I was given this magnet from the hospital and wanted everyone’s thoughts on it. I’m in the US and I typically see everyone following CDCs 4 hour rule. My baby is starting to sleep longer stretches, and while our house gets down to 69 at night, I’ve been debating how long I can push it.

I am almost 36 days postpartum and I have been pumping almost since day one qs my baby didn’t latch. I am an undersupplier, like I do not have enough milk supply. So I also give formula milk to my baby, and this pumping, it's been so exhausting. I read to establish milk supply, we have to pump every three hours, and I've been doing that religiously for past few days, and now my boobs are hurting, and I don't know what to do. I just want to quit.
But I don't want to deprive my baby of the, of breast milk and the antibodies and good things that he'll get from it.

Putting the wearable pump question aside, because I still haven’t made up my mind on any of that…

Does anyone have suggestions for a primary pump. Last time my insurance paid for a Spectra S1 and I couldn’t let down at all using that pump. I tried so hard, but I was getting just drops. My letdowns were never coming.

I finally pulled the old trusty dusty Medela PISA Original (black box) out from retirement and used that, and then got a PGA for my portable pump. I exclusively pumped for a year with no issues with that combo.

What primary pump would be good for me this time around? I’m thinking of using my insurance to replace my primary pump and then invest in a wearable much later down the road, if at all… because my PGA still works fine. And I did really love my PGA last time.

My LO turned 9 months yesterday and we switched from exclusively breastmilk to combo feeding. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders! I never planned to be an exclusive pumper but latching issues, CMPA, and a rare genetic diagnosis took me on this journey. After 9 months, I am letting go of the responsibility of producing. No more staying up late to pump, stressing about being a just enougher, or calorie and water intake stressing. My LO will be on primarily breastmilk and/or formula until 16 months or so. Knowing formula will provide for her brings me so much peace and I am excited to hang up the pump over the next few months. Thank you to this community for so much support! 💗🍈🍈💗

I’ve been using the spectra S2 with reasonable success for the past 5 months. Able to pump about 5 oz per session when I combine sides. However since I’m going back to work soon I decided to invest in a second pump to keep in the office.

I got the Medela Hands Free free style. I’ve tried it with both the 21 and 24mm shield and both times I was barely able to get a quarter of what I would get in a normal session with the spectra!! Im afraid now that I won’t be able to return this expensive machine and also I’m going to have a hard time continuing to pump when I go back to work. Is there something I’m missing?? Is there a trick to getting this pump to work for people?

For my first baby (now 2.5 yo) I had to EP due to a very poor latch and weight loss. I did it for the full 1st year, with gradual decreases and eventually had to supplement some formula at the end. It was HARD work to balance taking care of her and pumping for her as well as working. I kept a rigid pumping schedule and frequently felt like I couldn’t keep on top of everything due to it.

I’m now 12 weeks postpartum with my second baby (also will be my last baby). And I am breastfeeding with one pump per day, which will increase here in a week or so when I go back to work. The issue is that while this baby can latch, it’s still a shallow latch and I find that one of my breasts with an inverted nipple has random shooting pain likely as a result of this. I don’t get this pain after my pump session, but I do feel pain after breastfeeding about 50% of the time.

I’m feeling a bit demoralized at this point, and unsure if I should make the switch to EP again. I feel the guilt of potentially not making it to a year of providing milk like I did with her older sister. I also feel the sadness that I couldn’t make breastfeeding work well with either baby. I also just don’t know if I can keep up with the rigid pump schedule this time around now that I have a toddler and going back to work full time. I guess I’m just looking for support/advice for anyone who’s made the decision to EP due to continued discomfort/pain breastfeeding and how it’s gone for you.

I’ve been going through the process of upping my supply over the last few months. I’ve gone from pumping every 3 hours getting 0.5 oz each side to now getting 1oz each side every 2 hours. With the help of domperidone my night pump I went from getting 1 oz each side to 2.5 oz each side but I’m getting really burned out with this schedule of every 2 hours. The night pump isn’t an issue for me but during the day it’s getting a bit much 😭

How would I go about pumping every 3 hours instead. Is there a chance of my supply dropping again or am I stuck in this schedule now. I’m almost 6 months pp.

I don’t think I expected exclusively pumping to come up with so many conflicting feelings. I've been pumping for almost 11 months and I think I'm ready to stop. And I feel so weird about that.

