Hey friends,
Tonight’s post is a bittersweet one. I officially ended my exclusively pumping journey of six months. I spoke about pumping, briefly, before I had our youngest, this past summer. I exclusively pumped with our first, after three months of breastfeeding. I continued pumping until he was about 10 months old then switched to formula.
This time around our baby went into the NICU, directly after the cesarean section. I was without him for about a day and a half (he was moved to a different hospital), and in this time I had to pump.
Luckily, I was familiar with the process and had a lot of supplements packed in my hospital bag, just in case I needed to pump in the hospital.
The hospital provided me with a pump to use while I was there, as I had left mine at home. I believe that most hospitals have pumps on hand for situations like this, or mothers who just want to pump while they’re there.
I had talked about pumping this time around, but did not think I would need to while I was at the hospital.
Anyways, I’m glad I was prepared with all the essentials while I was there.
I really believe that starting my pumping routine so early after having the baby helped catapult to me to be able to stop, just after six months.
I reference the supplements I had planned on taking in this blog post. I stuck to that routine pretty closely, so all the information in that post is correct.
I was very fortunate to have an over supply, that I was mostly able to control.
I was also very aware of the possibility of having mastitis, again. I had this three times with my first. So, I took supplements to prevent this, daily.
Having an over supply is such a blessing, but I feel that not enough people talk about the downsides of it.
With the over supply, it is almost impossible to skip a pumping session, wean from the pump at a regular pace, and stop pumping in general.
I have been “weaning” since October, which was only four months into pumping.
Since I previously weaned, I knew the steps that I had to take to be able to stop by six months.
*trigger warning about supply*
I was very fortunate to be able to pump enough for the baby, and save almost 8 months worth of breastmilk, in the freezer, over the past six months.
I know this can be a touchy subject, but once again I did not find anyone on the Internet who is talking about saving up breast milk or mother with over supplies.
I’m going to break down how I did this all here:
First, I religiously took my supplements. Read all about those in this post, I took them almost exactly as the bottles suggested.
Second, I had a very strict pumping schedule, and stayed pumping through all hours of the day and night, until the baby was almost 4 months old. Pumping during the night definitely helped exponentially with my supply. I made the most milk during the middle of the night.
•I pumped EVERY two hours until four months, even during the night, for 10 minutes total each time.
•After that, I pumped every 3 hours, and slowing spaced my pumping sessions out, making sure I was pumping 100 minutes a day.
Third, I kept telling myself that there was an end in site. I knew that if I could have a freezer stash for at least six months, I had an end date & goal. Once I was done pumping, I knew I had a little bit more freedom for myself personally.
The stress, hormones, and everything else that is attached to exclusively pumping, can be quite a lot.
Lastly, we invested in two freezers for our garage, and have multiple stashes as our families homes.
There is no way that you could fit six months of breastmilk into one, at home, freezer.
I have a note on my phone that includes a running list of all frozen milk, at everyone’s homes, and what freezer it is in.
Now, we have started using this milk, so I have a very similar list with milk we have taken out of the freezer.
It is very important that I keep a list like this, so we know exactly how much we have left.
I touched a little bit about this in my previous post, but I almost exclusively used the baby Buddha portable breast pump. The suction is the strongest I’ve ever used, especially for a portable pump. Most of the portable pumps will not work for someone, with an oversupply. It just does not draw out enough milk to be efficient.
I purchased larger pump attachments from baby Buddha directly, so I could fill up the bottles as much as I needed to.
I will link all the supplies I used at the end of this post.
We also used the Kiinde 6 Oz bags for breast milk storage. They also have 8 ounce bags, but those were not as cost-effective, per ounce.
We now use the Kiinde bags, thawed, in their bottle system. It took a few days of trying, but now the baby likes the nipples, with their bottle system.
They also have adapters that you can use to keep using the same nipple that we previously used, Dr. Brown’s. But all in all I wanted to do less dishes, so this system is perfect for that. I only have to wash the nipple and the plastic case, at the end of the day. We recycle the breastmilk storage bags, once he has drank all the milk out of them.
If you have any questions about this journey feel free to message me on Instagram, or comment on this post. I know this can be a touchy subject, so thank you for letting me open up without it here.
It really is a bittersweet time, as I do not for see us having any more babies. So this was my final time exclusively pumping. It might be weird, but I kind of miss it, it is incredibly hard, but it becomes a huge part of your routine in life, so breaking the habit of it, is kind of a weird thing.
We are beyond blessed that our baby has all of this milk in the freezer, and he will happily make it to his first birthday with breast milk. That was always my goal. 🤍
Baby Buddha parts linked here: pump, flanges I preferred, and bottles I used.
Kiinde system linked here: I really only used the bags after I pumped into bottles. The bags are notoriously unreliable when it comes to OZ, so I always measured before I poured into them. Bags, bottle sleeve, nipples he uses, and their freezer rack was the best for keeping the bags flat and easy to store.
We also used these baskets, in the freezers to keep all of the milk organized.
These pumping bras (specifically the sports bra version) were life savers. I had several of these and could easily pump and be comfortable, without having to change my bra or add a pumping insert every time.
xoxo, Sarah
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