This post is brought to you by Chrissy as part of our “feeding your baby” series.
Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I am a planner. So when I was pregnant I had these grand plans of exclusively breastfeeding. I had read the books, taken classes, talked with friends, and my breastfeeding game plan was ready to go. (You know, skin to skin, try to get baby to latch immediately after birth, no artificial nipples, etc.) Well, Miss Hadley had plans of her own!
Hadley ingested a lot of fluid during birth which made her think she was full, and overrode the instinct to nurse immediately. After two stomach washings to remove the fluid, she was in a frenzy to eat, but we couldn’t maintain a good latch. Believe me when I say we tried everything. The lactation consultants practically stayed in my room, and I had outpatient consults as well. They all kept saying I was doing everything right, but Hadley just wouldn’t stay on the breast, no matter what tricks we tried.
I was determined to give my baby breast milk. After all, “breast is best!” So even before my milk came in, I began pumping colostrum while in the hospital. My plan had been to pump until we successfully established breastfeeding. Unfortunately, that never happened. This is how I found myself exclusively pumping to feed my baby.
I always got the same reaction from breastfeeding and formula feeding mamas: “Wow! I don’t know how you do it!” I would just smile and shrug. It was all I had ever known.
I’m not saying it was easy. I pumped every three hours around the clock for the first three months, and after that only dropped the middle of the night. The first day I was home alone with Hadley, she woke from a nap while I was in the middle of a pumping session. My newborn laid there screaming for milk, but had wait for Mama to finish pumping. Talk about heart wrenching! Also, pumping comes with lots of accessories. Normally I love accessories, but not these! All the washing, drying and keeping up with pump parts felt like a full-time job. And God forbid I ever leave the house without the pump. I’ve had more than my fair share of 15-minute sessions in the back of a car. We even had to buy an extra “garage” fridge to store all of that pumped milk.
There were other problems as well. Breast milk adapts to the needs of the baby, but only from enzymes in the baby’s saliva. Hadley was never latching, so she wasn’t receiving that benefit. Also, when her milk consumption began to peak I was no longer pumping enough to meet her needs. In fact, it was around this time (seven to eight months) that I began to dry up. I was devastated. By the end of her eighth month Hadley was primarily on formula, but still receiving one bottle of breast milk a day from my frozen stash. That lasted until she was 11 months old.
Pumping did have a few benefits. Mainly, I was able to give my child what her body was designed to digest. Also, I knew exactly how much she was eating, which made the pediatrician happy. Since I was pumping at very regular intervals I never had a problem with leaking. Having bottles of breast milk ready to go allowed others to feed her with ease. And, I never had to fight the breastfeeding in public fight. (Which, I’m all for, by the way.) However, I did worry I was judged by others who just assumed I was formula feeding.
Ideally, I still would have preferred to feed Hadley directly from the tap. I hope I get that chance next time around. If not, the pump and I will get reacquainted for round two, but I must insist on a hands free pump next time!!
About Chrissy:
Chrissy lives in the Athens, Georgia, where she loves to watch her Dawgs play “between the hedges.” Much of her time is spent reading to her daughter, Hadley, providing physical therapy at a local hospital and hitting the gym. She is also a proud Marine wife to her husband, Aaron.
This is personal advice and should not be substituted for advice from a medical professional.
Read other entries in this series:
Caitlin’s Story-Feeding Your Baby Formula
Jasmine’s story-Feeding Your Baby: Supplementing Breast Milk with Formula
I think its awesome you stuck it out with the pump! My first born was badly jaundiced and never would latch so I pumped for his first year. Its a commitment, but I agree there were definitely perks vs exclusively nursing (what I did with baby 2). The important thing is your baby has a committed mama! Good article.
Yes! I also ep for a long time. It was so worth it!
Thanks for sharing! I’m going on month 8 of exclusively pumping. I’m counting down the months until my daughter turns a year old and I can be all done! 😉
I really admire your dedication to following through with what you had planned and what you knew to be best for Hadley!
I’m in the same boat. I’m on my 3rd month of pumping exclusively. Sometimes its a real pain and other times it seems easier. Ultimately, I want my baby to have breast milk and we are achieving that goal.
I pumped exclusively for 7 months with Sariah. :00
I started out breastfeeding my daughter and it wasn’t really working so I started pumping exclusively, and she was happier and so was I. I didn’t even know pumping exclusively was an option, no one really talks about it and if they do its made to sound like you have to be away from your baby to pump, not as an alternate way of feeding when there’s a latch issue or something else. We made it 3 weeks(she was 8 weeks by this time) and due to some medical issues we switched to formula only. I wish there was more support for mommy’s who choose to pump, unfortunately you get the dirty looks from people who assume that because you’re giving your baby a bottle it MUST be formula and I mean how dare you do what must be done to feed your little one, whether that means bf’ing, pumping or formula. We’re doing formula now and at 6 months she is just as happy and healthy as any other baby.
Great job to all you moms who pumped exclusively!!!
