Troubles with Milk Supply When Pumping

One thing about pumping is you kind of have to teach yourself. The more you do it the faster your body will let down for the pump. Then eventually it will become automatic. One thing to do when you are pumping think about your baby close your eyes and imagine that is him not the pump be nice and relaxed and if possible in a quiet space. I know it sounds kind of weird but whenever I thought of my daughter the milk came out a little easier. Also remeber to drink lots of water even if you are because your nursing try a little more until you can get used to pumping eating and drinking will help your supply. Good luck and just keep at it you have a good pump it will come.

I agree with the relaxing thing! I had to put myself in a position like I was nursing and stop worrying about how fast/much came out.
Baby's mouth is much more efficient than a pump, so it'll take your body some time/experimentation to get it right.
Slump your body and watch some tv while you pump. It gets easier, trust me.
Make sure you drink lots of water!

It doesn't sound like supply is your issue but I will make a suggestion on that front anyway 'cause when I went back to work I needed the extra help. DILL, the herb. I used the fresh herb itself and would eat a decent serving of it per day. There are teas online from the dill seed as well but I didn't try those.

Regarding the pumping issue, it does help to think about your baby, have a cute pix of him, a blanket that he used that has his scent on it(w/o washing it). Also, be comfortable where you do to pump. Bring a pillow for your back, socks for your feet or whatever will have you be warm and comfy. The room at my office was a lot cooler than the rest of the office so I would have to bundle up to get comfy.

Also, I heard that the breast shield by medela come in different sizes and that it helps to have the right size. It may help you to go to a larger sized one.

Good luck to you.
S.

K.,
When I was pumping I had that problem too, your body knows it's not your baby. A couple of things that helped me out was try to have positive thoughts about my son, and sometimes the milk would just flow good. Another thing, is I would nurse him on one side and pump on the other when I got home from work. For some reason when he was nursing the other breast would just go.
Good Luck, try to stay positive.

Mother's Milk herbal tea helps - but I'm not convinced that it's just not from the extra fluid. If you go to the place that you bought your pump, you should be able to buy the largest pump cups that Medela makes - the better the fit, the easier the pump. My best luck was with the Avent Isis hand pump - I am a 40dd - but there was a weird scene going on, with one hand pumping and the other milking toward the pump.

My best advice is to feel good about the choice that you make. You may end up with the nanny giving formula and you breastfeeding when you are home - and that works, too. Your supply will adjust, and your baby may turn his schedule around to yours - which could be a problem. My son slept 7am - 2pm, I picked him up at 3 and he nursed from 315 - 5, then played, then nursed 7 - 9, and again at 2am and 5 - 6 am.

S.

K.,

Congrats!! You're doing a great job. First things first...relax above all else. Be sure to drink lots of water too. You will notice a huge difference when your water intake is sufficient. There is this stuff called breastea a friend told me about and it works fantastic at increasing your milk supply.
Here is the link:

www.breastea.com

You have to order it online so that is a bit inconvenient especially when you want/need it now. It's every bit worth the money and the wait. Also you can take Fenugreek. Your baby is still young so the key is to nurse during the night to be sure your body builds up a good milk supply. Nursing on demand is the best thing you can do early on & my lactation consultant told me nursing on demand & night nursing are essential and to try co-sleeping so you would be able to get some rest while you do this. Also they don't take in air/very little when you side nurse them so burping in the middle of the night isn't an issue. Try to keep in mind that in the beginning it would be nice to pump 6-8 ounces each time you sit down and pump, but the reality is that you have to work up to that point. I believe my daughter was 5 months old before i got to where I was pumping between 4-6 ounces at a time. The best time and when you have the most to pump is early in the morning. It's a process but hang in there you can do this! I would love to chat with you if you have any questions or just want to talk. I get to speak alot at out breastfeeding group once a month...there are several of us who have become "lactation consultants." ha ha It's a great joy to help other mama's out there.
Also, don't beat yourself up if you have to supplement with formula once in a while. My daughter was jaundice in the hospital and the Dr. ordered formula for her after i nursed her and it absolutely drove me crazy because I did not want her to have any formula. I would not have let this bother me but the fact that I was forced to do this made me upset because I had my mind and heart set on exclusively breastfeeding. Once we were out of the hospital and all the jaundice was gone I eliminated the formula. It's not that I thought formula was evil I was stressing over the how much formula costs!!! HA HA Funny what we let stress us huh?! Enjoy your little one time passes all too fast!

Many blessings!!
A.
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Hi K.,

I had a similar experience and I'm very average in terms of breast size. However, I was able to work up to 6 oz of pumping after while (as other mentioning, relaxing is imperative). So, I was able to get just enough to get my older son through those early weeks of back to work. I also was able to visit at lunchtime and nursed then. And, I made sure to nurse first thing in a.m., when dropping off, when picking up (before going home), as soon as I got home, etc. So, you can adjust your schedule to just nurse as much as possible to minimize the amount of pumping. I ended up not pumping at all with my 2nd because he refused a bottle, so feel lucky that isn't a problem for you ;)

The big thing that I had to be aware of overall is that my milk supply would decrease during the week when I went back to work. To make up for that (and to rebuild the supply), I made sure to spend extra time nursing on the weekend.

So, don't give up on the nursing when you go back to work -it gets easier once they start solids and once my boys did, I just reserved the solid food for when they were with the caregivers. They didn't really eat much solids at home until they were almost 9 mos old. And, for me that nursing was a good way to reconnect after the time away. And, I know how very, very important it was for my boys. When they transitioned my 2nd son out of the baby room, he was so distraught until I came at lunchtime and he realized he could still nurse - he got that "all is right with the world" look on his face as soon as I sat with him on his nap mat and we nursed.

Also, although it might be a pain, continuing to nurse at night for a while is one of the most helpful things you can do to maintain your milk supply. And, it is not at all unusual for a baby to want to nurse more often at nite when Mom works - they naturally want to make up for the time away during the day. For me, the biggest thing that helped during these early days was reminding myself that it really was a very short time in the bigger scheme of things.