Pumping and Breast Feeding support thread!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hello :slight_smile:

For those of you who don’t know, Parallax and I had our little boy on October 1. He was only at 34 weeks so he will be in the NICU for a little while. I had a rather nasty bout of PIH and required an emergency C Section to correct that problem.

Anyway I know there are a lot of pregnant dopers and doper moms out there so I’m looking for a small cheering section for nursing moms. I didn’t do very well nursing our daughter but am hoping to do better with our son. He’s doing great but is still a preemie so I want to give him all the help I can. I’ve been pumping but it is frustrating because it seems like I do a lot of pumping for not much milk. I also know my milk is not in all the way yet.

Anyone have advice? questions? a story of their own?

2

I know this is going to sound trite, but:
Sit down, relax, think about the good stuff of babies. All of that will help your milk letdown, which is often the hard part. Maybe a picture of the little guy, or a blanket he’s been using, that smells like him.

When my middle baby was a newborn, I made a point of getting a glass of water to drink at every nursing. It didn’t take long before the sight of that glass of water was helping to signal letdown.

The best thing you can do for a nursing baby is to take care of his mother as best you can. Try to let other people worry about the day to day stuff.

This is a good thing you’re doing for your son. I hope it goes well, and I hope he grows and thrives and goes home very soon. Before you know it he’ll be waking you up in the night, and you’ll be cuddling him and nursing him in the quiet, just the two of you, as you both drift back to sleep, warm in your comforter. Sweet times.

I miss my babies!

3

I hear you! It took an entire week for my milk to come in. I fed my daughter formula and she was fine.

What kind of pump are you using? I have an Ameda Purely Yours. I like it very much. It’s really easy to use.

I wouldn’t worry about how much milk you’re getting right now. I would just keep drinking lots of fluids. My OB told me at least eight glasses and preferably more.

Once he’s out of the NICU I would purchase a nursing pillow. I love mine. It makes nursing so much easier. You can get your child to latch on quicker with less strain on your poor back.

Are you considering co-sleeping? If you’re breastfeeding you can just bring the babe to bed, stuff the boob in his mouth and go right back to bed. Once my child had the hang of it, it was bliss.

Good luck! Remember just stick with it and will get easier. The first six weeks are the hardest.

I had problems initially with production and getting my child to latch properly. But I worked through them and I’m still successfully nursing a nine month old. :cool:

4

Good advice from everyone who has chipped in so far!

I did want to say congratulations and the photos you put up of baby boy are lovely.

Feeding advice - pump, pump, pump and pump some more. Drink a lot of water, rest as much as you can, have a photo of the baby to look at if you can’t be with him. If his crying gets your milk going, or his cuteness, or a video of him, or simply watching other mothers nursing (if you are still in hospital) then do that, too.

If/when you can directly feed him, hand express (I know this is hard to do, I never got the hang of not bruising myself!!) a bit of milk so that he gets the taste of it when he just licks or mouths the nipple. Talk to him and tell him how clever he is. When you get that fizzing feeling that shows you let down is on its way, then get his mouth wide open and sort of “plock!” the baby onto the boob.

Don’t try to stuff the nipple in his mouth. The baby should be moving, not your boob! Wait for his mouth to be right wide and then aim him at the boob and hold him there. (Hard to write what I mean!) One lovely midwife really helped me when she said that you and the baby have to be tummy to tummy. Not the baby looking up at you as he feeds, if you see what I mean…

It helped me to feed my two newborns (four years apart, not at the same time!) with me naked from the top up while we were getting the hang of it. No fussing with clothes at the same time. I was NOT entirely happy when my new brother in law and husband’s sister waltzed in the day after their wedding and two days after my big one’s birth, and there I was semi-naked. (And don’t get me started on what sort of people plan their small, family only wedding for a week after their only brother’s kid’s due date. Grrr…) Well, BIL sure got to know me well that day!