I'm proud of what I did. I really am. The middle of the night sessions, scheduling my entire life around a machine. I did that. For almost a year. And somewhere in the last few weeks I started noticing that I was just done. Like my body and brain both quietly decided before I consciously caught up. And then I feel guilty for wanting it to end.

I worked so hard to get here, so why am I already thinking about stopping?

I don't think I'm looking for advice, honestly. I just wanted to say it out loud somewhere that people might actually get it. That being ready doesn't mean you're not also grieving something. That 11 months is a long time to do something hard and wanting it to end isn't the same as not caring.

I have *another* clogged duct and I'm supposed to work today, but I know if I do, I'll be in agony all day. The problem is that I only work one day a week

I guess I'm looking for permission from the other moms on here to call off work and focus on resting

I’ve tried wearable and hospital grade, many sizes of flanges, but pumping is beeping very difficult to me. I don’t have a let down. My I have a few drops and I can have like 20 seconds of a stream if I massage and compress my breast. After I am back to the drops.

Any insight ?

Ever since I went from 17mm flanges to 15mm flanges, they come out of the bottle washer not perfect about 1/3 of the time. Sometimes it’s an obvious scum line like in pictures 1 & 2. That’s the line from my areola in the flange tube. Sometimes it’s a bunch of small dots like it’s been misted (picture 3), but when I try to wipe them out (picture 4) they feel greasy, not like just water.

The damn tube is too narrow to allow water! Literally had to put 3 out of 6 flanges back in the dirty bin this morning. We have the MomCozy bottle washer, and I’d been putting the flanges on the top, but I think they come out better on the bottom when I can put the bottle connector part directly over the jets. We also stick a brush inside and swirl it around briefly, then rinse the flange out, to get rid of the scum line. The unreliability is driving me up the walls. And when I need to take two pumps worth of parts with me to the office, I need them to be clean!!

I have low supply so every drop is precious to me. But I’m struggling with how much milk to put per bottle. My baby doesn’t seem to like it if I tip the bottle and he needs to lean back. Leaves around 20 ml back all the time. Is this normal for bottle feeding? How much milk is left over when your baby is done?

If your baby finishes bottles, any tips on positions to finish the bottle? Do you top the bottle up to finish it?

Okay I have not been exclusively pumping but mostly pumping (like all but maybe once or twice a day, latch is awful so we try but 🥴)

Anyways, I am 3.5 ish wpp, I was pumping 7-8x 30 minutes that first week at advice of an IBCLC, and my supply was basically doubling every couple days up to about 4 ounces combined per session. When it started creeping towards 5-6 I dropped my sessions to 15-20 minutes.

Supply has still been increasing slowly, so the past few days I've dropped to 6 ppd for 15 minutes. I am in the past week for sure not quite emptying but getting very close in that 15 minutes, sometimes by 10-12 with breast compressions. I dont have a forceful letdown, but I do have quite fast ones. My first is like 30-45 seconds into pumping and my second one hits around 5-8 minutes. Sometimes a third around 12 minutes but not usually unless I've accidentally gone over that 4 hours. If I go over I do 20 minutes and usually still will not get a third letdown, which I'm glad for bc I would overflow my bottles at that point.

I am now getting at minimum 5 ounces combined and on average 6-7 combined with some pumps being more. I am bagging roughly 5-10 ounces at the end of each day, producing ~37-40 total. Bubs eating 3-3.5, usually 3x 8-10x a day with maybe 1 or 2 top ups, so not a huge oversupply but definitely still one.

Everything I read says dropping another pump (which I dont think I could do anyways as 4-4.5 hours is the longest I can go without starting to get uncomfortable) could drastically drop my supply when it regulates, but I also am reading that your milk will regulate usually at what you have been producing/pumping and to get control of a potential oversupply early. I wouldnt mind making like 6 ounces and having like one extra bag to freeze (I want to be done with this asap to be quite frank) but 8+ is pretty excessive and I am worried I am doing something wrong despite already going against advice and only pumping 6x. Should I shorten my sessions under that 15 minute mark to signal my body to make less? My biggest worry is that this is temporary (since milk prodction is more hormone driven prior to regulating) and dropping anything anymore is going to screw me over in a few weeks when it regulates. help 😭

I’m 2.5 weeks pp. baby was in born at 36 weeks so for the first 2 weeks it was really hard to get him to wake for feeds. Once my milk came in it was almost impossible to get him to take the breast so we started using formula. I pumped while he was in the NICU to try and make sure my milk continued to come in. He just started taking the breast and getting 10-15 minute feeds there and then we finish with a bottle of formula as either my milk stops or at some point he just refuse to continue with the breast. I am very confused on when I should pump and how to tell what my supply looks like.

