My daughter is 4 months old and I have been exclusively pumping for about 3 months. I had preeclampsia and she was born at 36 weeks weighing only 4 lbs. Since she was so under weight I had to supplement her with formula. I tried nursing her for the first month but the nipple confusion from the bottle caused her to have problems latching on. I saw several lactation consultants and none was able to fix the latching on problem. When I returned to work nursing became harder to do since she was having the bottle all day while I was gone. I decided that the most important thing to me was that my daughter drink breast milk instead of formula. If it meant I had to give it to her in a bottle than that is what I would do and I began to exclusively pump. It was very hard to do at first and my milk supply was very low since I had not been pumping correctly.
My lactation consultant told me to pump at least 8 times a day for 15-20 minutes. Since I was taking care of a newborn who wanted to be held all the time, this wasn't easy to do. I pumped every 3 hours for at least 5 minutes after the last drop of milk had come out. At first my pumping sessions didn't last very long. I would pump and use that milk for her next feeding. When she had finished all of the breast milk I would give her formula if she was still hungry. To help myself remember when I needed to pump I wrote down the times I needed to pump at the beginning of each day and then after each pumping session I would note how many ounces I pumped during that time. It helped me to monitor my progress. The first week I started pumping I would only pump an extra half ounce each day and it was a bit discouraging but I still kept with it. At the second week I noticed I was producing an extra ounce a day and that was enough to feed my child all day. Eventually my milk supply increased enough that I had more milk than my daughter took in a day. I froze this milk and I kept it on hand for days that I would run low.
When my I felt my milk supply had increased enough I began pumping every 4 hours for at least 5 minutes after the last drop of milk had come out. Sometimes if I was out and I didn't get home in time I could stretch it out to 5 hours. My milk supply is still doing well and I don't have to give my daughter any formula. I am still working on the latch problem and maybe some day she will get it but if not I am fine with pumping.
The important thing to remember is don't get discouraged. It is very hard at the beginning and there were many times when I wanted to give and just switch her to formula. I kept at it and I am very happy I did! My daughter has tripled her birth weight and she is doing very well and I am sure it has to do with the breast milk she is taking in.
More tips on increasing milk supply
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