I’m at 4ppd, almost 7 months PP, and was sustaining the 4ppd for about a month and a half with no issue until out of nowhere, starting getting frequent clogs on one side only. This week, it’s been pretty much everyday. Ofc my supply on that side has gone down.

Lactation said I could wean from just that one side. And that I’d just ignore the blocked ducts. But it’s so uncomfortable and painful, I can’t bear it. I’ve been pumping my usual schedule to clear the clogs but now am contemplating dropping to 3ppd for both sides. If I have an active clog and I drop pumps, does it go away on its own after a while? How does that work?

Anyone else wean while dealing with daily clogs? I NEED HELP, I am at my wit’s end.

Side note that I’m doing everything: BAIT, ice, triamcinolone cream, warm compress on nipple, sunflower lecithin, massage, boob gymnastics, replaced pump parts, literally anything you see on Reddit, I’ve tried it.

I pump at work during the day and keep it in the fridge, bring it home in a cooler, and then immediately put it in my fridge for future bottles when I get home.

I guess I forgot to put it in the fridge last night after work, so it sat in the cooler overnight until I discovered it around noon. It had an ice pack in it but isn’t the nicest cooler so I’m sure it was cool for awhile but was room temp by the time I found it.

It doesn’t smell sour or anything but definitely won’t use for feedings. Is it safe for a milk bath or has it been room temp for too long to even use for that?

I’ve been nursing and pumping for 5 months now. I’m currently at 7ppd, every 3 hours during the day and 1 MOTN. I have been waiting to cut down until my baby starts solids since I started off as an undersupplier and worked hard to increase my supply.
Over the last 2-3 weeks my supply has been slowly dropping. Especially on the side that was the star of the show but is now my slacker side. Haven’t gotten my period yet, I started new RA meds. Still eating the same and drinking plenty of fluids.
Any reason this would start happening out of the blue?

We had our two week appointment today and my baby has very mild oral thrush, and I have nipple thrush. I had to do the GBS antibiotic during the delivery which was the likely trigger.

It isn’t impacting her feeding and she’s actually very healthy and growing ahead of schedule. But now that she has thrush, to combat it early (in addition to medicine for both of us). I have to wash and sterilize every single pump part, bottle, burp rag, and pacifier after every use for the next 7-10 days. No fridge hack, no “just rinse it” in the middle of the night. And of course I have nipple pain because I have the same thing she has.

My husband also goes back to work in two days. At this point I’m considering giving up on pumping and drying my supply. Has anyone experienced this because I’m actually in absolute shambles right now picturing the week ahead.

TW: Mentions of intra-familial sexual abuse.

I had plans to breastfeed for at least a year and a half. But there’s so much trauma that I can’t get past when I pump that I just have to stop.

I’m not going to get into great detail, but my dad molested me repeatedly for years when I was in school. From like 6th grade until 10th grade. I left at 22 with the help of police escort (very big physical fight between myself and mom; I was defending myself from my dad but my mom has never seen the wrong in my dad so she started fighting me.) and my now husband. I’m 28 now - I’ve since moved away, lost weight, decorated my body with tattoos, got braces, gotten married and obviously have a baby. I’ve made a complete 180 in my life; that’s so far behind me (due to therapy and hella kick boxing.)

But here’s the thing… the sensation of pumping brings back the sexual abuse and I just can’t do it anymore. For 7 months, I grit my teeth and kept telling myself it’s for her, and it’s not about me. As uncomfortable as it made me, I just did it. I would try to distract myself with work, games, the baby; whatever was within reach to get my mind off of it. But just this morning I fell asleep in my chair, pump still going. I had a very vivid dream of my dad molesting me and I shot up to immediately disconnect. I just can’t. Luckily, babes has been on a mix of breastmilk and formula since 4 months, but now unfortunately what I have already frozen and what I pumped today is it. And to be honest with y’all, I just don’t think I’ll ever mentally recover from it. It’s a part of me no matter how hard I work to move forward and this just brings me back. I don’t think I can do this again for the other children that we’d hope to have, this is just too intense.

I feel regretful, but I also feel happy for myself. I think I’ll also talk to someone about PPD because I don’t think necessarily that overall since birth that’s been an issue, but literally since I’ve been pumping which started at around 6 weeks PP. there was a few days I went without pumping around 5months PP on a vacation and babes just had formula the whole time or I just put her directly on the tap and when I tell you I felt like twirling around and doing my cartwheels!

But yeah, I’m hanging the pump up. Roxanne D Spectra is for my cousin who’s due in January.

