Pump, pump, pump it up.

I've had a lot of different inquiries since my last post about my experience with pumping, which makes sense because there is seriously NOTHING on the internet about it.  Okay, there's actually one exception to that statement… Kelly Mom was a really helpful resource for me.  Honestly though, I really couldn't find anything that pertained to my specific situation.  Especially since I wasn't pumping because I had to go back to work.

WHY:
My girls had some latching issues in the beginning and through a lot of tears from all three of us, I finally made the decision to give up on breastfeeding and go the pumping route.  I won't lie - it's not the most convenient thing in the world, but I really feel like it has been the best decision for all of us.  Feeding your child{ren} should never be a painful or overwhelming experience in my opinion.  I'm sure that means a lot of different things for other people, but for us, it meant that it was time to switch to pumping.

WHEN:

Every time I feed the girls, I pump.  In the beginning, I would feed them, play, put them down for a nap, and THEN I'd pump.  This just got to be too much.  I had no time to get ready, take care of things around the house, or rest.  Even though it seemed a little hectic in the beginning, I decided it'd be the best use of time to pump while I fed the girls their bottles.  I typically feed the girls, burp each of them, and change their diapers, and then have about 5ish minutes or so left in my pumping shift.  We usually just sing songs and make silly noises during those last few minutes.  Since I use this bra, my hands can be free and I can help the girls with their bottles pretty easily.  

**The only time I don't pump while I'm feeding them is during their evening {and usually last} feeding.  Right now, they usually wake up between 3-4:30 in the morning so I don't want to go THAT long without pumping or I'll get engorged.  Rather than pumping at 7pm and waiting until then, I will usually pump between 9-10 at night.  This also helps in getting the girls fed and down to bed quickly.  

HOW: 

The girls sit in Boppy Loungers and I give each of them a blanket to sort of help keep their bottle up when I can't help them {usually this is while I'm burping/changing diapers for the other one}.  Since I use this bra, my hands can be free, which is essential.  

**I use the Medela Pump in Style Advanced.  It's not the one they give you in the hospital, but it is a pump that is meant to be used multiple times a day.  I also recommend buying their hand pump off Amazon.  It's been helpful on road trips, days we're out and about, and also when our power went out{!!!}.  

THE NUMBERS:
I pump for 30 minutes, 6 times a day.  I currently pump between 50-60 oz/day.  I don't pump the same amount each session.  The wee hours of the morning and when they wake up for the day is when I pump the most.  This is perfect because it gives me extra to store in the fridge incase I need to top off other bottles throughout the day.

**In the beginning, I was definitely NOT pumping 50 oz each day.  My supply has gradually escalated.  From the time we brought them home until about 5-6 weeks, I had to supplement with formula each time.  That was SO annoying to have to prepare two different bottles for each of them.  The girls are currently each eating about 30 oz a day.  I don't always have enough even now, so the way it has ended up working out for me is that I've needed to give them an entire bottle of formula for one of their feedings, every other day.  This is much easier than supplementing PART of a feeding with it.  I use my extra milk storage I keep in the fridge for that.  {Sidenote: Even for their formula feedings, I still pump during that feeding}.

As far as the amount of milk goes, by 1 month, the girls were eating 3 oz each per feeding {they were eating about 7 times a day}.  By five months {now}, the are eating 5 oz bottles, 6 times a day.  In regards to determining the amount, the advice my pediatrician gave me was to watch when they're waking up from naps.  Obviously sleep changes over time, but if I noticed that they were suddenly waking up earlier and earlier from their naps and acting hungry, I knew it was time to bump them up a half ounce. That advice seemed to work every time for me.

TID BITS OF ADVICE:
It is painful in the beginning.  Be prepared.  For about the first 2 weeks, I wanted to cry every time I went to turn it on.  Just like breastfeeding, your body adapts and you don't notice/feel it anymore.

We ordered a million different types of bottles trying to figure out what would be best.  It's hard because I needed something that the girls could at least sort of hold on their own/could be easily propped with a blanket.  In the end, after TONS of bottles, we ended up just using the Medela bottles that I pump into {we don't use their nipples…we use Evenflo}.  It's so great because I literally pump into the bottles, top them off if necessary, stick caps on them, and then they're ready to go for the next feeding.  It's also two less bottles to clean, which I'm ALL about.

Regardless of how you decide to feed your little one, your baby will be happy.  The moment I let go of being so wishy washy and not knowing whether to drop the whole breastfeeding gig or not, I suddenly had an up in my supply and I was so much happier --- not because there's anything wrong with breastfeeding, but because that specific method wasn't working for us and it was seriously stressful for me.  Whatever you decide should be stress free.  We're all just trying to do what's best for our situations, and what's "best" means something different for each of us.

Alright folks, it's been real.  I hope this little guide to pumping helps someone else out there.  If you have additional questions/things I missed, let me know.  My brain is CA-RAZY post-baby and I pretty much forget 90% of the things I mean to say/remember.