Happy Thursday. I cannot believe we are finally in 2021. Poppy is almost 10 months old and that seems impossible. I know I have mentioned this on here before, but I chose to exclusively pump bottles this time around for her. At the onset, it seemed like in my mind it might be easier than teaching her to latch and might free up a bit of time for me. Today, I thought I would round up tips for exclusively pumping bottles and what I learned along the way.
Before I jump in, let me say, fed is best. There is no right way to feed your baby as long as they are FED. I struggled A LOT with nursing George. I hated it. My supply got off to a bad start and I ended up feeding him formula half the time till I threw in the towel around 7 months. This time around, as much as I dreaded nursing, I knew I wanted to give it another chance just to prove to myself that I could do it. I decided before going to the hospital to have Poppy that I wanted to exclusively pump her bottles.
After Poppy was born, I allowed her to have a lot of skin to skin those first few days and let her try to latch a few times. She tore me up pretty bad as soon as she came out with a bad latch on one side. That side was off-limits completely because it hurt so bad. That added more fuel to my fire to just pump exclusively. She was born on a Wednesday evening, we got home on Friday. In the middle of the night, probably around 2:00 in the morning on Saturday I knew my milk was trying to come in so I got up and pumped. I was ecstatic to get my first ounce lol!
Those first days that my milk started coming in I drank TONS of water and since I didn’t want caffeine to mess up my supply at this delicate stage I drank Upspring Lactation coffee. They tasted good and I think definitely helped get my supply off to a good start. After a drank a couple of boxes, over a few weeks I stopped and just drank half of a cup of coffee each day. My mom was in town and mixed up a batch of healthy lactation cookies. The brewer’s yeast in them combined with the oats and flax are another tool in your toolbox when it comes to exclusively pumping bottles for your baby. I ate 2 a day for probably 2 weeks. I found this time around that the first month for me was crucial. I pumped around the clock day and night every 2 hours. Yes, it is hard, it’s not fun but the more your pump the more you are signaling to your body to produce milk. Starting around 5 months I moved that to 3 hours and around 7 months moved it to 4 hours. At almost 10 months, I am starting to wean and pump only 3 times daily and supplement with formula.
Let me just say, I never pumped during the day more than 3 – 4 ounces at a time. In the morning or in the middle of the night I might have gotten 5-6 just because your body produces more when you are able to sleep….go figure that one out!:) I feel like most moms, I included, expect to get more out, and maybe some do, however 3-4 ounces per session is a good supply.
Let’s talk freezer stash. Babies sleep a lot those first few weeks and instead of waking Poppy up in the night to feed her I would let her go at least 4 hours before waking her. Her weight was one that was good and never low so I felt safe doing this after talking to my doctor. Pumping during that session that she slept through instead of sleeping myself was how I started my freezer stash. My stash didn’t grow substantially till around the 4-month mark so keep that in mind. At first, it is hard to put away a lot and that’s OK. Over time as your little one doesn’t need as much milk you will put more away.
That stash came in handy when I developed my first round of mastitis at her 2-month mark. Mastitis is not fun and I think can definitely be more of a factor if you exclusively pump. One supplement that was a game-changer in keeping my milk thinned out was Sunflower Lecithin. Once I started taking this every day, I never had another bad round of mastitis. If I started feeling like there was a clogged duct I would double the dose and take 4 pills. It worked every time to thin my milk and keep me from getting to that really bad, uncomfortable stage.
I used the Spectra pump and after using this one compared to the Medela pump with George, I prefer the Spectra. The suction is better and the night light on it really came in handy! 🙂 It also has a nifty clock on it that tells you how long you have pumped. I linked all the items below of what I consider to be Breastfeeding essentials. Let me know if you have exclusively pumped and what you have found to work for you!