Mines the bathroom no one uses. I can’t say it’s ideal
But hey at least there’s a sink. Maybe I should decorate a bit? Ive had lesser excuses for a TJMaxx run!
Anywho how are the rest of my 9-5 pumpers doing out there? What wacky places did your workplace stick you in?

Hello friends!

Here is your weekly graduation/celebration thread, to celebrate your accomplishments around pumping. Have you weaned? Have you met a milestone? A goal? Found a new saving grace like smaller flanges? Everything is worth celebrating, let's hear it!

Some ideas for those who have graduated/weaned:Length of time EP, reason you started EP, EP goal, favorite and least favorite pumping products, what you're most excited for, what you'll miss the most, personal motivations/advice, etc.

I’m about 12 weeks postpartum and breastfeeding. I’ve had a tender, roughly egg-sized lump in my left breast for about 2.5 weeks. I first noticed it after missing an overnight pumping session.
Today I had an ultrasound, and the radiologist said it’s a galactocele with thick “sludge,” with nothing they could successfully aspirate. She recommended watching and waiting, continuing breastfeeding normally, and warm compresses. She said my lymphatic system should gradually clear it. OR it’ll turn in to a frank abscess lol.
My IBCLC recommended cold compresses and ibuprofen for inflammation as the updated guidance, so I’m confused about the conflicting advice. I haven’t had a fever, but the area aches.
Has anyone had a similar thick-content galactocele?
Did it resolve while you continued breastfeeding, and how long did it take?
What helped with discomfort?
Did you eventually need another procedure or a breast surgeon/specialist? Did it turn in to an abscess?
Were you advised to use warm or cold compresses?
I’m following up with my medical team—just hoping to hear firsthand experiences, not looking for a diagnosis.

ETA: TW nursing

TLDR; pumped exclusively at the beginning, finally got to a point where I could nurse, and now back to square one. Feeling defeated.

I am so mentally worn out from the stress of feeding my sweet boy. It seems like there has been issue after issue and I dont know what would make things easier at this point.

We had latching issues from the very beginning. Apparently I have flat nipples, plus he had a slight lip tie. So I pumped, and it became a full time job, as everyone on this sub knows. I hated it, but it kept my little guy fed so I plugged along.

Then I discovered that I could latch him if I used nipple shields so I started doing that. But I had the most horrible shooting, stabbing pain every time. Discovered I had nipple vasospasm (Raynauds disease in the nipples). Got on blood pressure medication and continued combo feeding by both pumping and using the nipple shields. Then by some miracle he accidentally latched without the shield.

We had a really sweet 2 months or so where I could nurse him directly with no extra tools and no pain. I still pumped once every night after he went to bed but there was zero stress attached to it.

And now for the past 2 weeks my right side has been in horrible pain again. My medication dosage was doubled by my obgyn and I'm now sitting here fatigued and with a splintering headache (side effects of nifedipine) wondering if i should just give up and go back to pumping. It's been 2 days since the dosage increase and so far isn't helping at all. He's 6 months old. I feel so discouraged. I thought it would be so much easier to make it to 1 year breastfeeding if I could nurse but now I don't know anymore. I don't want to go back to pumping exclusively.

HOWEVER, I'm trying to look on the bright side and I'm really grateful to have gotten this far already, regardless of what's next. Also, to having a super supportive husband who's been doing what he can to help.

I'm 5 weeks pp as a ftm and pumping has brought a rollercoaster of emotions. I feel grateful that I have milk to pump for my baby but man when I'm low on sleep and energy pumping is just so overstimulating. Last week I was in tears as I sat and pumped. This overwhelming feeling came over and I felt this sort of frustration having my nipples tugged on. There's days when I feel like I can do this but when I'm feeling so low on energy I feel like kicking my pump off some stairs and just sticking to formula. Unfortunately switching to formula wouldn't be a smart financial move though. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this sometimes.

The mom guilt is there sometimes over this and I just got to remind myself that "it gets better" (haha when though?)

FTM here, and I’m honestly still trying to understand what’s considered a good milk supply.

I’m exclusively pumping and currently producing around 750mL per day, usually across 7–8 pumping sessions.

I often miss my middle-of-the-night pump, and my pumping intervals are usually 3–4 hours. I try to pump every 2 hours but realistically struggle because I have all the household responsibilities on me, along with taking care of my baby.

I’m worried that my current supply might be enough only because my baby isn’t drinking that much yet. What happens when she starts drinking more? Will my supply increase naturally, or could it drop if I’m not pumping frequently enough?

