{In honor of August being Breastfeeding Awareness Month}

Our Story

I, like most first time moms, went into parenthood naive on the hardships of breastfeeding. Reality came about 6 hours into mommy life when Landon wouldn't latch & had low blood sugar. We supplemented that first night with donor milk. We continued to attempt breastfeeding but the poor guy had a disorganized suck & mama had inverted nipples resulting in an issue with transferring the milk. We tried the shield & that's when he really got pissy. By the end of the second day we had to supplement again & I had to start pumping so that my milk would come in. 

After leaving the hospital things did not get any better. On our first night home I did what any desperate sleep deprived mom would do - I googled our problems. Bad Idea. Every blog, article, and parenting board I read contradicted the last one. All of them claimed to be experts & were pretty damn smug on their correctness. 

I picked the advice of one and stopped supplementing… We went two days of only breastfeeding - those two days were absolutely awful. We both shed a lot of tears and spent hours and hours connected by mouth & boob. The worst part was that he was so hangry that he would gasp, shake and turn deep red in frustration. I felt like a failure. 

By the end of the second day of exclusively breastfeeding, I cried yet again, and Luke gave me a time out and pretty much told me to get my shit together. I slept & he fed Landon a bottle of formula. After that bottle he was a completely different baby - it was like night and day. 

So what if he ends up being obese & emotionally distant - at least I had a happy baby. Kidding.

The next morning I made an appointment with the lactation consultant. We went in and confirmed milk wasn't transferring. He was weighed before and after a 30 minute feeding and hadn't gained anything. She said that his latch could get better but I needed to look into other options of feeding him in the meantime.

My first thought was what kind of mother would I be if I didn't breastfeed. People put a lot of pressure on moms to breast feed - people are kind of assholes. By giving him a bottle I'm practically asking him to become an emotional eater, problem drinker & Justin Bieber fan. He will forever be able to blame all of his abandonment issues on me and I cannot handle that kind of guilt. Or maybe he won't have a f'in clue how he was fed the first year of his life & we will all be alright. My moneys on the latter. 

However I wasn't ready to completely throw in the towel. Wanting him to get as much of mommas good stuff as we could, I elected to pump and feed via bottle. I soon found out every lactation consultant, nurse, doctor  and person with a child who I told that I was exclusively pumping gave me the look. Ah the look - half pity & half I'm sure you could breastfeed if you really wanted to. Depending on how pro-breastfeeding they were, the look was then followed by a lecture on the benefits of breastfeeding that have nothing to do with the milk… bonding, babes emotional needs, etc. 

In an attempt to not permanently ruin the boy, we spend time everyday working on latching. Sometimes we scream & cry. Sometimes we stare at each other not sure what to do. And sometime we use mommy as a human pacifier and fall asleep. We never eat like we are suppose to. But its ok because it helps stimulate milk production & of course allows him his fill of emotional support so that he won't grow up to be a crackhead or man whore. 

Schedule

By the suggestion of another exclusive pumper, I aim to pump at least 120 minutes (2 hours) a day.

2 Weeks - 4 Weeks
Pump every 2-3 hours during the day for 15 minutes. Also pump every time baby wakes at night for 15 minutes. For me it was roughly 8 times in a 24 hour period.

4 Weeks - 6 Weeks
Pump every 4 hours around the clock for 20 minutes each. Works out to be 6 times per day.

6 Weeks - Currently
Pump 5 times per day for about 30 minutes each. For example: 6a, 10a, 2p, 6p & 10p. However sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I need to pump so I do and then I adjust the rest of my pumps during the day.

Once I go back to school in September I plan to maintain 5 pumps per day although the times may shift around some.

*Many pumpers don't suggest dropping the middle of the night pump  or cutting below 6 pumps per day until after 12 weeks. I was able to without reducing my production, I was lucky. 

Supply

By the time we made the official switch, Landon was 2 weeks old and we had been supplementing with formula and therefor had some supply issues.

2 Weeks - 3 Weeks
Avg. 13 oz. per day

4 Weeks - 5 Weeks
Avg. 18 oz. per day

*started taking Fenugreek supplement at 5 weeks (we both smell like maple syrup now)

Currently
Avg. 27 oz. per day

Landon eats between 25-30 oz. a day. Which means every few days we need to supplement with formula. However we have made huge progress from where we started. We started at about 50/50 on formula and breast milk. We are now at about 90% breast milk.

Goals 

My initial goal was to pump the first two months because its the most important for babies development and immunization. That is about a week away and I have no intentions of stopping. My next goal is to keep pumping until he is 4 months, then 6 months, 9 months and finally 1 year. Which if I make it to that I will probably have a party to set my pump & parts on fire.

Tips for pumping

Stay well hydrated
Try taking Fenugreek to increase supply
Pump 5 minutes past empty
Buy spare parts to cut down on washing
Lay skin to skin with baby to stimulate milk production - I let him suckle if he wants to
Eat oatmeal once a day
Invest in a car charger (I totally pump and drive all the time)
Buy or make a hands free pumping bra
Use massage, heat & compressions to cut down on time
Gravity is your friend, lean into the pump
Embrace pumping in public with a nursing cover
Put pump parts in fridge between pumping & you'll only have to wash them once a day
Pat yourself on the back because being hooked up to a machine for around 900 minutes a week isn't fun or easy for the strongest of people

{Clearly a well fed baby}