Thanks MantaRay, its nice to know we can help others, as Leesha said its a big commitment and all we want to do is the best we can for our babies!
Can I share something else that I wonder of anyone else has felt- I was at the Pinky Mckay seminar on saturday and there were lots of women BFing their bubs and we had to give Emily a bottle and I felt a litle funny about it...I wanted to shout its breastmilk (so did DH)! It shouldn't matter how we feed our babies but I still feel a little self conscious in some settings that I might be judged for not BFing, even though I'm sure really the other mothers wouldn't have given it a thought.
I have felt the same in public....like I need to justify what's in the bottle!! When I want to heat it up and ask for hot water they ask why they can't put it in the microwave? Cos You Will Kill All the Goodness you idiot I feel like shouting!!!
It will be a never ending battle but I'm not one to worry about what other people think!!! It was frustrating tho!!!! I also had the problem of people looking at me funny cos I used a special needs feeder( due to the cleft lip) It has a strange fat/long looking teat!!! Double the strange looks!!!
Not sure if I am quite exclusive yet as I still try and BF once a day and can handle a small amount of comfort sucking but pump the rest of the time. My hope is to one day go back to full time BF.
How long I've been pumping - BF first 3wks then pumped for 2 then BF for 3, now still pumping (Olive is 13wks)
How long do you plan to do it for/ or have done it for? 6mths or until I can BF. Want to make it to 12 but 6 sounds more achievable.
How many times a day do you express? after every feed - about 6-7 times. I don't take any supplements but will try natural stuff if supply drops.
Do you enjoy it? Yes and no. Like everyone else I feel proud that I have made it this far and can feed Olive BM but hate how time consuming it is. When I got behind a couple of weeks ago I was expressing every 2hrs, not fun.
Do you have other kids? No...not sure I could do it with a second child. (ditto)
If you feel comfortable sharing- Why you are expressing? I have had cracked nipples since DD was born (still do) which caused mastitis, staph and thrush. Then it was discovered that Olive was damaging my nipples every feed as she has a high palette and a short fenulum and this was causing them to not heal and the germs to get in. The LC and peadiatric speech pathologist think she should be able to feed once her mouth grows a bit more. She didn't take to nipple sheilds at all and so we ended up expressing.
What type of expressing method do you use? Tommy Tippee manual pump up until last week when I hired an Ameda electric from the ABA. Manual pumping was hard work! I'm still getting used to the electric though, it's alot harder on the nipples and not as quick but at least I have a hand free and can get on BB while pumping and don't have RSI from pumping.
How much milk in a day? about 800
Expressing tip - I'm still learning from all of you! but mine are pretty much the same as everyone else. Relax, relax, relax. I can't express when the baby's crying either. Also accepting what a huge part of my life expressing has become is sometimes hard for others to understand so have a comeback ready when people say "why don't you just give up?"
What an amazing and inspirational thread. I take off my hat to each and every one of you. What an amazing thing to do for your babies when feeding at the breast was not possible and often there were so many other challenges.
Gothmum, it's normal for you to be concerned about breastfeeding after your first traumatic experience. It must be so hard. I wonder if you had considered doing an Australian Breastfeeding Association class?
They are fabulous. Knowledge is certainly power - but the intention is for you to clarify your ideas and thoughts. They are held in most areas of Australia
eej & leesha, i too have felt the same in public when feeding ds his ebm, some mothers would give me the evil looks and i just felt like i was a horrible mother because i couldn't feed ds properly, but then as time went on i learnt to ignore the negatives and focus on the positives and that was i was doing what was best for ds. One thing i did learn through it all is how judgemental ppl can be, including me because before i had ds i think i was probably one of those ppl who would think "oh look, she isn't breast feeding" but now i know better, its not as easy as it looks and you should never EVER judge someone by how they feed their child!
Hats off to all of you and we should give our selves a big pat on the back because exclusive expressing is a full time job let alone being a full time mum, cook, cleaner, chaufer, personal shopper (geez the list goes on what we women do for our families)
^^ I will definitely have a look into that Barb, thanks for the advice. It might actually be easier for me to BF this time around because when DD was born, we were living with my mother and, darling though she is, it was very inconvenient and frustrating for me to try and establish feeding (I gave nipple shields a go for a week or so) because it seemed that every time I'd organise myself, get comfy and try to latch bub on, a visitor would come bearing gifts and want to see the baby and my mother just refused to ask them to call first or come back later... *she* didn't want to be seen as rude, and carried on like *I* was being ungrateful and rude because 'Shirley and James drove all the way in from Calliope just to see the baby and you're 'feeding'?! Just give her a bottle of formula so they can hold her!'