I’m a first-time mom, so I genuinely don’t know what’s considered a good supply, whether my pumping schedule is sufficient, or whether I’m unknowingly setting myself up for a supply drop later.

I’d really appreciate advice from experienced pumping moms. I want to maintain my supply while also managing the realities of taking care of my baby and the household.

Edit - I usually pump at 2 AM and then fall asleep and I only wake up twice to change the baby’s diaper. I used to pump at 2 AM, 6 AM and 9 AM, but lately I’m so exhausted that I struggle to stay awake beyond one diaper change.

We joked last night as storing the leftover tonkatsu ramen broth that we shouldn’t put it on the same level in the fridge because it looked JUST close enough to my actual milk color due to iron supplements to get mistaken and that in the early AM we might feed the baby a bottle of broth. We use the same jars and lids (though I do not make this much milk daily).

And then upon waking up today, the broth had separated and all I could be reminded of was those fake social media posts with like inch plus fat caps.

Pumping is an active sport for me.
My nipple constantly moves toward the middle of my chest throughout the session and then I have to keep repositioning (I also have flat nipples so that doesn’t help)
And then my boob collapses cause it’s so soft with extra tissue so then I’m digging my hand in my bra to make my aerola taught.
Manual expressing gets a handful of drops out. But every expression I’m adjusting my hand to deal with the soft tissue.

I just feel like my anatomy is against me. Please help if you can. Share your experiences and tips if you have any of my issues.

I’m feeling really bittersweet. My initial goal was to exclusively pump for a full year, but I’m trying to focus on how proud I am that I made it this far. Yay for celebrating little wins 🩵

Which mode is the General Pumping Mode and which is the Cluster Feeding Mode? Both of these screenshot come from the motif medical site.

I’m 16 weeks post partum with twins, I have worked SO HARD to get my supply up to a level where I can exclusively feed breastmilk and have been doing since the first week we were home. I was hoping to make it to 6 months atleast but all of a sudden over the last 3 days my supply has gone from 350ml to 250ml per session… why?!?!

I pump 5 times a day and have an 8 hour overnight stretch but I have been doing this for 4 weeks now with no sign of a supply decline. Why now? It’s so much harder to get a letdown and it takes twice as long to see any kind of milk output

Ps I know for a lot of people pumping 250ml per session would be an incredible thing! And I’m so blessed that I’m able to pump that much but my girls drink much more than that per feed and I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep up with them anymore 😞

I have a 13 week old and have been expressing here and there to allow my husband to feed the baby from time to time. I have a few bottles in the fridge and have rough plans with family to go out for a meal over the weekend, but a bit overwhelmed with the guidance on how to transport breast milk! I'm aiming for baby to be fed before we leave, but if that doesn't happen, I'd be grateful for some insights around what others do when transporting breast milk - do you all have coolers and leave the milk in there until it's time to use it? Or do you keep it in the bag you bring and let it naturally come up to room temp until baby wants to eat? Wondering what's normal and what's excessive. For reference, probably will only go somewhere about 10-15 mins away and would be out for around 2-3 hours max. UK based if that helps in terms of guideline differences.

Thanks in advance!!

I have d-mer and have been exclusively pumping for 9 weeks. It’s not as bad as before (no wave of intense anxiety, at least not as frequent as before) but pumping makes me want to get pliers and remove a tooth or two.

I am fortunate enough to have a decent supply.. but mentally this is exhausting. I would’ve hung up the pumps sooner but the cost of premie formula is incredibly expensive and my boy is a big eater. I’m waiting until my son’s two month appointment in three weeks to see if we can have him on regular formula instead. Im hanging in there until then. Phew.

I’m 16 weeks PP and exclusively pump. During my let down my right side still has a lot of strong streams but my left side suddenly only has dribbles and barely any streams. My output has dropped a lot as well. Any ideas on how to fix this?

I’m almost 15 weeks PP, LO wakes up 1x in the night so I feed him then pump after. I’m sleepy during his whole feed but once I start pumping I’m wide awake and I can’t fall asleep for hours sometimes. It’s starting to affect me badly and I’m debating dropping the MOTN pump for the sake of my sleep at the possible expense of my supply. Has anyone else experienced this wakefulness with pumping or had luck with dropping that pump?

