Our Breastfeeding Journey, Part 2 - Pumping

Man oh man... pumping at work was extremely hard to adjust to!!! It took me a few weeks to really get down a rhythm. Here's what ended up working for me:

Work Days: 

• Nurse baby when he woke up. 
• Early days: Pump before I left home (I had an oversupply and would leak on the way to work). Eventually I would cut out the morning pump, when my supply regulated and my baby started waking up/nursing closer to the time we left home.
• Pump at work 3x's a day, every 3 hours (scheduled on my work calendar). 
• Nurse baby at daycare pickup or right when we get home. 
• Nurse on demand throughout the night. Night feedings stopped when my baby was about 6 months old. When he stopped nursing at night, I would sometimes pump at midnight (or 3 hours after his last nursing session) because I was engorged and leaking. 

Weekends: nurse on demand and pump (1-2x's, if engorged) 

My baby started daycare a little after he turned 3 months old. He started with only 3 oz of breast milk, every 3 hours. This would start increasing to 4 oz. By the time he was 10-12 months, he was drinking 5-6 oz. Never went above 6 oz. 

Anything I pumped would be saved for the next day. If I had excess (in the beginning), I would either freeze or carry over to the next day. Monday's I used what I pumped over the weekend or used frozen milk. 

Kiinde System 

I used the Kiinde system and LOVE It. I was pumping directly into the bags, but then I stopped doing that and would pump into the bottles - then transition to the bags. The reason was, I was trying to get the right ounces in each bag. My baby used the slow nipple that came with the Kiinde and we never changed that. 

Daycare

I will say, I love our daycare. I really do. But they are very uneducated on breast fed babies. I tried to teach them to Pace feed - but I know that they didn't always do it - would depend on who was feeding him. They told me to change to a fast pace nipple, I told them no. The told me to up his ounces, I told them no. I tried to educate, but didn't force anything. Just told them why we weren't going to change anything. 

Low Supply Issues 

Eventually, my supply started to go down. It started when we started introducing solid foods at 6 months and he stopped nursing throughout the night. I went from an oversupply to barely being able to pump enough for the next day. By 6-7 months, I had almost used ALL of my frozen supply - which freaked me out. 

However, even with low supply issues - I managed to make it to one year without having to supplement. I did add extra pump sessions in, when I could, to make up for the gap. 

Nursing Attire 

The one big challenge I had with nursing and pumping is that I had to wear nursing clothes all the time. Since I was pumping at work, I needed "access" - so always wore a nursing bra and clothes everywhere. I stopped using a nursing cover for various reasons: 1) it was too hot, 2) my baby hated it and would push it away, and 3) I became more comfortable using the double shirt method. I always wore a tank top under my shirt. I nursed in a lot of public places and never had anyone comment on it. It wasn't always comfortable for me... but really, you couldn't see anything. I never thought I would be comfortable nursing without a cover... so was very surprised that I managed to do it for so long. I think we ditched the nursing cover at about 2-3 months old.

Pumping Supplies

• 3 sets of flanges (I left one at home and brought two to work) 
• Extra duckbill valves (replaced every 3 months)
• Dry/Wet bag to put my pumping items into and place in the refrigerator 
• Pumping bag 
• Milk bag
• Bottles 
• Kiinde bags 
• Labels (I would label the Kiinde bags at work) 
• Blue ice packs 
• Pumping bra 
• Manual pump 
• Medela sanitizing bags 
• Extra nursing pads (disposable and reusable) 
• A burp rag to protect my clothes (had instances where breast milk spilled on my work clothes) 

Next Breastfeeding entry: Nursing an older infant 

Our Breastfeeding Journey, Part 1 - Jaundice, Supplementing, Tongue Tie Revision

I wish I would've been able to keep up with the blog to track our breastfeeding journey. Through early struggles, a tongue tie, pumping at work - I did manage to breastfeed until my son was 14 months old. I'll try to write a summary!

Jaundice
The first month was tough with Baby C having jaundice. We began supplementing with formula right away and I started pumping right away. Not what I had planned. The first month was difficult, where I would try and nurse, then supplement with formula, then pump - to keep my supply up. Very little sleep during that time.