With a preemie be prepared to spend hours feeding and burping, only to have to start it all over again. But when you see your little lad growing up, getting used to this world, actually daring to open his eyes and look at you, then smiling, and all the other stages that you know so well from your first little one, then it will be absolutely worth it.

Is there a La Leche League in your neighbourhood? They are very friendly and helpful, and can give you a lot of good practical help with breastfeeding a preemie. (And emotional support for Mum, too.)

Good luck!

5

If you’re not having much success with a pump, try manually expressing the milk and see how that goes. I could never get more than 30 or 40 mls out with a breast pump, and that often took over 1/2 hour, but once I got to doing it by hand, I could squirt out a full 240ml bottle in just a few minutes.

And many congratulations to you Tanookie and your family as well!!

6

Congratulations, Tanookie!

I’m going to assume that you’re pumping so that they can feed him EBM in the hospital? It makes a huge difference what kind of pump you have—hospital grade, single or double electric, manual, etc). I used a Pump in Style (who the hell thinks of these names, anyhow?!) and did really well with it.

Everyone else has had great advice. I would just second the loads of fluids and patience. Until your milk comes in, it may sem like you are barely getting a trickle, but you are doing well to even encourage that. I also hand-expressed at first, and that helped me…prime the pump, as it were. I wouldn’t be surprised if you notice a huge difference when your milk does come in.

Best of luck, and more congratulations to you!

7

Thanks all :slight_smile:

I am home and have the Ameda Purely Yours pump. It is a lot like the one I was using in the hospital and I like it.

I was getting about 4-7 mls when I first started, that went to 10-12 a couple of days ago and is now 17-20. The progress is small but I am starting to see it so that is a plus. I also do the massage and express thing before we start.

I think I single handedly put the maternity floor out of cranberry juice while I was there. I am always thirsty! And I get very very warm when I pump. I thought pregnancy made me feel warm!

I tried to feed him in the hospital a few times but he’s been so sleepy with being new and early and jaundiced. I’m hoping we have more success when he’s home and we can lounge in bed.

8

Good luck Tanookie!

I also didn’t do very well nursing my first son. I struggled and limped along for about 5 weeks before just giving up completely. With my second, who was born this past June, I was determined to do better. The only advice I can give is to simply hang in there. I had a lot of difficulty in the first few weeks–either over-engorged or under-supplied, cracked nipples, colicky baby who wanted to eat constantly, extremely painful letdown, aching back—you name it. But I kept trying, and at around six or seven weeks, an amazing thing happened. I was nursing Gus and had this moment of “Oh, wow, it’s not hurting!”. Between baby’s mouth getting bigger, my milk supply finally leveling out, and both Gus and I becoming comfortable with the process, it was like a whole new experience.

I went from dreading the next feeding to reveling in how easy nursing was. Now when I get up in the middle of the night for his feedings I don’t have to turn on lights or heat water, I don’t need to sterilize bottles or search for clean nipples. Just plop down and get right to it. I can even sleep while he nurses, since there’s no bottle to hold or worries about over-feeding. And one of the most important perks for me as a single mom is that it’s so CHEAP! I need to buy formula for his daycare because I can’t pump enough at work to cover his needs (only 3-4 oz at a time), but at home I only go through one small can a month, maybe.

So I think it’s very worth it, but be prepared to put in some hard work before you hit smooth sailing. Best wishes to your whole family, I hope you can take your baby home soon.

9

Oh–I meant to add. Watch what you eat! Caffiene will affect the little guy too. And everytime I ate broccoli Gus would get so gassy, he smelled like a sewer grate. :Ick!: His daycare teachers would always give me the eye when I picked him up and ask if I’d been eating broccoli again. :stuck_out_tongue: I finally gave it up for the sake of everyone involved.

10

One thing I’ve noticed too is that pumping makes me feel like I am having hot flashes! I make sure I have a nice big drink with copious quantities of ice at all times!