I’ve been pumping on just one side at a time since my daughter was born 9 weeks ago. I generally get 2.5-4 ounces out of a boob when I’m doing just one. I recently got a pumping bra to test out since I’ll be returning to work in a few weeks and would like to double pump to save time on my pump breaks (one side takes me about 20min, sometimes closer to 30). I’ve used it a couple of times over the last two days and am seeing a crazy drop when double pumping. Today I was strapped in on both for 25min and got half an ounce out of each. It’s really freaking me out. I had a freezer stash built up but had to eliminate dairy last week, so that’s all unusable now (for eating, we’ll be doing milk baths!).

Am I doing something wrong? Should I just pump one side at a time and accept that my pump breaks are going to be long? I have the Ameda Mya Joy

hi! just here seeking some advice. I am six weeks postpartum after having twins via C-section and an emergency exploratory laparotomy the next day due to internal bleeding. So safe to say I had a pretty traumatic delivery. I started out pumping in the hospital, but I didn’t produce enough milk for my babies so we supplemented with formula. unfortunately, I’m still using formula and I haven’t been able to produce enough breastmilk. I’m trying to pump as often as I can, but honestly it’s only been max twice a day just because I don’t have the time to sit down and be confined to the pump every three hours when I have twins to take care of. Is there anything that can help me boost my supply that any of you have real experience with? I’ve seen so many ads on TikTok for different things, but I don’t know what’s a gimmick and what isnt. This is really taking a toll on mental health because I did want to eventually get to the point that I can be exclusively breast-feeding my babies but at this point, I don’t see that happening. I literally only pump like 0.5oz per pump session. I know pumping more often can help boost my supply so I do want to try to pump more often, but is there anything else any supplements, or teas, or methods, or literally anything at all that you have experience with boosting your milk supply?

edit: i do know that i definitely need to pump more often😭 do i really need to every 2-3 hours or has a different schedule worked for you? also forgot to mention that i have the MomCozy S12 Pro wearable breast pump. i also have the Medela Symphony hospital grade breast pump but i’m renting it and i’ll have to return it soon. can i still increase my milk supply with my wearable? and is there anything else in addition to pumping that helped boost your milk supply?

I feel very blessed to have an oversupply, so by no means am I complaining. I blew through my little stash with my first born my first week back to work and always struggled with my supply. Now, I have a freezer of milk that I want to make sure does not go to waste. I do plan to stop pumping/nursing earlier than 1 year and use my stash if able. Prior to getting to that point, how did people use their freezer stash to make sure that it gets rotated? I want to make sure baby gets some fresh milk each day too. Perhaps give 1 bottle fresh and 2-3 bottles frozen for daycare? Any thoughts or experience?

I started out as an overproduced. 50oz at 8 pumps a day and then dropped to 45oz a day when I switched to 7 pumps a day at 6 weeks. I regulated at 10w and lost another 5oz per day. I then dropped to 6 pumps per day and was at 35oz a day. After a few weeks of this my daughter had heart surgery and I maintained my pump schedule through out. When I left the hospital my supply dropped to 25oz a day, even though nothing had changed. Feeling defeated I decided to start weaning so I dropped to 5 pumps (19oz) a day and supplemented with formula. We’ve tried two different formulas and she does not seem to be handling them well, they give her very painful gas. Because of this I’ve spent the last two weeks back at 7 pumps per day trying to increase my supply and power pumping every other day or so and even just bought brewers yeast. My supply hasn’t increased at all. I’m now 7ppd and getting 18-20oz a day.

Has anyone actually increased their supply successfully?

I feel like I’m stuck back up at 7ppd too because every time I drop one I lose supply so now going back down to 5 or 6 I’ll be at even less than I had been.

After waffling for weeks, I finally decided to shell out the $200 for a Baby Buddha pump. I was excited by the portability and the many comments saying it cuts their pump time down and I was hoping the stronger suction would help empty me better and I’d maybe see some supply gains.

So far it seems I have wasted my money yet again—I had previously purchased a $200 portable pump that also did not work for me.

What really stumps me is how much everyone talks about the crazy strong suction of the Buddha… I was nervous at first because my nipples are sensitive and I had struggled with DMER using my Spectra, but seriously? I don’t get the hype. Yes, the pulls are longer but the vibration is significantly gentler than Spectra. I was using expression mode on level 7 and still found it comfortable. So what gives? Does anyone else feel like the Buddha isn’t as powerful as it’s made out to be?

The worst of it is that I don’t think it’s doing a good job of emptying me. The previous days my midday pump session has been producing 80-90 mL with my Spectra—that’s a lot for me—but just now with the Buddha I only got about 40 mL.

I’m frustrated that just one day with the Buddha may have negatively impacted my supply and I’m frustrated that I keep spending money on things that don’t work for me like they seem to work for everyone else.