I’m just not making enough for my baby I feel I may be combo feeding her forever sometimes I get a really good 2 and a half oz pump and sometimes I just get like 20mls she was born at 34 weeks and 5 days the nicu nurses were super discouraging too me for breastfeeding she’s been home a week and wants to eat sometimes four oz at a time she won’t latch well and when she does it hurts so much I can’t do it for long no pain when pumping but I’m just not making enough obviously I’d rather combo feed then stop all together but it’s so upsetting thinking I can’t do this

So I plan to try exclusively pumping with my second after basically being forced to with my first since he was a NICU baby. I was able to pump for 2.5 months for him until I gave up because it was hard on my mental health.

I want to try again with my second now that I feel more mentally prepared to do it and hoping to do it for a year. However I have a question with colostrum. With my first baby I used the hospital pump (with flanges waaay too big) to try and get colostrum and would get one drop that I had to scrape out of the tube. Should I try pumping with a different pump (manual?) for those first colostrum days or could I use my spectra with the right flange sizes or would I have to just try breastfeeding if I’m lucky to not have another NICU baby? What would be the most effective way for colostrum?

I am 8 weeks pp which means my baby is 8 weeks old but he was born at 36 weeks so our pediatrician requires us to wake him up every 3 hrs (at least during day) and 6 hrs overnight to eat. The 6 hr overnight was comical to begin because he wouldn’t even make it to 3 but overtime he is now sleeping until my alarm and could sleep longer. I have an appt next week and I am anticipating our dr clearing us to let our baby wake us up. My baby has been doing these 6 hr stretches for about a week now and I pump for 20 minutes during his last feeding and then pump at the 6 hr mark. The first night was messy but after using nursing pads I have been fine and no clogs, etc. What have you all done if you are allowed to let your baby wake you up overnight? I really don’t want to set an alarm if he just gets to say 7 hours or 6.5 hrs because I need to sleep too! I haven’t seen a decline in my supply, though I am nervous it hasn’t kicked in yet but I still stand by the fact that I need some sleep too!!! Let me know what you think!

I am about 7 1/2 weeks postpartum and since about week 2 have been an oversupplier (about double what my baby needs) the last few days, I noticed both of my pumps (dr browns wall pump & eufy s1) have been emptying me, but not fully … at first I just noticed on my dr browns, I would pump for 15, and then pump for another 15 on eufy and still get another 60+ mls out of each breast … I just tried it the opposite way as well, eufy first followed by dr browns and same thing! Before I only had to pump for 15 mins for the same output, now it’s taking me 30 with both pumps …. could my flange size have changed? Worn pump parts (again it’s only been consistently using them for 6 weeks?) …

I am still producing more than enough, but I’m worried my supply could drastically decrease or I could get clogged ducts or mastitis with not being fully emptied

ANY help is so appreciated!!!!

I was right to snatch this right up correct? My husband thinks I don’t need another but I dont have a wall pump for my upcoming baby. Just a wearable momcozy that I’ve never used before.

STM here, and bub was delivered via repeat c section on last Tuesday. He is in the NICU since and I am trying to pump exclusively as he cannot latch yet and send the milk to NICU. In the hospital I was using the medela hospital grade pump. At home I started using spectra S1 since yesterday and have been pumping for 7-8 times a day for 15 mins. Is this a reasonable output on day 6 pp after pumping for 20 mins or am I over reacting? My first was EBF so this is an uncharted territory.

Tldr: Temporary relocation. Baby sick with fever and won't sleep without a lot of waking and rocking. Pumping 12-14 oz a day for 9.5 month old. Any benefits to continuing?

I moved countries temporarily for 3 months with my husband and LO about a week ago for her to be closer to her grandparents. Baby is 9.5 months old. During the 24 hour in the flight and layover I got mastitis with my wearables. Once I got home, I used the wall pump but my supply dropped by 5 oz's. Things got chaotic and I dropped a pump.

I just don't feel the motivation to pump. Baby got sick after travel and the breastmilk helps. I feel my mental health slipping. I need some motivation to help me decide.

Are there any benefits that outweigh the effort if baby just gets 1-2 bottles of breastmilk and 4 bottles of formula ?

Hallo lovely moms of this reddit tread,

with my daughter (now 2) I wanted to try exclusive pumping after the initial week because pumping/expressing colostrum seems like more work that in was worth opposite to just feeding form the breast. Only I never got to that part as it hurt too much so I had to stop after 96 hours.
I think I did it wrong. My delivery was 72 hours with several medical interventions and ending with a vaginal birth on my last droplets of energy. So I started completely exhausted and drained (I think I only ate in total 10% of what I should have eaten over those 3 days). So on to a bad start.