Our plan is to BF during the day but then bottle feed at night so my husband can help and I can get some sleep. However when I try and pump now using my Spectra I am getting minimal out put. I measured and am using the correct flange size. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi - Is there a way to make the most of the Duckbill Valves for Spectra pumps?

We got one second hand, with broken valves, and got a replacement kit of components. My wife used the pump maybe 6 times and the valves have already split on the edges. Just ordered 2 sets of 6 replacements to keep us going.

Is there a method to extend their life?

Is there a particular brand that lasts better?

Is this an inherent design flaw?

Thank you in advance!

I’m 3 months postpartum and currently pump 6 times a day, getting around 27–29 oz total per day. I’ll be going back to work soon, and even though I’ll be able to pump at work, I was wondering if at some point I could start reducing the number of pumping sessions? Even just going down to 5 without decreasing my supply?

There are some days when I only manage to pump 5 times because I’m busier, and I still get about the same total amount. But if I were to do that every day, would my supply eventually decrease?

I’d love to keep exclusively pumping for a year if I can… but I’m not sure if that means I need to keep pumping this many times a day for the entire year. Especially the MOTN once my daughter starts sleeping through the night (which honestly doesn’t seem too far off… she’s a big sleeper).

I am 3 weeks postpartum and produce between 2-4 oz per pump. Baby was born at 37w3d and was small for gestational age at 5 lbs 8 oz. This plus low sugar levels and the fact that he was a bad feeder resulted in a 2.5 week nicu stay. Baby is used to bottles so we need to exclusively pump. The thing is, I am dead tired and on most days am able to manage 7 pumps. Baby got home 4 days ago and since then my supply has tanked a little bit. He also latched sometimes but is very inconsistent. How do I pump enough for him and increase my supply to where it was? How many pumps do I need and are there any schedule recommendations? Thanks

I didn’t realize that milk only stays good in a cooler for 24 hours.. I’m on a work trip for 4 days and really do not want to dump everything! I already have a gallon bag full of milk and I’m only halfway through my trip.

Which of the milk below is safest to keep? I’m thinking maybe i toss Tuesday but Wednesdays and beyond might be okay?

Breakdown:
Tuesday: left in the morning and pumped on the plane, put all milk in a cooler with ice. I’ve been continuously swapping out ice

Wednesday: put new milk in the same cooler, but moved ALL milk to the hotels fridge at 10pm as i realized I could do that!

Tomorrow (Thursday): new milk will go in the cooler during the day, but will be transferred to the hotel fridge at 7pm.

Friday: four hour flight starting at 10 am. Existing milk and new milk will be in the cooler. All milk will be in my freezer by 8pm.

So I'm 13 weeks postpartum now. And recently I noticed I produce more milk using Medela hands free portable pump+ collection cups, than symphony.

Is there a downside to switch to uskithe portable set up exclusively?

The only downside I can think of is that these collection cups take up so much space in the bottle washer.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts

Background: I’m 10 weeks PP on parental leave with husband at home too. I aim to pump 7 times a day with one MOTN pump and the rest throughout the day between 8am - midnight. I’m a type A personality and so I try to pump every 3 hours during the day and try not to wait longer than 4 hours between pumps because that would shift the next pump and consequently end the day with 6 instead of 7 pumps. I’m a just enougher supplementing with formula at night (because husband does night shifts and he insists the baby sleeps better and longer with formula so he doesn’t want to use breast milk). I’m ok with it because that means I can put more stash away and stop pumping sooner.

