Pumping

Pumping at work has luckily been going really well. I was a bit scared because I had used up a lot of my stash before we went back to work and so I didn't really have a safety net in case we ran into problems. My employer lets me use a little private room and I pump on my regular breaks: 15mins in the AM, a 1/2hr lunch, and 15min in the PM. The amount  I produce fluctuates a bit day to day; the lowest amount has been 11oz and the most has been 16oz. I consistently produce more in the AM and it sort of dwindles as the day goes on. Also, my right side always makes more and I still get lopsided sometimes. A normal day could be something like 6oz in the morning 5oz at lunch and 3oz in the afternoon. I hear it is best if you actually cover up the bottles as you pump, because it might stress you out and you will produce less. I don't cover up my bottles, but I don't pay any attention until the end. Then I usually try breast compressions to squeeze out as much as I can :P. I will even manually express some extra at the end sometimes.

 I have been able to keep up with what baby girl eats a daycare so far. At first she was eating five 3oz bottles a day or two 3oz bottle and two 4oz bottles. But since our vacation at Christmas she has been eating quite a bit less, usually only four bottles a day ranging between 2-3oz. This makes sense though, since at first she was sleeping pretty much through the night, maybe waking up once. Now, she wakes up at least twice, more like three or four times each night to feed. I'm not sure if this is the "reverse-cycling" they speak of, or just a phase, but we will see.

Oh! and if you are pumping before you go back to work and feeding your baby at the same time, you will probably only get .5-2oz on each side unless you have an oversupply or are engorged. When I was still at home, pumped a few times when I was engorged and got 4-5oz on one side, but other times I tried didn't even make 1oz. My husband was really concerned, but it makes sense, I mean I had just nursed so there wasn't that much left. I've noticed my body is very efficient adjusting the amount of milk I make to what baby girl is eating. So, if you did continue to pump after feedings each day, you will start to make more milk (that is why they recommend pumping after you feed to boost your supply) but the last thing I wanted to do (or had time for!) after nursing so much was to be stuck in the chair pumping. It works a little better when I just nurse on one side and pump on the other at the same time, as long as baby girl isn't kicking the pump off of me haha. I will still do this once in a while if I didn't make as much one day and want a bit more for day care.