Pumping: An Update

A few months ago I did a post about my decision to pump breastmilk for Brixton, rather than breastfeed (see post here).  It's been 3 months now, my goal, and I'm happy to report that it went really well.

In the first few weeks I was really vigilant with pumping.  I would pump every 2-3 hours, including getting up at night.  That didn't last long though and I soon stopped pumping at night and would instead just do a marathon pumping session in the morning, sometimes getting as much as 8 or 9 oz in one session!

Most days, Brixton has gotten about 80% breastmilk.  The other 20% are formula bottles he has at night, or if we are out and about on the town.  I have also started a freezer stockpile of milk and probably have about 80 oz frozen.

There were hard days were I just didn't feel like pumping.  It hurt. It was a pain to wash the stuff and pump and then have to do it again 2 hours later.  When guests were here it was really rough, since we would go out and do things and that made keeping up with my pump schedule pretty tough.  But I didn't give up and I just kept going.  

In the last week or so, I've gotten really lazy with pumping. I'm talking pumping about 3-4 times a day!  This still gives Brix about 4-5 bottles of milk though, but it's affecting my supply, which is to be expected.  Still, I've reached my goal of pumping for 3 months and now I'm hatching a new game plan.

I'd like to keep pumping 3-4 times a day, freezing some of it each day and also making sure he gets at least one big bottle of it a day.  I'll do this until he's 6 months old or my milk says adios, whichever comes first.  Then I will start to dip into my frozen stash, still in the hopes he can have at least one breastmilk bottle a day.

By the way, I did try letting him latch on a few times.  I was just curious.  The first time he latched right away, but it was very painful (probably because he wasn't latched properly) and the other few times it didn't hurt quite as bad and I could tell he actually drank something. But it just wasn't for me.

Brendan has loved giving him the bottle these past months, as have my parents and Brendan's mom.  That's been a big help to me.

If you don't want to give breastfeeding a try at all, I do suggest thinking about pumping.  Here are some pros and cons I've discovered along the way:

Pros:

• Baby is still getting breastmilk, even if not exclusively.
• Other people can feed baby.
• Momma burns those extra calories from making all that milk!
• Momma can control when, how often and where she can pump.
• You can still make a freezer stash for later use.

Cons:

• Pumping is time consuming.  It's not just the pumping, but the cleaning of the pump parts, bottles, prep of bottles, etc.  I think it's way easier though if you are a SAHM.
• It can be uncomfortable (as can regular breastfeeding).
• It may be hard to find time to pump, especially if you are out running errands, etc. and don't have a place to pump during that time.

It's not going to be for everyone, but for those who think it may work for them, I encourage you!   And have you seen my baby?  Plump, fat, delicious arms and legs! I think it's working for us!