min- 6 oz
- 5 pm- 15 min – 4 oz
- 8:30 pm- 20 min – 7 oz
Pumping schedule (5 months)
- 1 am- 25 min – 10 oz
- 7 am- 25 min – 9 oz
- 12 pm- 30 min – 9 oz
- 3 pm- 20 min- 6 oz
- 5 pm- 15 min – 4 oz
- 8:30 pm- 20 min – 7 oz
Pumping schedule (6.5 months)
If I were to do this again, I would probably drop each session to 30 minutes maybe even 25. I would make my middle of the night session 40 minutes.
- 3 am- 60 min- 13 oz
- 8 am- 40 min- 10 oz
- 12 pm- 40 min- 8 oz
- 4 pm- 40 min- 8 oz
- 8 pm- 40 min- 8 oz
Pumping schedule (7.5 months)
If I were to do this again, I would drop my middle of the night session and just pump in the morning (probably before my baby wakes up) for 4o minutes. I would also reduce the pumping time to 20 minutes.
- 3 am- 75 min
- 8:30 am- 50 min
- 2:30 pm- 50 min
- 8 pm- 50 min
Pumping schedule [weaning] (8 months)
If I did this again, I would pump for 30-40 minutes in the morning and then 15-20 minutes each other session.
- 5:45 am- 65 min
- 10:30 am – 30 min
- 3:30 pm – 30 min
- 8 pm- 30 min
Pumping schedule [weaning] (8.5 months)
If I did this again, I would be pumping for 15-20 minutes for each session. The morning session would probably be 30 minutes long.
- 8 am- 55 min
- 1:30 pm – 40 min
- 8 pm- 40 min
Pumping schedule [weaning] (9 months)
- 8 pm- 30 min
Done! 9 months and 5 days!
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Increasing Milk Supply
At 9 months I had enough frozen milk to last my son until he was about 14 or 15 months old. Daily I was producing twice as much milk as he needed. I purposefully increased my supply so I could be done pumping sooner. I kept track of how much milk I had frozen using an app called pump log. It worked great for me and helped me know when I could be done to feed my son until he was at least 1.
Power Pumping
One way I increased my supply was by power pumping. I would pump for 15 minutes then take a 5 minute break. Then pump for 10 minutes then take a 5 minute break. Then, one last time, I would pump for 10 minuets. I would do this at least once a day and sometimes twice for a couple of days.
Water
I made sure I had tons of water by filling my 44 oz water bottle at least 3 times a day. If you aren’t hydrated you won’t produce enough milk.
Food
Another way I increased my supply was by consuming foods that are good for milk supply including oatmeal, flaxseed, brewers yeast, chia seed, and almonds. Most of the time I would make oatmeal for breakfast that included all these things. I also added a lot of these ingredients to brownies to make lactation brownies!
Supplements
Additionally I took a supplement to increase my milk supply- fenugreek. Some people say that their babies didn’t respond well to this, but my son didn’t seem to mind at all.
Managing A Baby While Pumping
Watching my son while I was pumping sometimes was troublesome. I couldn’t have done it if I had my hands occupied holding the flanges on my breasts. I ended up making my own pumping bra by cutting holes in a very very old sports bra. I literally used this bra in junior high. It worked amazingly. It held the flanges to my breasts so I could pump hands free. You can buy a pumping bra, or just make one like I did.
I figured out how to hold my son either above the flanges or to my side so that he didn’t pull on the tubes which is definitely a challenge. Basically you prop your kid up on your hip or lay them across your chest above the flanges. It’s a challenge, but it makes it so you can comfort your child while you are pumping.
You can also try to make tummy time happen while you are pumping so that they are occupied with something and you can relax more. If tummy time is a sore subject, try to distract your child with a favorite toy or read them a book while you pump.
I always tried to arrange my pumping to occur during a nap or while my son was asleep. It was more relaxing for me and made it easier to focus on it.
The older your kid gets the easier and more difficult it gets. When your child is older they can understand better, but they may choose not to obey. So you’re going along pumping and they choose to pull at the tubes that they know they shouldn’t touch. The best way to combat this is to remain consistent. However you choose to parent your child be consistent about it. Personally if my child is purposefully disobeying I give them a time out, usually a pretty short one.
Type Of Breast Pump
The pump I used for most of my pumping journey was a medela sonata. This pump doesn’t have to be continuously plugged in to work.
Unfortunately this pump met an untimely demise right at the beginning of the pandemic. We were on WIC at the time but it was a Saturday and the office was closed. I was at my parents house washing diapers and the pump just wouldn’t turn on. I was desperately using my hand pump and a haakaa to empty my very full breasts when I finally got a hold of someone from the WIC office. They told me I could pick up the pump in a couple of hours in a contactless pick up.
The pump they gave me was literally the worst. It is the reason that my pumping journey didn’t last longer. It caused me severe nipple pain. I couldn’t get it to the right suction and every time I pumped it hurt even if it was on the least suction possible, which didn’t produce any milk.
We splurged on a medela freestyle and this was a total game changer. This pump is small, it doesn’t need to be plugged in and it charged quickly. The pump parts for it are also easier to clean than those for the sonata. I could strap it to my wrist and have both hands completely free while walking around holding my son.
My nipples however didn’t heal. They were raw no matter how much nipple cream I soaked them in before, during or after pumping. They had permanent red rings around them.
I tried different flanges and different sizes, nothing helped. By the time my son was 8 months old I was very close to the amount I needed to last past one. And I made the decision to stop pumping. It was a process as I slowly lowered the amount of time that I pumped and I dropped pumping sessions.
Reflection
Now that I have nursed a baby to 1 year, I probably wasn’t accurate on how long I needed to pump for. I also could have dropped my middle of the night pumping a lot earlier, but I know I kept it for so long because it was when I got the most milk and I also got a lot of me time sitting by myself in the dark of night binging my favorite show.
I also lost some milk along the way. When my son was 5 months old we went to Hawaii and I tried so hard to save all the extra milk I pumped, but on the flight back we weren’t able to save all of it. We moved to our house from the cabin and someone left our coolers full of milk in a heated garage and a lot of my milk was wasted from that. When my son was 8 months old my husband and I drove through Canada and I ended up dumping the milk I pumped because we didn’t have a way to keep it cold.