Thank you for sharing your story! Agree, there should be more support. I also wish people wouldn’t give anyone a dirty look while feeding their baby-no matter what the method!
I’ve been feeding my LO EP breast milk for 4 months now, and it is so hard. There’s nothing worse than listening to her scream, wanting to pick her up, but being chained to that ruthlessly painful and inefficient machine. I will finish at least 6 months, and after that it will be one day at a time. At a certain point, I’m concerned that the lack of immediate social contact when she cries will be more detrimental than feeding her formula.
My son had trouble latching on in the first few weeks so we would alternate between breastfeeding and a bottle of expressed milk to ensure he had enough food. However, by the end of week 3 he began to refuse to breastfeed because he realized he could get his food faster from the bottle. It broke my heart and I cried over it on multiple occasions. It didn’t help to have people telling me I had “given up” too soon even though I was still giving him breastmilk.
Our son is now 3 months olds and is still fed exclusively with breastmilk. I came to terms with it by week four and I am just glad he is still getting the nutrients he needs even if it has to be put into a bottle. I have gone back to work now and there has been a slight dip in my supply but I intend to keep it up for as long as we can. If anyone has tips on how to improve milk production please share! My son eats 4 ounces at each feeding, 9 times a day. Right now I can stay 3-4 feedings ahead, but have not managed to store up a freezer supply and I have a feeling he will be moving up an ounce soon.
Way to go with exclusively expressing milk! That takes mega commitment!
I’ve been exclusively pumping for 6 weeks now. Our son would latch but would not suck. I struggled with this for his first 3 wks of life. After countless lactation consultations, cracked and bleeding nipples and a thrush infection, I decided to give myself a break and exclusively pumped. As I said, I’m going on my 6th week if it and it’s been the best decision I’ve made for our family. My mental and physical health us better and our son is still getting breast milk. Reading others stories definitely helps though!
Congratulations and way to go with the dedication to pump!
I am on my 6th month of exclusively pumping and transitioning back to work. Our baby was born 10 weeks early and has a swallowing complication, so I have been pumping since the day she was born – throughout her two month stay in the NICU – and now that she is home. I absolutely agree with the benefits mentioned of being able to have others involved in the feeding process, being able to monitor my baby’s exact intake, etc. Pumping was most challenging for me when I was waiting for my baby to come home and I really felt all alone during those middle of the night pumping sessions (definitely tried to distract myself with a lot of random tv and reading…). Now my challenge is related to supply. I still pump 5-6 times a day, but I produce much less milk than I did even a month ago. I know the stress of returning to work and finding the time to pump with a more active baby don’t help, but I continue to try. Originally my goal has been to pump for a year, but it’s tough to know if I will be able to make that with my current supply. I have been adding in fenugreek recently as well as power pumping to try to boost my supply, but I haven’t seen much of an increase yet. We also have the garage freezer, so fortunately we do have some milk for a little while. I am noticing that my baby is using about three days worth of frozen milk each day, so I feel a bit like she’s racing to catch up with me. 😉 I also wish that there were more resources out there devoted to exclusively pumping. I would love to know more of the tricks that people use to manage all of the challenges (how many sets of parts people rotate through, hands free accessories, etc.). I know I absolutely love my hands-free pumping bra made by Simple WIshes (you can find it on amazon) – that has been the biggest time saver for me by far. I researched a lot about breastfeeding before my baby was born, but I knew nothing about pumping – I thought I was just figure that when I headed back to work… I’m grateful for people writing about their experiences with exclusively pumping, because I also really hope that it will help open people’s minds about the different ways of feeding babies – minus the judgment. 🙂
Hi Erin! I will inform Chrissy who wrote this guest post for us. She may have some suggestions. For now, here is an article we wrote on ways to increase your milk supply. That may help. Be sure to read the comments as well, as some of our readers left wonderful advice we didnt mention! https://www.simplyrealmoms.com/posts/increasing-your-breastmilk-supply/
I would really like some advice on how to travel with expressed milk. what I have been doing is just taking it out of the fridge and taking it with me as long as I use it within the 6 hour limit it doesn’t seem to hurt her, but id like to know if I should really put it in a cooler and then take a thermal to heat it up. what did all you moms do while going out for a couple of hours?
Thank you so mich for this article!! I’ve never met anyone who has exclusively pumped before and it’s such a relief to know I’m not alone! My daughter was born refluxed, so I had to pump everything and mix in rice starting at 2 weeks. I did this for 8 months. Then my son, who is now 3 weeks, was born with pancrea issues, so his blood sugar kept dropping and he had to be fed formula for the first 4 days to keep him from going into a coma. Thus: he wouldn’t nurse after having the bottle and here I am pumping again! I hate it so much but it’s important to me to give him breastmilk so I’m sucking it up : P I feel like I wrote this article… Just actually bought a freezer for the garage and I refuse to pump unless someone else is here so my poor baby doesn’t have to scream his head off waiting for me. It’s just so good to know other people can relate : D