I know she meant well, but yeah, it was a pain in the neck sitting in my room trying desperately to get DD attached and Mum standing in the doorway hurrying me to get dressed and bring the baby out for the neighbourhood to play with. I guess she just doesn't understand what it's like because, unlike me, mum had two c-secs under general anaesthetic (so basically she just went to sleep and woke up with a baby) and formula-fed both my brother and I from birth... so I think she just doesn't *get* what I was going through.
That being said, I'm keen for any help I can get on the matter, but not terribly worried - if all fails, at least we now have the ability to express milk for bubs! Thanks to everyone for the advice on electric pumps, definitely something I'll remember when I start shopping around for one
Actually, I was just thinking today, it's actually a really, really strange sight around here to see mums BFing - I don't know whether the majority of mums express or just FF from birth (actually, I'd be inclined to say a lot just FF, most of my friends were horrified at the thought of BFing and had already bought formula etc before they went to hospital, there was no other choice as far as they were concerned), but yeah, I just don't think anything of it when I see babies being fed from bottles out and about. There definitely needs to be more support for women in my area at least, the general consensus is that the midwives in hospital would rather you FF than take up a bed for more than 24 hours, so if you haven't established feeding by then, they throw you out anyway and you're on your own but for resources like the Community Health Centre.
oh wow, firstly, thank you so much to Eej for starting this thread, and thanks to Mantaray for making it sticky! Yay!
Secondly, question - does anyone know a brand of bottle that's compatible with the medela pumps and is bigger? I need something about 250ml for my morning express (yes i'm getting heaps woo hoo!! personal record of 420ml the other morning ) - I tried buying a tommee tippee one the other day but it doesn't screw in properly.
Also, I know exactly what you mean re being self-conscious with the bottle... I don't want to sound judgemental to those giving FF, but I SO want to make it clear that I've got EBM in there... after all, I worked hard to produce it!
Gothmum - re your question on pumps, well I find I vastly prefer to double pump (I also use Medela Pump in Style), which means no hands free but a) you get MORE milk usually and b) it's in a quicker timeframe. It used to take me 30 mins doing one side at a time, and now I can usually be done in about 12 mins and actually get more. You can buy online pretty cheap usually - look at SoulMothers or NursingAngel dot com (I think I went with SoulMothers). So saying, I will also be trying to BF with my next - I think exclusive expressing is something to do as a second choice rather than first choice - definitely easier if you can get that BM straight into bubs, so give yourself all the support/help you can find. I think my MIL also found it hard to understand (she never succeeded BF'ing) so kept saying "the bottle is easier" which I think she meant to remove pressure from me, but I just found it discouraging. The culture we're in has such a huge impact, but remember all those people out there who are BF''ing even if we can't see them... sometimes it's easy to feel very alone trying to do it.
Eej - re the easy expressions bra - does that work if you're massaging? Since DS's 12 week growth spurt, I've tended to massage the breast as I pump, and I definitely drain better & get more out. Can you still do that with the bra? I've wondered about them, but hadn't shelled out for one... but it sounds like it's great so love to hear more about it.
Oh and my multi-tasking double-pumping best effort so far... I managed to double pump, drink a cup of tea, answer a phone call and rock DS in his stroller with my foot... hehehe. The mantra in our household as I grab my pumping stuff is "pump it hottie!".
Sorry a little late in replying! Did just reply to your other thread too. Yes you can still massage with the pumping bra. It has been a godsend.
I pump more than the medlea bottle hold so I just empty it into a medela bag or avent container then keep pumping!
It takes coordination doesn't it! That's a lot to do all at once.
Lol "pump it hottie" My DH sings to me "pump pump the cans" to the tune of pump pump the jam!
Thanks Eej, I'm going to check out that bra! I nearly dropped a fairly full bottle the other day mid-pump. I think my heart nearly stopped from the shock!
Incidentally, I got some "Happy Baby" bottles (240ml) from Big W (at the supermarket too I think) which fit perfectly with the Medela Pump in Style. They're just taller, so a bit harder to balance on my knees when I'm trying to multi-task
and lol I love your pumping song!
Just curious, do most of you have much in reserve at any one time? Or are you only just keeping up? I'm on a mission to get some reserves, but find it very difficult to do so - sometimes I think I have plenty, but all it takes is a super hungry day and my reserves plummet.
