Pump Pump Pump It Up!

Hey ladies! That's right, I thought I'd talk about pumping today since I know a lot of you have new babies like me, or are pregnant and will soon be pumping too! To make it lighthearted, I always break out in song singing my "pump pump pump it up" but some days Scot is less than thrilled with me having to pump, so all I get is a weird look from him. That's okay. It's not about him anyways, but I did want to share what works for me. I know that some of you may consider this a personal topic, but my hopes are that maybe I can offer a few tips if you're like me, you had no idea where to begin with pumping. Besides, I consider ya'll my friends and it's what my girlfriends and I talk about anyways when we get together.

For starters, let's talk about the pump. There's a lot of them out there. All different brands and sizes and needs. For me, I registered for the Medela Pump in Style Advanced when I was pregnant with my son Ryder, because I knew at the time that I would be going back to work and needed something decent to get us enough milk produced through the day while we were apart. I did some research and found that I wanted an automatic pump, not a handheld one, and I wanted Hospital grade to get the job done. It comes with 4 Medela bottles, the flask that goes around your breast, and the hoses and membranes that attach to the pump which is what the milk flows into. Of course you can always buy replacement parts which I've actually had to do, but it's nice that it comes with everything you need to get started. Even a carrying case and ice pack for pumping and travel, which I've had to do more than a few times now!

My nursing and pumping experience started when Ryder was born 3 years ago. He latched on great while we were in the hospital, but after a few failed attempts afterwards, it was recommended to me that we try these nipple shields. If you aren't familiar with them, consider yourself a lucky gal! They are basically a thin rubbery shield that goes around your nipple to help pull the nipple out to where the baby can get a good latch. Being that he was my first baby, I guess my breasts weren't "conditioned" for nursing just yet! During each feeding, I spent more time sealing them on and making sure they stayed on good before then trying to remember the correct position to place my new baby, and it just turned into more stress than I was willing to deal with at the time, which is why I ended up exclusively pumping. By 2 weeks post pardum, I was ready to share the responsibilities of his feedings by letting my husband bottle feed, so it just seemed the right thing to do, and Ryder was still able to get the nourishment from me that he needed.

From the day my milk came in, I was blessed to have a good supply, so I did what I could to ensure this supply, not realizing at the time that in order to keep such a good supply up, I would have to pump the remaining milk each time or my body wouldn't produce as much because it would think the baby wasn't eating that much. I ended up nursing at first, as much as I could, and then attaching the pump on to get the rest out. I really was just playing trial and error in the beginning because I wasn't sure how it all worked. They told me at the hospital not to even pump until at least 4 weeks post pardum, but by 2 weeks I needed some help with the feedings! As I pumped, I would get about 5 oz each breast each feeding. Of course, the time of day is always a factor because I get wonderful amounts first thing in the morning and during the wee hours of the night, but by 2pm on, my supply is a bit harder to get out so sometimes I have to sit 5-10 minutes longer to get enough milk out. Each session usually lasts about 15-20 minutes, just as if I were nursing, so I didn't notice much of a difference at first. Fast forward to present day, and I feel like there are 2 hours in each day that I'll never get back. And that's when I have to remind myself of the reason I'm pumping to begin with anyways.

By the time I went to work at 8 weeks post pardum, I was exclusively pumping. This was a hard transition for me because in order to pump enough during the day as I had been doing, I had to have a lot of breaks. Working in a dental office, this was not always an easy task, so when I could, I would pump what I could, sometimes even hand expressing just so that my breasts continued to make milk. I remember during my 1 hour lunch break, rather than going out to eat with the girls from my office, I had to stay back and lock myself in the bathroom to pump and eat my lunch. Talk about depressing! But I did it for the first month or so, to where I was able to have enough milk in storage to get Ryder to his first 6 months of life, and then I made the decision to stop because it was just too much at work. Now not every job out there is like this, and I'm sure a lot of you have the flexibility to pump more often than I did. When I would come home, I would try to nurse or pump and continue to get any milk that I could out, but again it just got to be too much for me.

When Brynley was born, I had already made the decision in my mind that I wanted to exclusively breastfeed. So much to the fact that when Scot started pulling out bottles and making room in the cabinets of our kitchen, I had a little meltdown and told him not to even tempt me with the option to bottle feed in the beginning. I was bound and determined. And then she had high Billirubin levels. And ya'll know the rest of that story. I blame part of that on my pediatrician who was not supportive at all with me breastfeeding exclusively, but at the end of the day I know it was her job to get Brynley to gain weight and get her Billirubin (jaundice) levels down as they kept getting higher and higher. Just talking about it gets me all worked up again, because unlike her brother, she did latch on good and was nursing without having to use nipple shields. And I was producing plenty of milk, but all of this wasn't enough and in the end, it was more important to get her to gain weight than my stigma with giving her a bottle. I think I was just afraid that if I stopped nursing, we'd lose our groove and wouldn't nurse ever again. And I'm sure at this point, she'd do fine nursing, but we've just gotten to a routine of me pumping and bottle feeding now.

 Here was my supply in October, as I first started pumping enough milk to fill the 5 oz Medela bags. Some tips I can offer are to find times in the day, whether before your baby's feedings, or after, where you have time to relax and sit down to pump. I feel like the letdown has a lot to do with relaxing, and if you can't relax because you're worrying about the baby crying or your toddler running around, then it's going to be hard to get any milk to flow. Usually I find it's easiest to pump before a feeding so that the baby is still sleeping and it's quieter for me to just focus on the task at hand. I will either read my blogs then or watch tv, so that my mind can quiet and relax too. Having a helpful husband has helped too, because he would always take over the feedings if I was pumping during the early morning feeding at first. Now I have been trying to skip one of those pumping sessions, but find if I wait too long, I'm engorged and the fear of Mastitis lurching is enough to not want to skip too many pump sessions! You also have to make sure you get enough calories and are drinking enough water in the day too in order to get your milk supply to flow. It's easier said than done, because who has time to eat with a newborn and toddler, but I can always tell when I'm dehydrated and don't get as good of a pump session. Which leads to why I think I got the kidney stone, but that's a whole other story you've already heard ha!

And this is the current milk supply I have at my mom's deep freezer. This is enough to get Brynley to March if I was to stop today, but at this point I want to continue pumping to at least February. Pumping is definitely a lot of work, and it's much different than just nursing and letting the baby tell your body how much milk to produce. I have hand expressed milk more times than not, and sometimes ended up hand expressing at the end of the feeding because I just felt more milk in my breasts that weren't getting emptied. I know there are a lot of supplements out there to help with milk production too, but I guess it just takes trial and error to figure out if any work for you. I haven't taken any, but have heard the Fenugreek works well.

Don't get discouraged with pumping. Just know that you can do what you can do, and if it doesn't work for you then don't work yourself up. I have had days where I had it with pumping and literally just had to do it a day at a time, but then there were also days where it became a natural part of our routine. The hardest part for me now is just the time management because I feel bad for Ryder to entertain himself longer on top of the time I took already when I fed Brynley. But it's life right now, and he's adjusted just as I have. Well, I hope this helped and you can always email me, even if it's just for encouragement!