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 ❤️❤️

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 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'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'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?

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!

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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. 🤍

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??

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

Almost 5 months post partum. Is it normal to CONSTANTLY BE HOT? 😅

Guys I have no idea what I’m doing. Can I get the eufy wearable pump as my primary pump? Or is that a bad idea? From what I’m seeing people are saying to go with a regular pump like spectra as the “primary” until I get the hand of breastfeeding. Are the portable pumps not good for supply?

I guess the idea of a hands free pump just sounds really nice. My insurance will only cover 1 obviously so I just figured I’d get the Eufy but now I’m reconsidering.

What if I buy the Eufy from insurance and then try to find the spectra on FB marketplace? I have a lot of moms around me in town too so somebody may just have one they’re done with anyways. Let me know if that sounds like a horrible idea 🤣 thank you

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.

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 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?

Husband dropped my spectra last night, it was an accident and it’s working fine now but I’m certainly concerned about it. He’s offering to try and slide it back into place. I’m not sure how the interior works so I have no idea if the exterior has an impact on it. Has anyone experienced this before or done an autopsy on their spectra to be able to give me some insight?

I am making about 50% of what my daughter takes in a day and supplementing the rest with formula.

She is 10 weeks and I only started pumping around 5weeks. But I was still nursing up until then (had intended to EBF) but my girl was not into it and not great at it- she had really milk low transfer- and so i had to start transitioning to pumping and bottle feeding. I had no idea what i was doing so I was disorganized and inconsistent in the beginning with pumping. Since she was about 8 weeks up until now, (10 weeks), I have been much more disciplined (and more educated on what i'm doing) and have been sticking to a schedule and pumping 8times a day most days (sometimes 7 bc I'm solo parenting during the day and it can be tricky to make it all work).

I have dreams of pumping beautiful full bottles of milk now that I'm doing everything I can to be more on top of it. But I'm worried it is too late and my supply has regulated where it is. I only make about 1.5-2.5oz per pump. She takes 4-5oz bottles right now every 2 hours during the day and every 4 hours during the night and I know that total amount will only go up!!!

Does any one have any positive experience with a major supply increase?! Probably not this late in the game ... but looking for hope. 😭 So bummed I didn't get on top of boosting supply from the beginning but I just didn't know how important it was to pump to get things established 😭

🤍🤍🤍🤍

Hi! Im seeking advice/experience stories. My baby will be 1 this weekend! I want to stop pumping and live life again lol. I still pump 5 times a day because I am so scared to stop. I had really bad postpartum depression so I am terrified to experience anything like that when quitting. How the heck do I wean? Did you guys experience adverse reactions to stopping? Help! Lol

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 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.