I had tons of cracking/bleeding problems last time and the lactation consultant helped me with that in the hospital. I had started to bleed from the pump and with massage and putting some lansinoh on the pump before starting and leaving milk on the nipple afterwards to dry I have healed up and had no more of those problems in the last few days. I was amazed at how quickly things healed!!

11

I’m going to try and breastfeed too, when BabyMetal makes his/her arrival, so I was really glad to see this thread. I registered for an electric pump (can’t remember what kind right now though) and I plan to try and get up early and pump before my shifts so that he/she’ll have something besides formula, which, though is unavoidable despite the fact I want to stay away from because I was raised to believe that formula fed babies are evil, nasty-tempered things though I know better now.

Also…this is kinda OT but how soon can a working mom go back to work after the baby is born? MetalGuy has 6 wks of vacation saved up he’s going to use for after the baby but I don’t have ANY thanks to my generous job :rolleyes: and I can probably take a WEEK off…maybe two at most, if we can afford it which I’m not even sure we can. :frowning:

MetalMaven

12

Go for it!!! I had to pump when Moon Unit was in the NICU (she arrived 6 weeks early, due to pre-eclampsia). I started off getting just a few ml of colostrum… I remember it was such a victory when I started getting over 10 ml :slight_smile:

Double-pump (both breasts at once) whenever you can. I think the idea is this makes the body think you’re nursing twins, which makes it ramp up production. After my milk was well-established I preferred to do only one side at a time so I had a hand free for reading etc., but supposedly that’s not optimal.

Try to pump in a relaxing location if possible - i.e., not sitting at the kitchen table. I had “the milking machine” on my nightstand and pumped there, with the TV on and my feet up.

Wake up during the night to pump so you stick to the 4-ish hour pumping schedule. Once your supply is established you can maybe skip that one (I sure did).

Whatever they tell you at the hospital: if he’s getting a bottle, he will develop some degree of nipple confusion. I got roundly lectured by one neonatologist for daring to suggest they attempt alternate feeding methods (then was told that once I got her home, I could do whatever I wanted even if it involved methods they were certain would endanger her! I was told by another neonatologist that babies will prefer the breast to the bottle. Yes, this was a young male doctor.

Consult with a lactation consultant as well as La Leche. You may not even know when he’s latched on properly - I know that if I hadn’t already bf’ed Dweezil successfully, I wouldn’t have known when Moon Unit was doing it right.

Consider alternate feeding methods when you get him home. What worked for me was finger-feeding (using that supplemental nutrition system with the bottle and the tubes, taped to my pinkie finger). In my case, it worked dramatically - Moon Unit was fully breastfed w/in 24 hours after doing that. HOWEVER - she was at that point 38 weeks old - i.e., “full-term”. Might not have worked as well, or as fast, if I’d tried it 2 weeks earlier. I’d tried the SNS using the “tape to the breast” methods… aside from looking and feeling ridiculous it actually made her feeding issues worse.

Plan on your only job, for the first week or 2 he’s home, being feeding, pumping, feeding, napping, feeding, pumping, pumping… :open_mouth: If memory serves, you’ve got a toddler, right? Barney (and other stars of the electronic babysitter) will be your friend those first few weeks!

If supply is a problem, look into pharmaceutical help. Reglan (which I think is an ulcer? drug) boosts milk supply.

13

Well I don’t know how soon you can go back to work with a vaginal delivery… I think it depends a lot on you and what you do for work.

I’ve had 2 C sections and the recovery for that is a bit longer. I’m doing far better this second time though since I don’t have pneumonia. My discharge papers say I can’t return to work for 6 weeks. I asked hubby if this meant I don’t have to do any mommy stuff for 6 weeks :wink: I’m very fortunate to be a stay at home mommy with a work from home daddy so while hubby has to work he can also keep an eye on the munchkin girl and help me when I need it and help the baby too when he finally gets home.

Pre-eclampsia is rough. This was my second round of it. Magnesium is not a pleasant medicine either. I had my tubes tied so there will be no third time!

14

UGH. Magnesium sulfate. God I hated that. Did they HAVE to chill it?

