Pumping more than baby is eating

[weeze]

I’ve been really diligent about pumping every 3 hrs and fortunately have established a pretty good supply of almost 1000 mL/day. My baby is still in the hospital (38 weeks gestation) and taking about 500 mL/day. We are freezing the extra but I’m hoping to breastfeed when he gets home. If he’s not consuming the volume that I’m producing, will I still need to pump after he eats? I’m worried about getting clogged ducts if I don’t but also don’t want to end up with too much of an oversupply.

Curious to know what your experiences were with transitioning from pumping to breastfeeding when baby got home.

 

[remas]

@weeze Have you considered maybe donating some of the excess? Some babies in the nicu use donor milk just a thought i’m not sure if your able to where you are but maybe something to look into ?

 

[weeze]

@remas Currently saving what I have for when I return to work but if I end up with too much of a supply/not using it I will definitely look into this, thanks for the recommendation!

 

[veronival]

@remas I could be wrong because it may be different in other places but I believe that once the milk is expressed it can’t be donated to hospitals. Our nicu had brochures on how to be a donor, as I produced a large excess of milk.

 

[contemplativechristian]

@veronival Hospitals are a little harder to donate to, but there are also community and informal donation options. Look into Human Milk for Human Babies groups on facebook.

 

[trisswines]

@weeze You can slowly stop pumping after feeds. My son came home EBF and I had already had nearly 6-8 months worth of milk for him in deep freeze by the time he got home so it wasn’t feasible to keep pumping after he ate. He was about 3 months adjusted when he got home so my supply was established and it took maybe a week or two for him to be able to empty and me to stop pumping.

He did end up with cmpa so we switched to nutramigen and ended up donating over 100,000 oz to the mother’s milk bank with about 3 months of milk left over which he eventually was able to eat. I’d your storage situation starts getting out of control I highly recommend donating to mothers milk bank it was so easy and made me feel better to know it wouldn’t be wasted.

 

[weeze]

@trisswines Oh my goodness, that must have been so hard, I’m sorry! really glad you were able to donate it though and all of your hard work was able to help other babies. You are a true hero!

I don’t have nearly that much frozen but if we end up not needing it I will definitely look into donating.

 

[trisswines]

@weeze Thank you I’ll be honest I cried a lot while donating it and he still got what was left since dairy reintroduction was successful but I really did go overboard with pumping and essentially just imitated cluster feeding as soon as I got a pump from the hospital lol.

But hopefully you’re able to balance your supply it can be tricky but not impossible. My son did a lot of cluster feeding and ate on demand when he got home which helped and eventually I just stopped pumping because it was v exhausting. I also had a wearable pump so when he first got home and wasn’t able to empty both sides I pumped one side while he ate from the other which I think helped a lot.

 

[ladygray]

@weeze My 30w baby came home at 38w. We did a couple weighted feeds and wasn’t transferring milk well at first so I did have to pump after each feed and offer a bottle to top him off. This gave me a bit of an oversupply I think bc I already had a good supply to start with. I probably should’ve pumped for less time after feeds but since I was told he wasn’t transferring well I pumped my typical time of 15 minutes…

Around 40-41w, he got better at breastfeeding and started wanting less from the bottle. The ped told us we could stop offering the top up bottle based on his weight.

I’m currently a week out from stopping this triple feeding cycle, but still pumping after some feeds just based on how my boobs feel or if I have time. Like I’ve been just nursing in the middle of the night so skipping those pumps, but pumping before I go to bed. I’m pumping for less time if I’m not replacing a feed (5-10 minutes instead of 15). Today I also started using a manual pump to take the edge off, because I feel like I’m in a pump oversupply loop I can’t get out of!

 

[weeze]

@ladygray Triple feeds! Wow! Did you ever get to sleep or do anything that didn’t involve breastmilk?! I’m so impressed with your commitment. That is helpful to know about not doing a full pump cycle and using a manual pump, thank you!

 

[gabjensnsn123]

@weeze We went from pumping to breast feeding & I was similarly making 1000ml per day. Breastfeeding started with she weighed 4lbs so I definitely made loads extra.

The hospital lactation consultant told me to reduce pumping by just pumping a little bit to take the edge off the discomfort of being too full. Doesn't have to be right after a feed, just when it's too much. If you pump until empty, it just tells your body to make more. I think it took about a week before I didn't need to pump anymore & we fully breastfed until a year.

I didn't get any clogs, although I had plenty through the breastfeeding journey. Never got mastitis though. My top tip for a clog is to check your nipple for a hard bit of milk blocking it that you can work out. Most of my clogs were actually that & I bet it took 6months before I realised.

 

[weeze]

@gabjensnsn123 Thank you, this is helpful! And good to know about clogged ducts vs. blocked nipples, I’ll remember that.

 

[onefaithunited]

@weeze Following cos I’ll be in the same situation in a month hopefully! Currently my plan is that my husband and I will take shifts feeding him, I’ll sleep and pump as I do now when not feeding him (every 4 hours) while when feeding him I’ll probably alternate pumping the boobs that he doesn’t drink. Of course, assuming he can figure out breastfeeding by then.

My baby is IUGR and so tiny so he’s drinking only 300ml of my ~900ml supply. I was hesitant at first but finally registered as a milk bank donor because I figured it would be put to better use for other preemies. Plus our freezer was running out of space and our NICU told us to only keep frozen milk for 3 months to be safe (though actually longer is fine). Since I’m planning to take a break from work of about half a year after he’s back I’m not really worried about running out of milk anytime soon.

 

[weeze]

@onefaithunited I like your plan of taking shifts at night! And so amazing that you are donating, I’ll look into that if I end up with too much. I hope he gets to come home soon!

 

[raiders47]

@weeze I had a similar situation, son didn’t eat for two months and got up to 40 some oz/day. I ended up getting a freezer from facebook marketplace and had it filled. My son never learned to breastfeed, neither of my preemies did. If they do it still takes a while so you’ll still need to pump until they can get used to it since it takes a lot more work than bottle feeding.