Nipple Shield
When he hit one month, my pediatrician finally gave the green light to stop supplementing and exclusively breast feed (EBF). Then the next issue came, trying to get off the nipple shield. The nipple shield worked great for the beginning, as my baby had a horrible latch. It took about one week of purposefully trying to get him off of the nipple shield before he would latch on his own.

Thrush
I thought we were getting the hang of breastfeeding, when all of a sudden I had a lot of pain. My pediatrician told me it was thrush. Thrush it it's own monster... both of us had to get on meds for it. Couldn't use breast pads for very long, had to wash bras constantly. It was a mess. I decided to go to a lactation consultant (LC) at that time.

Lip and Tongue Tie
Turns out... it wasn't thrush. My baby had a lip and tongue tie. Which EVERYONE missed. I had gone to a breastfeeding support group and the LC there missed the ties. The hospital LC missed the ties. My pediatrician missed the ties. After I had gone back to work, he got his tongue tie revision at 3.5 months old. Which, kinda sucked because he had just started sleeping for longer stretches of time and I had to wake him up every 4 hours to do tongue stretches. It was also VERY hard to have him go through the procedure, I cried when they took him away and cried when he came back crying. It was quick and fast... but it just sucked big time.

His latch did get better. I'm not sure if it was because of his tongue tie revision or just because he got older and more efficient? However, it did push back his sleep patterns and he wouldn't start sleeping through the night until closer to 6 months old.

I would say by 4 months old, I felt like breastfeeding was going extremely well. I had a bit of an oversupply, but I was happy to have that extra in my freezer (which I would eventually use when my supply started to go down!).

I'll write another entry on pumping and nursing an older infant (Biting and niplash!).

31w+0d: Breastfeeding Class Experience

I've been really into researching breastfeeding and being "ready" for breastfeeding. I really want breastfeeding to work. Before I was pregnant, I wasn't sure I would want to breastfeed. I know formula and I know how to make formula feeding work. Breastfeeding was a bit of a mystery and very intimidating as well.

I really enjoyed the breastfeeding class! A lactation consultant ran it and I really liked her. I took her card, just in case I want to use her in the future. She was very knowledgeable and you can tell that she loves what she does.

Most of what was covered in the class, I had already read about on forums or blogs. Nothing terribly new. The one thing that I didn't really know about was when and why new babies cluster feed. This is really good information. Also, I liked that we went over the "signs" to watch out for if baby isn't getting enough breast milk. Going over the latch was also very useful.

Here is the booklet that we went over: 

I am very excited about breastfeeding. I feel as prepared as I can be at this point. I'm glad I have a resource if I need assistance. There are also weekly lactation support groups, which I think I'm going to take advantage of once baby boy is here. 

The other really helpful thing that she went over is when to start pumping if you're going back to work, what type of nipple to use on the bottle, and when to introduce a bottle. 

Breastfeeding is a pretty amazing thing when you think about it. It's crazy what a woman's body does during pregnancy and how the woman's body adjusts to nourish a baby. 

My insurance covers a breast pump and that's where I'm at a bit of a stand-still. There are so many options, but I'm really stuck on the top 2 options: Medela and Spectrum S2. Everyone has different experiences with these pumps and there's no way to really know which would work best for me. I'm going to make a call into my insurance and see if they cover "renting" a hospital grade breast pump. If they don't, I'll make a choice between the Medela and Spectrum. 

It's funny, there's so much to breastfeeding: 

• Just getting started -- getting the latch right. Getting your supply up. 
• Learning to breastfeed in public. From clothing options to comfort to even State Laws/Protections on breastfeeding. 
• How to store breast milk. 
• All the supplies you need for pumping. 
• Going back to work and pumping supplies you'll need. How often to pump, how much you need to pump, etc. 
• Managing daycare and supply. 

It's like a whole new world! I'm probably over thinking it, but right now all I can do is try to plan for things as best as I could. Luckily, I have the daycare and work pumping figured out. Just need to figure out the breast pump. Just hoping all goes well with getting started and that I learn to breastfeed in public comfortably.

I hope I'm able to manage blogging post-baby, so I can track how things go with breastfeeding. Will see!