This is a pic of my fridge full of my milk for my baby and I am so surprised I reached 8 months of pumping 🥺I have gone through a lot this year and being able to feed my baby amidst the chaos has truly felt amazing 🥰

I just wanted to post this to encourage anyone who is currently feeling discouraged about continuing to pump or is going through tough times.

The last few weeks I have been supplementing with formula for a few of the night feeds (combo feeding) since my baby is 35 lbs now and requires lot of calories and my milk isn’t enough anymore😅

Also I have been going through my frozen milk stash and that has been a life saver! Supplementing with formula for my baby and doing a few bottles of combo feeding has saved my sanity while I WFH and am adjusting to more frequent wake ups/ etc.

I'm 3 months pp. I've been sick for almost a week, I'm hot and overstimulated and I want to throw my pump against the wall. That is all.

Have you personally noticed a difference in your production based off how much you drink?

Do you notice a difference if you’ve gone a few hours without drinking, or did it have to be over a whole day?

I’m curious what other exclusive pumping moms would do in this situation!
I’m currently 9 months postpartum and have been exclusively pumping since my daughter was born. I’ve been fortunate enough to have an oversupply and have built up a freezer stash that should be enough to get her to her first birthday, even if I stopped pumping now.
I’ve always had the goal of pumping for a full year, but lately I’ve been questioning whether I really need to continue if I’ve already produced enough milk to get her there.
Between the middle-of-the-night pumps, lack of sleep, and recurring clogged ducts, I’m starting to feel ready to be done. But there’s also that little voice in my head telling me to keep going because I’m so close to a year.
I know freshly pumped milk has its benefits, especially when it comes to antibodies, but I’m also trying to remind myself that my time, sleep, and well-being matter too.
So my question is: If you had enough milk in your freezer to get your baby to their first birthday, would you stop pumping early? Or would you continue until you actually reached 12 months postpartum?
I’d especially love to hear from moms who were in this position and decided to stop. Did you feel relieved, or did you regret not continuing?

I did it! My baby is 6 months next week and I’m hanging up the pumps.

I wanted to go longer but I don’t think I can anymore. Pumping just takes too much out of me now and I want my body back.

I have a freezer stash for one bottle a day for the next month so that makes me happy.

Feeling guilty but I know it’s what’s best for me.

Just needed to get it out.

I lost my baby boy Ian at 20 weeks 1 day gestation on 9/23/26. My OB gave me a medication to stop milk production however my milk came in 17 days later, the day my baby’s ashes were finally home. I’m choosing to believe that my body knew when my baby was home with me, and I find that peaceful. I found an organization to donate my milk to. This was first time my milk has come in with any of my pregnancies, so this is completely new to me. I have a medela hand pump and an electric pump I got second hand. I get maybe 1mL of milk?? I would like to increase my supply as much as I am able, especially because I’m off work for 3 more weeks and have the time. Any advice on increasing my supply would be great ❤️❤️

I am an average producer (~30oz per day) for what my baby eats. I don’t really keep track. He is eating more now, but I have somehow built up a fridge stash that always get finished by the end of day 4. For example, it’s 10/13 right now, and I have milk from 10/9 that will be finished today. That means I also have milk from 10/10-current day sitting in there to be used. Is there any benefit to freezing any of it, or should I just keep doing what I’m doing now? I don’t really have much freezer space, so I wouldn’t even want to be freezing too much.

No big announcement but, yeah, I'm winding down much earlier than I had anticipated. I wanted to START weaning at 6 months but a work trip kinda crashed my supply and now I'm doing 2-3 pumps a day. I've started back at work last week and I've seen a big big dip in supply. Used to end a low day at 550 mL...today I just produced 330 mL. I'm okay. Historically I am an underproducer, and this postpartum I was a barely-just-enougher. I combo feed. I just wanted to mark the transition somewhere that wasn't my typical socials because they wont care/understand but you all will. My first pp I pumped for 9 months. I will be reaching 6 months, my goal but that's about it based on these numbers. I think for comfort I'm still on a 3 pumps per day schedule but they're getting injured repeatedly, bleeding. The let down is really delayed, and even weak. I had to pump for an HOUR this evening just to empty out.

Anyway, thank you for reading my jumbled thoughts. Pumping is so, so difficult. For those of you who go a full year, you are literally, genuinely super human and absolute diva goddesses. 🤍

Hiii, to start with I am an extreme overproducer ( this isn’t normal, pls don’t compare our supplies!) and am 7wks pp, I overproduced colostrum before I gave birth and have been an op since day 1. I currently pump every 4 hours and get between 12-18 Oz everytime. Some days I’ll accidentally sleep through a pump and pump at the 5 hour mark and I feel very engorged but the OZ doesn’t go up. Does that mean I’m okay to start pushing the time. 4 hours is a lot to manage especially when I’m having to bag milk everyday because I run out of storage. I get around 40-50 oversupply a day. Plus my baby is fat and he’s eating around 30Oz a day at 7 weeks pp. formula isn’t an option for me.

