pumping exclusively

hi everyone.

I'm only 4 months along (pregnant that is) an with my first set of twins I was unable to breastfeed or pump due to medical complications I had from the birth. By the time I was able to do anything regarding BF or pumping my milk had already dried up and they formula babies. With my second second on the way, I am debating about pumping exlusively and bottle feeding since I will be going back to work less then a month after they are born (I am at a new job and have no vacation time built up.).

Has anyone else done this? How has it worked for you? What is the pump you would recommend for this? I'm researching now trying to figure out what to do.

 

I'm sure you'll get lots of great responses, but I just wanted to suggest you consider a mix of bottle & breast, as well. I had a bit more time off than you, more like 8 weeks, but I was so glad I was able to breastfeed at night. For me, making bottles was a pain and could be wasteful, especially in the beginning, when you're still trying to figure out routines and quantities. Plus, I think sometimes breastfeeding in the beginning can help establish your supply - sometimes during the first couple of days, mine would nurse more often than every 2 hours - it was like they were always on, but I think it really helped to establish supply!!

I definitely think you can exclusively pump, if that's what you want to do, but consider day pumping and night bfing, as well!

Congratulations!! And Good Luck - wow!! 2 sets - that's great!! :bow2: :bow2:

 

I was pumping exclusively up until last week. I think it is completely doable, but like pp mentioned - try to get them to the breast so you can get your supply up and established otherwise you'll really need to be diligent about pumping every 3 hours for a good 15 minutes. I was pumping 6 sessions a day for 10 minutes and getting consistently 40oz/day, so we ended up having to supplement a couple bottles for each baby everyday -- which was actually convenient since we usually did this for the evening and the middle of the night feedings. I would have continued, but it just seemed like every time I had an opportunity to pump (in between breakfast, clean-up, feeding both babies, helping with fights, getting dressed - you get the picture my house is pretty chaotic these days) it was 5 hours later and I was slowing fading the # of sessions each day - so I just stopped cold turkey . I would recommend the Medela double pump. You can definitely do it!

 

As the pp's said, it is doable but much harder to establish and maintain supply. I would suggest at least starting with baby to breast because babies are SO much more efficient than the pump. Those first few weeks are critical for milk supply and the baby will instinctively tell your body how much it needs. Once you go back to work you could go to exclusive pumping or you could pump in the day and nurse at night. Once my babies got good at nursing I was so happy to not have to fumble with bottles in my half-asleep state, much less fumble with a pump! You can just latch the baby on and go back to sleep till they're done!

 

I have been exclusively pumping since they were born and basically never nursed due to several bouts of mastitis, thrush, poor latches, you name it. I was pumping through all of it and then eventually it just became easier to not try to get the nursing on board since we had a good rhythm with the pumping.

I've been renting a hospital grade Medela pump which is super efficient and really helped get my supply up. At first, I pumped like a maniac (8x per day for about 20-30 min each time) and that resulted in a great supply where I've been pumping 50-60 ounces per day. I've dialed it back since but I've also managed to build up a pretty good freezer stash to draw from, now that I'm back to work. Currently, I'm pumping 2x per day and I get about 30 ounces overall. So we've added in some formula as well but I feel pretty good with the routine so far.

I won't lie--it was super hard at the beginning but I actually think it did work out for the best. With the pumping, other people could feed the babies which was nice (and necessary) and now it's really easy. I'll probably stop completely in another month or so and get to 6 months with the frozen milk. Honestly, that's more than I expected from myself with working full time so I can tell you, it's doable! Good luck!

 

Yeah you can do it. My twins came early. So I had to pump since day 1. We tried to breast feed. it didnt work out. So I pump. I got back to work a month ago, still pump. Before I pumped like every 2 hours 24/7. Now I pump about 6 times/day. I make 36-40oz/day. My kids intake like 50-55oz/day. So if i run out of BM, i give them formula. I really hate formula. It smell/tast like...I have medela in style advanced and avent isis manual pumps. I use medela at home, and avent at work (for quick 10 mins). I have to tell you. its hard. I pump like 1, 6, 12, 6, 8, 11 and 2 quick 10 before and after noon. Some days I feel like I cant do it anymore. But when I see the reaction on my babies faces when they eat formula. I cant stop. They hate the formula. Plus, when they're sick, not feel well, got cold, got vaccine shots, they really really need breast milk. I just have to pump constantly to give them as much BM as possible.

 

DITTO!!!!! Your supply will perserve so much more by doing as much nursing as you possibly can. I too went back to work when my twins were 1 month old and we nursed for 14 months!!! I pumped when I was away, and nursed when we were together. I also co-slept so we could do a LOT of night nursing. That really kicked up my supply and since the kids were getting so much milk at night (in my half sleepy state) it didnt require me to pump as much during the day

 

I pumped exclusively and went back to work when the girls were 6 weeks. I actually pumped right before the girls got a bottle so I could give them fresh, then put the rest in the fridge or freezer. I pumped through the night every three hours until I started back to work. I am sure what the others said about breastfeeding may be true, but I never had a supply issue pumping. I did start out breastfeeding, but because of latching issues, that only lasted about a week. I pumped straight through until the girls were about 5 months old. When I went back to school I pumped before I left for work, during my planning, as soon as I got home, then during the girls' night feeding. My girls never had to be on formula until I weened them by choice and I even had enough stored up in the freezer to last about a week after I finished pumping. I had the Medela pump and it was absolutely excellent. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

I went back to work after 4 weeks and I combined pumping at work with nursing while at home. At first I worked only 8-9 hour days, but by 3 months of age I had to go back to working 60 hours per week, 12 hours per day. They are 7.5 months old now and doing great. I still have to pump every 3-4 hours at work. Today I tried to go 5 hours and my supply is down a little. Good luck!

 

I nursed in the beginning, then went to pumping and nursing, and then somewhere around 6 months went only to pumping (due to many, many latch, feeding, etc issues).

I second the suggestion to rent a hospital grade pump. I noticed a difference when I started using that. I used it for a few months when I went to exclusively pumping. Most hospitals will let you rent them. They are expensive but so is formula.

In my own experience, I pumped because I had to, and if I could have fed them directly I would have preferred that. The thing about pumping is that it adds and extra step in your already busy day. After you pump you still have to feed the baby, and you have to wash bottles, wash pump parts, etc. It's a lot of work. Even if you only nursed part of the time and pumped the rest of the time you can save yourself a lot of extra steps.

Having said that, if you decide to go with pumping, you can always use that time to read or get online. :laughing:

Good luck!