Breastfeeding: Pumping

It's been a while since I've talked about my breastfeeding experience and now that I am nearing the end, now feels like a good time. In my last breastfeeding related post, I talked about the costs of breastfeeding that no one really warned me about nor did I think about until I was in the middle of all of it. This post is kind of the same thing but about pumping.  These are thoughts and ideas that I've came across along the way reading through forums, searching Pinterest and doing some talking with other moms.

1. Just keep doing it - This relates to that moment when you're sitting on your couch or at your desk at work pumping for the last 20 minutes, you look down, and you see this...

Less than an ounce. Total. From both boobs combined. It feels like such a waste of time and your mind almost immediately goes to "I don't even see the point of my next pumping session." There is a point though! You're signaling those things to make more milk. Your boobs and their milk supply, at least in my case, are pretty unpredictable. Just stick to your "schedule" and they'll most likely do what they need to do. Don't skip your next pump because you think you'll get less than 2 ounces.

 

2. Always, Always, Always have spare parts - Since my pump is a Medela PISA, I am only familiar with that brand and model, so these particular terms apply to it. I can't tell you how many times I ripped one of the membranes (the little white circle things that attach to the yellow things) during cleaning. Guess what happens if you rip one? Your pump doesn't pump that side. Who knew that one little round circle could have such an impact on a machine. Whenever I got down to one spare set, I bought another pack. They are like $6 and every once in a while Target has a cartwheel for breastfeeding accessories. Stock up on this crap when that happens! This same thing goes to tubing and shields. I was at work one day and noticed black stuff (I'm thinking mold somehow) in my tubing. Luckily I had another set at home and didn't have to go all day at work without pumping.

3. Become a little OCD with your routines - Your pumping routine, your cleaning routine and your morning routine for getting out of the house. The first 4 months of Tucker's life, I exclusively pumped and bottled fed him. Since Danny works 24 hour shifts, I had to learn to pump and feed at the same time: get bottle, prop baby up on Boppy, get pump hooked up to me and start pumping, feed baby, finish pumping, put baby in swing, deal with milk and parts. I did that 8 times a day. I put parts and bottles in my bag in the same order each morning and I clean them the same way every single night. I've forgotten something at home one time. I've read horror stories about moms leaving something at home and not realizing until they are at work, with a short lunch break and nowhere close to buy extra parts or a hand pump. If you've ever had engorged boobs, I'm sure you're having sympathy pains for those women right now.

4. Your pump output is like your grades in high school - It'll fall in the blink of an eye and you'll have to pump like its your job to get it back up. Power pumping(pump for 20 minutes, 10 minute break, pump for 10 minutes, 10 minute break, pump for 10 minutes) is the equivalent of that 2 page essay you had to do for like 10 extra points. You work on it for 4 nights and you get a 2% increase in your grade, except you get 2 more ounces. Except the difference is 2 ounces makes you want to throw a party and not bang your head against a locker.

5. Don't dump without at least sniffing it - I say at least, because you might even have to taste it. Go ahead and judge, but there have been times where Tucker would drink 1 oz of a 4 oz bottle, meaning 3 oz would go back in the fridge and come home with us after work. No way in hell I'm dumping 3/4 of a bottle. I always stuck it back in the fridge when we got home and sniffed it the next morning. If I couldn't tell if it was good or not, I would stick my clean finger in the bottle to get a little drop to taste. If you don't have kids yet and have never experienced the agony of dumping breastmilk down the drain, then save the judgement for when you do have to do that. Its painful. Because like the scenario in #1, 3 ounces could easily be the result of 40 minutes hooked up to the pump.

I hope these tips/thoughts on pumping don't scare you away from the idea of pumping. That's not what they are for. Hopefully you find them helpful if anything! I know if it weren't for reading a few of them, I would have quit months ago!

The Costs of Breastfeeding

There are so, so many advantages to breastfeeding. It's free, you always have your boobs, it's free, its great for the baby... and did I mention it's free? Can you tell I'm kind of a tight ass?

While there are a number of advantages and wonderful things about it that you seem to only read about while you're pregnant, there are just about as many that you miss out on during your preparation and research. Or at least I missed them.

If you're new here, I've posted a few times about Tucker and I's breastfeeding experience. I talked about how it sucked and how I switched to exclusively pumping for 2 days then Tucker threw me a curve ball. Things are much better now though!

1. It can be mentally challenging and exhausting. Lets be honest though, those first few weeks with a newborn are exhausting no matter how you're feeding your baby. But after that newborn phase and even when the baby is by some divine miracle sleeping through the night and you've developed your version of a routine or schedule, many of your thoughts are still going to be breastfeeding related. Have I pumped enough today? Will this broccoli make him gassy? There's no way in hell I'm drinking a Diet Mt. Dew after 4pm? Do I have time to fit a beer in before he eats again? Don't judge me. Or if you're on the road for work a lot like me, you're thinking of the best places on your route to stop and pump, if you're meeting is at such and such time and it will take an hour, then you need to be done pumping at this time which means you need to start at this time, meaning you have to leave this many minutes earlier than normal.

2. When your life isn't revolving around your baby, its revolving around your boobs. You're going out for the day? You better take that pump with you. Skipping a pump every ONCE in a while isn't going to kill your supply, but if you do it often you're setting yourself up for issues.