I’m sorry I dont have much to add, I wasnt able to breastfeed, much to my disapointment. But reading you ladies responses give me much hope for the future.

15

I don’t think they chilled mine… it was in an IV…

I did get a little much though as my blood pressure crashed to 80/50 and they had to pause it for a little while.

(I started the day at 140/90 and peaked at 155/108 and after baby have been merrily normal ever since - or as normal as I get)

16

I work as a cashier for a fast food joint (at the moment anyway) and no matter what kind of delivery I have (though I plan on a Vaginal), I’ll probably have to go straight back to work after a week or two because we simply cannot afford for me to take any more time off work.
Unless…and this is a desperate unless…my grandmother kicks off early. I love my grandmother very much but she’s in poor health and she’s already told me that when she kicks off, my two sibs and I each get between $14,000 and $20,00 dollars in inheiritance money from her insurance and what not. Though I love my grandmother very, very much and would hate to have her die on me, I’d also really like the money too because I know it would enable me to take at least the 4-6 wks suggested by the FMLA, most doctors and a heckuva lotta moms.

My own mother suggested I take a week or two off prior to the scheduled delivery date and though I would love to, I just can’t. Money situation doesn’t allow it. I envy you, Tanookie…being able to be a SAHM.:frowning: I wish I could do the same.

MetalMaven

17

I remember the trouble we had with our son his first week (this was in February). My wife’s milk just wasn’t there yet and we had a very hungry baby. We had to use formula until he could nurse properly.

As far as pumping, we first tried one of those Medela electric pumps. What a nightmare that was. It didn’t result in much milk, and apparently it hurt like hell. It got so just the sound of the machine made my wife’s breasts hurt. ka-CHUNK, ka-CHUNK, ka-CHUNK.

She finally found a hand pump made by Avent that works beautifully and that’s all she’s used since.

Good luck in your breast feeding efforts. It’s the best thing to do, especially for a preemie.

18

FWIW I used a Medela Pump In Style pump and it worked beautifully for me.
Lots of good tips here about relaxing and lots of water. I had to use lansonal just before pumping to so that my nipples didn’t get pulled on so hard.

19

Here’s a wonderful link for some great breastfeeding videos:

http://www.breastfeeding.com/helpme/helpme_video.html

Don’t afraid of breastfeeding. There are some women who have problems. But there are many others who’ve found it the most natural thing in the world. Before I had my first child I read all the horror stories. I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to do it at all. But after the first two weeks I found it remarkably easy.

If it doesn’t work at first, just keep trying. Don’t give up.

OTOH, don’t worry that much about feeding your child formula if you can’t make it work. My milk was late in arriving and I felt like the worst mother in the world when I had to give our child some formula in the meantime. I wasn’t and you won’t be either.

Good luck! And congratulations Tanookie!

20

While I understand money issues, there is simply NO WAY you can go back to work a week after a C-section. Vaginal delivery, maybe–although even then two weeks would be more realistic. But a C-section (my last was an emergency C, not fun) puts you on your back for two days, and on your ass for at least a few weeks. Yeah–you can move around and feed the baby, but every time you stand up you feel like your guts are about to fall out of your belly. Being on your feet all day just wouldn’t be possible.

I didn’t have any kind of paid leave either, so I’m not saying this from some clueless privileged mindset. I went 8 weeks with no income, so I understand the cash crunch. Start saving NOW. I don’t know when you’re due, but even having a few hundred dollars squirreled away can mean all the difference. And since your husband will be getting an income, you should be able to make it work, and I hope you can.

As to the pumping issue–has anyone found anything (non-pharmaceutical) that might improve pumping yeild? Like I said, I can only get 1.5–2 ounces out of each breast, maybe 3 oz. if it’s been more than a five hours since I last fed or pumped. Hand-expressing doesn’t make much difference and when I hear women talk about getting full 8 oz bottles with a single pumping session I’m amazed–is there a secret, or am I just not a pump kind of girl?