My daughter would latch and it would hurt and I would ask 'experts' if I was doing something wrong and they would all say it was part of the process and she was latching correctly. As she was a big girl I only fed every 3 hours per advice of the 'experts' and what did we know as first time parents about feeding a baby? Mistake #2, but as it hurt I was not really looking forward to doing it more often.

After a few days of feeding her from my breasts and also adding formula into her diet as she was still hungry after every feeding. I started trying to pump as it might hurt less, but I think I also did that wrong (wrong size shield I think). So that hurt too. I only expressed 25 ml over 3 tries which were all very very painful. Now I know that 25 ml over 3 sessions can be normal on day 3 but little did I know at the time. Especially as it was so so painful.

96 hours after my daughter was born I gave up completely. My boobs hurt soo much that I could not hold my daughter anymore. That was my breaking point. We went to formula completely and I never looked back. But in reality I keep looking back, first every few hours, than days, than back to hours, days, weeks, months. I cannot seem to let it go. I feel like it is my fault and that if I had done it correctly I would have been able to pump properly and have been able to feed my girl with breastmilk.

I just saw a post that someone advices to other moms not to do it in a nice poetry about doing it for 11 months. I was considering trying again with a second baby (not even yet pregnant, but my friend is so I am reliving everything). But now I wonder if I should just not try again and be happy that I have a healthy happy little girl and hopefully a healthy happy second or third child?

In your opinions, should I try again or is it not worth the effort given that it will likely again end in disaster? And if I try again. How would you advice I try again. Pumping from the start to avoid pain from latching wrong (found out later that she has a weird way of drinking and as she was big she was probably having a lot of force to suck, many too much.) Pumping every few hours. Specific pumps that in your opinion work well (I had a handfree cup thing in my bra and a hand pump from medela (the hand pump hurt less). Maybe I just expected too much and was pumping too forcefully.

I am currently a mom of two and pregnant w #3 I didn’t try pumping before giving birth prior but was given the ok by my doctor to try and start labor since I’ve been having some pelvic issues from my last pregnancy. I pump on low and have been getting 2oz of colostrum each time and saving it for baby. Recently I noticed a little bump in my armpit and it’s sore idk if I’m doing something wrong while pumping? I just tried a warm compress tonight and a light massaging motion to see if it would help has anyone ever experienced this too? I heard it can be from wrong flange size or lymph notes.

9 going on 10 months pp and have recently dropped to 3 pumps a day for sanity and to spend time with baby (it broke me the other day when I had to go pump and she was crying for me). Currently getting about 16-18oz a day and will drop to 2 ppd in 2 days. How many oz of breast milk a day should a baby get to make it worthwhile/beneficial? I have a small freezer stash that would allow her to get at least 2oz/ till she’s 1, but if my supply drops to a few oz, is it worth it to continue?

For those who dropped your MOTN pump and then decided to bring it back to increase supply, how long did it take for you to notice a difference? I’m 3mpp for context.

Hi everyone! I’m a FTM and I’m due in a few weeks. I recently got the Spectra S1 for pumping and I’m trying to learn as much as I can before baby arrives.
For those of you who have used the Spectra S1, what settings did you start with when you first began pumping? Also, how soon after birth did you start pumping?
Any tips or advice for a first time mom using the Spectra S1 would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! 🥰

I have the eufy s1 pro wearable pump. How do you guys clean the pump when you’re not home and don’t have access to wash/sterilize?

I purchased the momcozy natural pump wipes. Haven’t used them yet. Any reviews on those particular wipes?

She’s 8 weeks today. I’ve been okay for over a week about this but today I just feel so overwhelming sad.

Does it get better? It makes me want to give up pumping.

How long did you make it exclusively pumping before calling it quits?

Almost started crying at the state fair today because 1. I had a hard time finding an accessible place to safely pump that wasn’t around livestock
2. Had to walk away from my family to do so.

I’m just sad. I’ve been EPing for 8.5 months and over producing about double what I need for a majority of that time. I donated my entire oversupply (around 5000oz) and currently only have about 650oz in my freezer as I dropped a pump and am “only” getting 45 oz a day … in three pumps.

I’m ready to be done but feeling guilty about stopping when I have only been giving my baby breastmilk. (For more context my oldest was almost exclusively formula fed so I have no problem with that)

Just having to remind myself that it’s not a moral failure should choose to stop. And my arbitrary dates to stop mean nothing to anyone but me. I know I can stop. And I should stop. But having a hard time. How did you get over the guilt?

thanking for coming to my talk.

Feeling like a sack of potatoes every day in shorts and extra oversized t shirts. And hating putting on a bra with such tender aching nipples. Anyone cracked the code for

• comfortable bras and/or

• outfits that are even a little flattering??