3. You're probably going to lose some sleep. Not because you're feeding your baby at that particular moment. But because you're pumping. Only about once a week, Danny and I go to bed at the same time. When he's heading to bed, I'm staying up so I can pump, wash parts, make bottles, THEN get ready for bed. That puts me in bed an hour later than him most nights, which is almost 2 hours after Tucker. Then I have to get up early to pump again. Tucker doesn't get up until 645/7 normally (though right now he thinks its cool to wake up at 5:30ish) so in order for me to pump with enough time to replenish, I have to get up at 545. Your supply is highest in the morning after your longest stretch of sleep and this pump is vital to my supply for the next day's bottles. So, even though baby is sleeping 10 hours, I'm only sleeping about 6.5.

4. Losing weight isn't automatic. In fact, it might not even happen. There are some very fortunate women whose weight melts off while they are breastfeeding. There are also some women who don't lose weight. They actually have to hold onto that extra weight in order to keep making milk. Which brings me to my next point...

5. Don't try too hard to lose weight or you'll lose your supply. Make it gradual. And drink water like it is your J-O-B! If you're like me, "but I'm breastfeeding" will become your ultimate excuse for eating the delicious, unhealthy crap.

6. The milk itself is free (unless you have supply issues), but everything else isn't. Extra/spare pump parts, nursing clothes (bras, tanks, easy boob access shirts), pump accessories (car adapter), supply boosting tricks (Fenugreeks, Mother's Milk Tea). These don't add up to the cost of formula, but they do add up.

7. You're it. If the baby is hungry, you're up. If you want your husband or someone else to feed the baby a bottle, see #2.

8. Pumping sucks. Plain and simple, no way around it. It sucks.

I'm not pointing these things out to scare new mama's. Its all stuff that I've learned along the way and I didn't really pick up on before I had Tucker.  I get really annoyed with breastfeeding sometimes. Especially #3 and #4, almost to the point that I've wanted to stop. But then I see my bank account flash before my eyes and my dreams of a new car, master bedroom and camper fly out the window. No, formula for a year (or 5.5 months at this point) isn't going to break the bank but like I said, I'm a tight ass and that's the number one reason I'm still going. There are millions of babies every day that are thriving while they are on formula and I am not at all against it. I just like my money :) And after we got nursing figured out. Not having to clean bottles was another perk.

To convince you all that I don't hate breastfeeding and maybe un-scare you, I'll highlight some of the unexpected perks of breastfeeding that you might not realize exist!

Breastfeeding Update

Check me out looking all blogger official with a blog design! Hubby Jack did an awesome job, especially since I gave him about NO ideas to work with other than a color palette. I got on his design list just in time though since he announced his farewell yesterday. Anyways, I love it!

First, I want to apologize for how all over this place this post is about to get. Our AC went out yesterday and I ended up not going to bed until 11:30 after I watched Danny deal with that and then pumped and got bottles ready. THEN, my sweet baby has decided to wake up between 3-4a the last 2 nights. Here I am at 6:30 and I'm already 30 minutes into my day.

Now to the goods, which is how breastfeeding it going.
(If you're new here, I posted about how bad things were HERE and then how things got a little itty bit better and I just decided to let Tucker be the boss of it all HERE)

I mentioned before that I was going to give nursing a try until 3 months and if I had seem some improvement then I would give it until 4 to have it down. If he didn't have it figured out by then, I was going to switch to exclusively pumping and see how far that took me. Well, it was a good thing I waited until the 3-4 month mark because it has been smooth sailing since the end of March!

How did we get to this point: After almost a month of letting Tucker do his thing and trying when he seemed like he wanted to nurse, we got it down. That's really my only "trick."  I guess the other trick would be when we would attempt to nurse. Since I work full-time, I only had evenings and weekends. For a few weeks we would just nurse in the evenings before his bedtime bottle, then occasionally on the weekend. I didn't want to rely on nursing before bed during February and March because I had a busy time at work during those months.  Once I felt like he had grasped the concept of nursing, I let him nurse at bedtime. And he continued to sleep through the night. That is when I knew we had had a breakthrough. When him and I are together, he just nurses. I've given him maybe 3 bottles in the last month and that's just because we were out and about and he was hungry. Even then if we're in between stores or stops, I'll nurse him in the car. This mama won't be whippin the boob out in the middle of the grocery store or restaurant. I have no beef with any woman who does, but I just won't be.

Here's my message to my future self when there is a baby #2 (or #3): Have patience. Don't be so hard on yourself. Let that baby do his/her thing.

I have learned sooooo freakin' much during the last 5 months. The one thing that sticks out is every situation is different. I've realized that before about almost everything. I don't see things black and white. I can almost always see the grey area. Life would be a lot easier if I did see black and white and I probably wouldn't go bat shit crazy sometimes worry or stress about things so much. But then I would categorize Tuck and I's breastfeeding journey as the grey area. The area the isn't covered in a textbook or a breastfeeding class.  Ours was the situation that we just had to do what worked for us. And it eventually did.

People keep asking me how long I'm going to breastfeed. I don't know. I can't imagine trying so hard to get it figured out for 4 months, then stop 2 months later when he turns 6 months. I can't decide if I want to let him self-wean or wean him myself at some point. I'm sure I'll decide one thing and then he'll be all "I'm the boss mom" and completely switch it up on me. Or he'll get teeth and as soon as he bites I'll be waving my white flag. So, my answer to that question is, I have no idea. I don't know when I'll know or if I will know. He might just wake up one day and decide he's over it. I could do the same thing.

I told you this post would be a hot mess :)