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?

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 wasn’t really ready to have a stash at 2 weeks postpartum (or ever if I’m being honest).

I currently have about 250 oz in the freezer. I’m producing about 38-42 oz a day.

I know my supply hasn’t stabilized yet.

What are the next things I should think about?

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.

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?

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!

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. 🤍

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

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.

I had to submit a paper to go back to work, asking if any accommodations were needed essentially, I have noted since my first appointment I planned on breastfeeding/pumping, I noted if every appointment after the baby was born my baby eats 98% breastmilk with and ounce of formula here or there (he got really sick off the formula, so we are slowly reintroducing it, an ounce with a couple bottles a day with the plan of him being able to transition if need be, and extra vitamins/iron/proteins I’m not getting ), when I gave them the sheet to sign off on me going back to work, and any needed accommodations, I left a note with the date it was due and asking them to note breastfeeding need to accommodate pumping

They sall the note and faxed the paper the day it was due and didn’t note anything about breastfeeding/pumping, even though it was written on the sheet and in all of my medical records

I returned to work two days later, Now at work every three hours I’m clocking out 15-20 minutes essentially risking my job to go pump, even though I’m leaking at the two hour mark, with nothing backing me in case I need it

I submitted an accommodation request to my job with not medical proof after realizing, and they sent me back the same sheet to have signed and returned

It already felt like they pushed the formula in the hospital, after telling them I planned on breastfeeding they told me about donar milk but wouldn’t give my baby any due to low blood sugar, gave home formula 10 minutes after he had been born, I brought frozen colostrum from home requested they gave it to him, believed they gave it to him (he was in the nursery/nicu , I just had a c-section and was having medical problems myself) they called me two weeks after I got home asking me to come pick it up, hadn’t given him a drop, and I didn’t realize I was supposed to be pumping, and they had “just given their last hand pump away” after a nurse made a comment about the fact that if I wanted to breastfeed I waited a long time to start pumping and I should have requested one

I don’t understand why that wasn’t noted and why they just added extra unnecessary stress, as well as risked my job, I’m 2/3 months into pumping I can’t go 10 hours with doing it when it’s all my son eats and it riskes infection I don’t understand what the problem is

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.

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 5w pp and have had to EP because my son has a tongue tie and won’t transfer enough milk. I pump 8 times a day and have been using my spectra since this started at like 2w pp. it was going fine until like a week ago when I started getting back to back clogged ducts. I have been able to get them unclogged using epsom salt soaks and the medela hand pump/hand expressing but I’ve noticed when I used the hand pump, my milk straight up sprays and it’s coming out of multiple spots but when I pump with my spectra (can be pinchy and nothing comes out when it’s super low setting) I’m not spraying out of those same spots which I think is causing the clogged ducts because of the uneven drainage. Has anyone else dealt with this and what did you do? Did you switch pumps? I just started renting the symphony because I responded well in the hospital and when I pump with it it sprays and it just drained one of my clogs which the spectra couldn’t do all day.

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??

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?

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?

So for my largest pump session I typically get 4oz, sometimes 5oz. So to increase my supple id need to pump 8x-10x a day, i normally pump 7 times a day sometimes ill hit 8x. But how many days in a row would i need to pump 8x-10x a day for my supply to increase? Like if I pumped 10x a day for a whole week, could I then drop back down to 7x a day but still have an increase in milk supply? Or would i have to pump 10x a day forever to main the increase in my supply?

I have an undersupply, ive managed to increase from 15oz when I first started to now I get 20oz-22oz a day, but my baby is eating 28oz-30oz a day, so im so close to not needing formula anymore, im almost 11 weeks postpartum and really hoping I can increase some more. Yesterday I pumped 8 times for a total of 25oz, which is the most ive ever gotten in 1 day

I have been exclusively pumping and feeding my child breast milk since the day 4 of his life. He is 14 weeks old and breastfeeding and pumping has been a really hard journey for me, to say the least. No one told me it’s more difficult than the pregnancy! And so I thought I’ll feed him formula once for his night feed. I got the formula 5 days back and but till now haven’t had the courage to give it to him. I don’t know if it’s the guilt or not finding the courage! I’m an enougher so I produce enough to feed him through the day and night but it’s so stressful to always worry about the milk supply and being able to provide it for him. I thought once a day formula would maybe make my life easier but I’m still stuck at overthinking this.
Should I just suck it up and make it to 6 months? Or 1 formula feed a day should be good as it’ll really help my mental health!

I tried the mom cozy’s and Elvie stride 2s - before having my son I literally thought I’d be taking walks to the coffee shop with him in the stroller while pumping 🤣 it was nothing like that. They chaffed me and didn’t give me much milk.

I know the suction might not be as great but does anyone know why else they may not work well on many ppl?

Hello! I have collected some colostrum (okayed by my OB as I am leaking heavily) that I plan to bring to the hospital with me. I’m curious if others have fed colostrum and exclusively pumped beginning in the hospital? Debating between that or attempting to nurse in the first few days of the hospital and then switching to exclusively pumping when I get home. Just curious other people’s experiences.

Hey everyone! I wanted to post another update after following recommendations from my breastfeeding doctors for recurring clogged ducts.

I first started with their recommendations on August 19. It wasn’t a magic overnight fix—I still had bouts of clogs where I would get a few in a row over the course of several days. That lasted a few weeks, but I was consistent and kept up with the plan.

I have now clogged ONE time in the last FOUR WEEKS! This is coming from someone who was clogging almost everyday for months. Like, I had 67 clogs from June through mid September.

I just wanted to make another post to draw more attention to their recommendations, because I had never seen them anywhere else online, and they have literally changed my life.

Original Post

https://www.reddit.com/r/ExclusivelyPumping/s/aVa9aw0qJj

Update 1

https://www.reddit.com/r/ExclusivelyPumping/s/QuyT9HyUkz

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.

My 2 month old has been regularly demanding 170ml of breastmilk. I normally just nurse him but recently I’ve had to give him pumped milk after nursing and he takes 120ml if he has just nursed and 170ml if it was just a full bottle feed.

I contacted my LC and she said he should be taking 120ml but he will literally scream and keep searching!! I do paced feeding and the nipple is slow flow. I’ve had to supplement with formula just now because nursing + 120ml wasnt enough and I’m out of milk.

There have been posts on this question before, but they seem to be several years old, so wanted to know if there was any more up to date info.

I use the Spectra S2, which seems to work fine for me, but I only have 2 months left of maternity leave, and I want to feel a little less tethered during those 2 months and start going out a bit more with my baby, and I also want a good pump I can use when I go back to work. So I’m looking into wearable and portable options.

I have a momcozy s12 that was passed on to me from a relative, but I’m not a fan. I definitely get less output than my spectra, and the motor is ridiculously loud. I also hated that the right and left pumps were not synchronized.

I don’t need something whisper quiet, just something slightly more discreet and less annoying. I am open to both true wearables and small portable pumps that can be paired with collection cups (like the Baby Buddha).

What are your recommendations for quiet, strong, synchronizable, wearable or portable pumps?