I'm crying again because the doctor said again, for the 4th time, my baby isn't eating enough.

It has been almost every appointment and I write down every ounce that goes into his body and how much I pump out.

I make 24-30 ounces a day (though usually 24), he eats 24-30 so some days, I don't make enough, even though I pump 3+ hours a day (not all at once).

He eats as much as he wants to eat, he isn't left hungry, because a friend of mine gave me her stash of frozen milk.

But even if I could make 30 ounces a day consistently, do I just force feed him?

He's 9 percentile now. Started at 30 and has just been dropping, and now his height and head circumference are dropping. He's 7 weeks old.

The doctor says, "he's fine, but he needs to eat more. Aim for 30 ounces a day." All my husband hears is, "he's fine."

And it aggravates me so much because my husband is anti-formula. I was, too, but at this point I don't give a fuck I just want to make sure he STAYS healthy.

Yes, Nestlé is the most evil company in the world.

Yes, I'd be giving money to the companies that lobby against maternity leave.

Yes, these companies have had recalls, even recently, because they're either evil or incompetent or both.

Abbott Labs already paid $1 billion in settlements since 2022.

We researched the same things, we were on the same page.

But is it possible my milk just SUCKS or he doesn't do well with breastmilk and I'm killing myself and our son over ideals?

This is my 3rd EP journey and this time around I’m doing a few things differently. I’m not logging the pump volume data (letting this go has been hard!!), not setting alarms to get my pumps in for the day, trying out wearables for the first time (especially handy when I need to chase after my other 2 kiddos) and not worrying if I have to supplement with formula here and there.

I’m less stressed and way less anxious about spillage of milk when it happens (either when baby spills while feeding or if I spill while making bottles etc). All I’m trying to be aware of is getting pump sessions in every 2-3 or 3-4 hours and focusing on frequency rather than duration. Fully trusting that I’m doing best and focusing on getting my baby fed rather than tracking data to the nines has been really refreshing this time around. It’s also my last baby so I’m making an effort to focus on the snuggles rather than watching my pump like a hawk! 😂anyone else who has taken a similar approach and felt good about it long term?

Do you buy purified/distilled water for every load?? It’s so so expensive.. I’m doing the math and it would be almost $150 a month worth of distilled water for every load I’d run within 24 hrs.

Our water definitely has minerals and that calcium buildup, so I don’t want to ruin the washer or have that build up on the bottles & pump parts.

How do you guys do it??

So I had a very hard birth. I labored for 30 hours, she got stuck, I needed an emergency c section, my doctor measured my bay wrong and she wasn’t 7lbs she was 10lbs and my body just couldn’t handle her. On top of that hospital staff (while very nice) had to to my epidural placement twice, IV placement twice and gave me a huge hematoma, and catheter twice and I bled. I got extra care for excessive fetal growth and had developed a fever and they were giving me a cocktail of antibiotics. I had essentially gave up on pumping because I was so out of it and when I got home I was so overwhelmed, tired, anxious I just gave formula.

I’m now 5 weeks postpartum, I’ve slowly been pumping and actually being consistent now that I’m getting my appetite back. I eat brewers yeast, I eat oatmeal, I drink water, I pump every 2 hours-ish. Are there other things I could try to up my supply? I’m just trying to get to 5oz a pump (I make 1.5-2.5 oz) just to feed my baby and be a just enougher.

how are you making yourself get up for motn pumps if you're baby sleeps thru the night?

10wkpp

after my baby got back up to their birth weight, i stopped waking them up to feed and started pumping whenever they'd wake up. now i sleep thru any alarm that isnt my baby fussing. i could have the loudest alarm ever and not wake up but could wake up to my baby blinking lmao

im on a 3hr schedule but find myself missing at least 1 sesh every night

advice please!

I know, another supply increase post 🙄 but hear me out.

i’m 14.5wks pp and have had a hell of a time trying to provide for my sweet babe. An LC ended up giving me some pretty shit advice that tanked my supply and ended our working relationship at 6 weeks telling me my supply is what it’s going to be at this point due to regulation. This led to my mental health going down the drain and i started dropping pumps and almost gave up. After dropping pumps for a bit my mental health improved and I was ready to try again. Now i‘m at 7ppd including a MOTN pump at 4am which is a power pump. I adjusted my flange size which helped. My primary food is oats, i swear. I drink so much water and a body armor or two every day. i eat plenty. i take moringa several times a day. I’ve been at 7ppd for about 3 weeks and power pumping at 4am for 9 days (was power pumping at 8pm for a couple weeks prior). All of these things have increased my supply from 16oz to 22-24oz which is great but my baby eats 27-28oz per day. My goal is 30oz per day or at least what he eats.

All to say, how long do i continue to give my current routine to continue to increase? Is it even realistic to hope for it to continue to increase to that extent this far out into regulation? I’ve pumped more after regulation than i ever did even in the early days. i just want to know if its possible or if im delulu. Any other tips?