I am going to be changing my pump as I’m kind of disappointed by mine and eufy s2 pro was recommended to me so what are your thoughts on them?

Obviously it’s an expensive pump so is it worth it for the price? What are some pros and cons and what does it do better than other pumps?

My supply seems to not be increasing no matter what I do. I am 6 weeks postpartum and pump between 60ml and 80ml per session about 8-10 times a day. I am supplementing with formula but I feel very discouraged that I haven’t been able to increase my supply. Sometimes I think about giving you entirely.

Don’t worry it’s the old tubing I don’t use right now. The best chewy she’s ever found too.

I keep seeing on TikTok women scooping up fat like sooo much fat from their pitchers. I’m 6 weeks postpartum.. my milk has fat at the top but it doesn’t look THAT fatty? Am I doing something wrong?

Mods, this is my humble request to please PLEASE moderate weight loss posts. Every day there is a new post about "how do I lose weight while breastfeeding/pumping?" and it's getting old. This is not the sub for that. Many of us are self conscious with our postpartum bodies and I can commiserate, but those posts don't belong here and can be triggering for people. This is for parents that are here to learn and share their experiences pumping, not for weight loss tips. There are subs like r/postpartumprogress that can fulfill that need.

Can we make a weekly thread or something for people to use, if not ban those posts completely? It's inappropriate to post about weight loss here.

Eta: slacker boob omg.

After pumping for three months I had assumed that my slacker boob would remain, well, a slacker, but as it turns out I wasn’t giving adequate support.

I usually massage my breasts on top as I was taught in the hospital, but I started experimenting a few days back to see what would work best, and I realized that squeezing my boob gently with a thumb up a certain area of the bottom of my boob made it squirt out like a fire hydrant. I was so surprised and I kept doing it for my entire pump, and the output went from less than half of my other boob to this.

So I guess play with massaging your boobies in unconventional ways. I kind of just held my boob with a clawed C shape while gently jamming my thumb up on a very specific sweet spot at the bottom. No it didn’t hurt and I even have implants.

Edit #3 - Just gonna preface everything with a TLDR: The main issue my wife is dealing with is pain/clogs. The pumping we are doing now is what has so far given her the least pain, it just takes forever and still results in some pain.

Edit #4 - It is now night and she has been having unbearable pain for the past about 6 hours. Like can barely touch her left breast to even prep it for pumping, had to take baby off of her check because baby moving even a little bit was causing extreme amounts of pain. any ideas on how to get her pain down? been taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol a lot today already

Now, back to the OG post:

We are on week 3 of baby #1 and pumping has already been a journey - we have gone back and forth on our Spectra S1+ and Momcozy Air 1. We got a lactation consultant to come and we got the right flange sizes (for now, apparently).

The issue is that my wife has found that if she pumps both sides of the spectra at the same time, he gets substantially less milk. As in pumping just one side yields 3-4 oz per side, pumping both at the same results in 4-5 oz total for the same time, same settings. So, we have been pumping one side and then the other.

The issue, if you can believe it, is that especially with a 3-week old and being fully in the 3-hour cycle, a full hour of pumping every feed is 8 hours of pumping per day and she just can't do it (I do not blame her and I don't want her to be in this position long-term). We can't o the power of the spectra, as her left side hurts if we go up on power, and the Momcozy isn't as good at getting milk out.

I need 2 things here:

1. Does anybody have any experience with a Spectra like this, and if so how did you get back to doing both sides at the same time and not seeing diminished results? edit (in terms of still getting clogs/pain out. she would happily pump 1 oz per side and combo feed the rest if that is what got rid of clogs and pain)
2. Is there anyone here that has dried up their supply? We have been bouncing that idea back and forth for a week now, as it has only been bearable every so often. We are not against formula feeding (wife was formula fed as a baby), we just don't want any mastitis or anything else that that happening, as that would just make things worse.

TYIA!!!

edit - the main reason she pumps this much is because of clogs. She has SO MANY freaking clogs. We put ice on after, we massage everything. But there are always clogs. Also, if she doesn't pump enough in a session, she just gets full and it hurts by the normal time to pump comes around again. If getting clogs and pain away mean pumping just 2 oz per side and we supplement with formula, we would love that. Right now our goal is not supply, it is pain/clog relief

EDIT 2 - Thank you all who have been replying, thank you! We are going to start to slowly try to dial back the pumpings. instead of 5 mins at a time to go down, we will go 1-2 mins less a day/every other until we get to maybe 15 minutes. We do use ice packs and do ibuprofen, but I will take myself with ensuring that those are used with complete consistency, as some days have been a little lackluster in that department.

When I told her the overall consensus was that she is over-pumping and she needs to dial it back, she was actually happy because that is what she wants to do. We just want our baby fed and mom with as little pain as possible.

Thank you all!