^ For the first couple of weeks I was just barely getting anything out, DD was drinking mostly formula with whatever breast milk I had mixed in... then from about three weeks onwards I was having to store most in the freezer because I had two or three bottles on standby in the fridge (midwives told me it would keep for 48 hours), and I had a lot more I knew wasn't going to be used in time so I was just popping it in zip-lock bags and throwing it in the freezer.
I have exactly 10 125-150ml lots in the freezer which i'm very proud of! It's not much but I feel much better knowing it's there. I usually always have 2 bottles in the fridge as I hate getting behind and playing catch up. I have only stopped getting up during the night this week but Olive has been sleeping through since before xmas so it's nice to finally make the most of that.
Wow Olive's Mummy that's great reserves! Well I've been pumping heaps cos I had to have day surgery on Tues, and was worried that I wouldn't have enough to cover it... and my hard work paid off and in the end I was only out of action for 7 hours which wasn't too bad. I'm sitting on about 1300mls which is the most I've ever had. I've got 600ml in the freezer and hope to keep adding to that so I get a nice little stockpile.
Gothmum - sounds like you've got a great amount too. I also had to supplement with formula, but it went a bit longer - he didn't go onto EBM only till December (so he was about 8-9 weeks).
I also bought the Easy Expressions bustiere that Eej recommended - I can't wait to get it (thanks for the useful info Eej), I reckon it's gonna be great.
^ Thanks, I really wish I had stuck it out a big longer because I can now see I really missed out on the full benefits - I gave up at 6 weeks and put DD on full formula but now I know from speaking to other mums that if I had just kept it up a little while longer I probably wouldn't have had to do that!!
But, DD2 is on her way so I am definitely going to make a bigger effort this time around, I'm planning on giving Bfing another go but if it doesn't work out, I will really, really do my best to stick with EBFing as long as humanly possible!!
I'm really happy with the gov't's announcement for these tax bonuses etc, I've already earmarked some of the money we should be getting for things like a better pump, some new bottles etc, things that I want to have before DD2 arrives so I can't really wait for the Baby Bonus instalments.
Thanks Belfie, glad to hear you made it through the surgery.
This is my second time up tonight, Olive is eating me out of house and home! I don't think people realise how tough exclusive expressing is until they have experienced it.
I was wondering if any of you have gone back to work while expressing full time? I'm going back to work p/t in April. Olive will be 5.5mths so almost starting solids but i'm thinking I may have to indroduce a bottle of formula to save my sanity. If anyone has experienced this please let me know.
I suppose the other thing for me is that I want to play with my baby when I can, not be expressing all the time. How do you balance this?
Gothmum - oh I'm sorry, I hadn't realised that you weren't expressing now (blame my baby brain). I think it's so hard in the early weeks to sort out what you want to do and cope with the sleep deprivation. I definitely agree that having a good pump & bottles would stand you in good stead, and hopefully you'll be able to BF and not even need them!
Olive's Mummy - I know what you mean regarding playing and expressing. I was talking to someone else recently who has expressed through till 8 months, and told me that it did get much easier in terms of not taking much time. I was pretty excited, I can't wait! Do you double pump or single pump? I double pump and it does make it pretty time efficient. If I'm not trying to play catch-up, then I just pump for about 10 mins after I've put DS down - so we have feed, play, sleep... and then i'm usually not trying to pump when he's playing. Occasionally I have no choice so put him in the rocker at my feet with toys, and pump.. then I can still talk to him, eye contact, etc. Re work, I'm not due back p/t until August thank goodness - I don't know what i'll do at that stage TBH. Good luck with the night pumps, that's hard work! do you take fenugreek or anything to help? I find Fenugreek really seems to help me, and I'm just about to try some "nursing tea" as well - it looked like it had yummy ingredients, and I figure it won't hurt.
Olives Mummy- I'm not sure about going back to work either. I'm due back in june so we'll see what happens then. I pump now when Emily is asleep, it was getting too hard when she was awake. i felt the same and didn't like not spending the time with her.
Belfie- I hope you like the bra! I bought some of the happy baby bottles and they are good thanks! They get a bit heavier cause they get so much fuller so you might need to keep a hand on them towrads then end of your pumping with the bra.
I tend to be 2-3 days ahead with my pumping and have a couple of litres in the freezer. I don't really get any extra these days.
Goth Mum- a good pump is a great investment if you are going to pump full time. You never know tho you might be able to BF this bub no dramas :-)
Life Subscriber
) - I tried buying a tommee tippee one the other day but it doesn't screw in properly.
do you take fenugreek or anything to help? I find Fenugreek really seems to help me, and I'm just about to try some "nursing tea" as well - it looked like it had yummy ingredients, and I figure it won't hurt.
Bookmarks