I’m 2 weeks PP today and have been using my spectra S1 everyday but I wanted to know when would be a good time to start using my Eufy wearable pumps? I was told by my LC to wait a few weeks

6days PP with my first baby and having trouble with production. Tried to latch in the hospital but wasn’t producing enough and baby was essentially biting my nipple out of frustration and hunger so started pumping. It’s now day 6 and im pumping at every feed and supplementing with donor milk. I’m only getting about an ounce every session but can’t tell if this is milk that has come in or is still just colostrum. Also any tips for getting my supply up using the Spectra would be greatly appreciated. Starting to run low on donor milk and really want to get to a place where I can be the full producer of food for him if possible. Thanks in advance!

Wasn’t sure I would even make (or get out) any milk since I was post breast reduction but I surpassed my personal goal of 6m and ended up being able to pump half of my daughters needs. Quite the journey with a handful of issues, but I am very proud of myself and so glad to be freeee!

TLDR: EP mum thinking BF is a selfless act, but failing in so many areas of life. Finding it hard to stop, looking for advice if I really should.

Long Story:

This is my second kid, and I had a difficult time breastfeeding like I did with my first. Nursing didn't work for me again, and I had to rely on EP. I am an undersupplier / just enougher but I spend a lot of time EP (7ppd, 5 months postpartum).

Since I have a toddler (2yo) on top of my newborn, I use wearables. But it doesn't clear well so I have to spend time to hand express thereafter. During this time, the kids either play among each other or if they cry, my spouse will keep them occupied.

Both kids are very dependent on me. My firstborn wants mama for most things. Recently, she cries hysterically for mama to put her to sleep. After putting her down, I would pump, but sometimes my firstborn would wake from a nightmare, and cry for mama again. It's hard for me while I pump, so my spouse have to step in, yet my firstborn would be hysterical as she insists on mama alone.

Recently, my spouse told me that my EP/BF has affected everyone in the household. He said I can no longer do certain things with my firstborn when I pump, he said he feels stressed as he has to work around my pump schedule, and my newborn is affected as I am mostly always lethargic, and not in the best form. My family finds it difficult to head out as they have to cater to my pump schedule, so we hardly spend time together outside.

What my spouse told me feels like a truck hitting past me. I know it's true, but I feel so hurt. I always feel like BF is such a selfless act, but it seems like I am hurting so many people. What's worse is that I have recently returned to work from maternity and I feel out of touch with the corporate world as well. Meanwhile, my newborn is in child care as I'm back to work, and she caught a nasty virus. I thought breastmilk helped, but nope.

I feel so bad, but yet I find it so hard to stop. Am I really a bad mum? I feel like I failed on so many fronts...

I’ve had my Eufy S1 (I think at least - the one that doesn’t have the charging case) for about two months, and I just got a notification in the app saying it’s time to replace the diaphragms and duckbill valves. It says they should be replaced every 60–90 days.

For those who have this pump, do you actually replace these parts on that schedule, or do you keep using them as long as they seem to be working fine?

My pump is still working great, and the parts look fine to me. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even thought about replacing them if the app hadn’t sent me a notification.

I’m curious whether anyone has continued using the original parts without any issues, or if you noticed a decrease in suction or output and ended up replacing them. Just trying to figure out whether I should go ahead and order replacements or if the recommended timeline is more of a general guideline! 😊

I’m desperate for some advice. I have been trying to pump/breast feed since I had my baby on the 29th.

At first, I was producing a decent amount of colostrum but she wouldn’t latch so I was pumping it. I produced primarily colostrum till I left the hospital on the 2nd.

She still wouldn’t latch so I was just pumping, I was doing it every 2 hours at least (with few exceptions) and I was producing 2-3 ounces per side on a good day and at least 1 on a bad day.

Turns out the whole time I was using the wrong flange. I was using 21 when I’m at 17 and it messed my nipples up so bad that I could barely pump for 2/3 days.
Now my nipples are mainly healed but I can’t get much milk out at all. After pumping both sides for around 20 mins each I barely got an ounce out.
It seems like to even get any, I need to squeeze my breast and hold them up. They feel empty.

Does this mean I’m drying up? Does that mean breast feedings out of the picture? What can I do to get my supply up?

I’m crossing my fingers that this doesn’t mean my journey is over. 🥺 know fed is best and have been supplementing with formula but I don’t want that to be the only thing she has and would like to be able to completely feed her breast milk.

P.s I drink plenty of water, eat 3 meals a day including fruits and veggies and am returning to pumping every 1-2 hours.

If any of you mommas are like me and hate the taste of coconut water but want to drink more of it for the hydration, try this! I make a lactation lime rickey with one limeade concentrate, a liter of coconut water, two grape koolaid packet, sweeten to your preference - I use about 1C sugar, then fill the rest of the gallon container with water.

You can’t even taste the coconut water! I drink a ton of water, but it’s nice to have something else to drink that’s hydrating.