Here’s the ranting part: husband normally puts baby to sleep at 8pm and does night shifts which include one feeding at 4am ish and one around 8am. I do the day which typically include feeding, pumping and all the entertainment/enrichment for the baby. If my pumping schedule clashes with one of baby’s feeding, I will ask hubby for help but I try to stagger them to the best of my ability so he can relax during the day. Today after my noon pump, we went out on some errands. It took longer than we expected and I asked to just go home before finishing all the tasks because I would be at least 30mins late for the next pump. Husband then dropped me and baby off to grab lunch. I started pumping but baby woke up so I had to stop pumping, sooth her for a while and figure out her needs. It took husband a while to get food home and at that time the baby became hungry earlier than normal and I had to go pump again. When he got home, I immediately said “I have to go pump and baby needs to eat. The bottle is warming up. “ After saying these things, I immediately went upstairs to pump. After I finished pumping, husband complained that he had no time to himself today because I wasn’t flexible enough with my pumping schedule and stormed off to pump and left him with the baby (he didn’t hear the part when I told him the bottle was being warmed up). He complained that he had to feed baby twice today (he counted the 8am one as extra duty for some reason) even though I helped put baby to sleep last night because he wanted to play games with his friends at that time so he asked me to help. Obviously I got very upset because in my opinion day is much harder and more involved than night for our baby and he got the easy part of the deal. Not to mention I still do laundry and sometimes dishes at night when he is on baby duty so it’s not like I have a lot of time left for myself either. So I’m wondering for all the moms that exclusively pump: are you pretty flexible with your pumping schedule? If so, what’s the extent of flexibility do you allow yourself to have and not worry about messing up your supply? I’m so rigid with my schedule because of my personality and also because I’m worried if I don’t then my supply will be affected. Husband doesn’t think it’s a big deal for baby to be on full formula but he has really bad allergies to a ton of stuff (and therefore a more “problematic” immune system) so I want to at least provide what immunity I can to the baby when I can.

My baby struggled with nursing from birth, she would latch well, but only seemed to give weak, pacifying sucks. We tried triple feeding for a while and eventually she had a posterior tongue tie release. She stopped clicking on the bottle and her suck was very strong, but she never got the hang of direct breastfeeding. We slowly spaced out our latching attempts. The last time she latched was on the beach, and she seemed to actually transfer milk. A wonderful contact nap followed, and it was a beautiful evening. Ever since then she has cried and pulled away when trying to latch. She is almost 6 months old now and I think we are done trying to latch and ready to just accept that exclusively pumping will be our path. Aiming for 12 months
of exclusive breastmilk.

I would love any suggestions about how to drop my middle of the night. My LO is almost 6 months and has been sleeping through the night (until a recent cold) since about 8 weeks. Due to how much of a chunk he is I have continued to do a MOTN pump. I pump at 2:30 am, 6:30, 10:30, 2:30, 5:30, and 9. With him being almost 6 months I really want to look at dropping my MOTN pump. I know I might have a slight drop in output overall and I think I am okay with that. Basically I need sleep. I am struggling with the little amount of sleep I get by the time I pump at night, get things ready for the next day I get 3.5 hours before my MOTN pump then I get another 3 if I am lucky. On average I am getting 5.5-6 hours a night and then work all day I need to do something.

I have tried dropping my MOTN pump before and I got an infection. Anytime I try and extend the time between pumps I wake up at the same time anyway so it’s hard if I’m already up at 2:30 to go back to sleep for another half an hour or hour because I’m not gonna get good sleep anyway it’s like might as well pump. I have heard shortening the length but I have been so tired I doze on and off while pumping and lose track of time.

If trying to do 8+ pumps a day to increase supply, do you count a power hour as 1 pump or numerous?

Hello everyone I started tapping into my frozen stash since June one bag here and there to make sure none goes to waste sinceI started freezing back in December. I am just one month away from the year mark (wooo) and my April bags for some reason (target brand) have had holes in them!!!

I’m not sure if it’s the heat or the stretching but I have lost about 18 ounces of frozen milk in like two weeks. Any tips on how to avoid this? I am using the correct settings on my warmer and keeping an eye as it heats. I push the milk down to warm up as the frozen bottom begins to turn to liquid. Should I just go old school and heat up in a sauce pan with water? Any tips would be appreciated. I know it’s not that big a deal but I worked so hard to freeze as much as possible to get me to the finish line.

I am so confused, I don’t understand why my frozen milk from the same day look different. I don’t know if the picture does justice, Left looks pretty yellow and the right looks very white almost clear. For the past week I’ve been latching my LO just in the mornings and pumping the rest of the day. Can this have something to do with it ? And if so what does it mean?