Exclusive Expressers

[teesmum]

wow, you're online now too - now i feel less alone with all this thanks for responding!!

hmm.... look at that subject line! can you tell i'm tired!

[Lisa B]

It's nice to know that others are in a similar situation. Sometimes EEing can be lonely sometimes just because it's hard to find people who understand what you are going through or accepting your chosen feeding method, other times just 'cos you are on the pump alone and sometimes sent to another room because you have guests (nothing worse than that feeling of isolation for me in my own home). It's nice to touch base in here and find people who understand on the practical and emotional levels.

Anyhow, can't believe how quick it's gone tonight whilst surfing BB. Must go clean up and go back to bed. Hope your session goes quick!!

[Takingthelongway]

The middle of the night pumps are the killer ones for me too. Ones I've fed DS and he is back to sleep I just want to curl up and sleep too. To get enough milk I need to pump for 30 mins...that's a lot of extra sleep I could be getting! But while I'm up anyway I may as well pump.

Just wondering how anyone manages to have a life while EEing. I feel my existence revolves around being home (or somewhere else private) to pump every 3-4 hours! This is the main reason I don't think I will make it past 4 months pumping full time. (plan to go part time, maybe 4-5 pumps per day and make up the remainder with formula)

My best friends bub is due in Jan and with her last bub she had a MASSIVE supply (can get 2 liters a day easily). She has offered to express a couple of times a day for my DS! How beautiful! So I may be able to greatly limit the amount of formula he gets by using her "donor" milk. (I know she is healthy as she was tested prior to donating to a milk bank with her 1st bub) has anyone else used donor milk? Is there anything other than knowing she is disease free I need to consider? (she doesn't drink excessively/do drugs or anything obviously).

[teesmum]

hi Takingthelongway,

i am finding all pumps hard at the mo. dd isnt sleeping great and i've a 3.5yo ds as well so its a juggling act.

how old is your bub? i am lucky i am on 5 pumps a day & getting ~1L which is enough for dd. as for going out... i try to pump at ~9am and then i can wait till 2 or 3pm if i need to. i have also pumped at playgroup & mum's group, as getting out is imp to me.

your friends offer is awesome. how much do you get now? how many pumps? do you think you could meet your little ones needs b/w the two of you? also, what pump do you have? just wondering if a better pump might help you get more? do you massage your breasts as you pump? that always helps me get a lot more. I'm not sure what else you would need to check for... but if she has donated to the milk bank, i would assume she was safe?

i am going to be in here a lot more! i was posting in the aba ee thread, but it was very quiet, so glad to see this one is active.

[teesmum]

you guys are going to get sick of me!

how does everyone handle their EBM? to date, i have been pumping it and leaving it at room temp. i generally have two or three bottles pumped ready to go (used to be more but her feeds have settled down a bit and are larger).

but now that weather is warming up, i'm having to start cooling it down and then warming it up again - such a pain.

does your little one take a predictable amount each feed? i never know whether dd will take 70 mls or 130mls - she even took 260mls in the middle of the night last week. I find it so frustrating that i often have to stop her to refill the bottle half way thru a feed. I wish i could screw the bottom of the bottle and fill it up while she was still feeding!

[Kmn]

Experiment a bit - your LO might not care if the milk is cold.
Almost no baby takes a predictable amount each feed - not BF, FF or EE-ed. That is totally normal.

[Fleur]

Just wondering how anyone manages to have a life while EEing. I feel my existence revolves around being home (or somewhere else private) to pump every 3-4 hours! This is the main reason I don't think I will make it past 4 months pumping full time. (plan to go part time, maybe 4-5 pumps per day and make up the remainder with formula)

The good news is, it gets easier & easier. Once you get a bit further on & can start dropping pumps, it makes life so much easier.

I look back now, when at the beginning I was expressing every 4 hours, we were doing outings, shopping trips etc in stages. We would go to one place, then go home to express, then go out again... I look back and wonder how we ever stuck it out!
But after the four month mark it all got easier, that was around about when I started stretching it out a bit further.

What a beautiful offer for your friend to make

how does everyone handle their EBM? to date, i have been pumping it and leaving it at room temp. i generally have two or three bottles pumped ready to go (used to be more but her feeds have settled down a bit and are larger).

but now that weather is warming up, i'm having to start cooling it down and then warming it up again - such a pain.

does your little one take a predictable amount each feed? i never know whether dd will take 70 mls or 130mls - she even took 260mls in the middle of the night last week. I find it so frustrating that i often have to stop her to refill the bottle half way thru a feed. I wish i could screw the bottom of the bottle and fill it up while she was still feeding!

handling EBM - I used to do the same, leaving it at room temp - even through summer - although I would keep it in a bottle cooler or a chiller bag sometimes, especially if we were going on long car trips. It's so convenient having it ready to go, especially overnight, and it meant that we did a kind of demand-style feeding, because there was always milk there ready to go, if she wanted it, she had it.

And yep, she would take different amounts each time. A bit frustrating because it makes it harder to plan for, but I found that if I had a couple of bottles ready to go she would drink roughly the same amount between pumps, just not in the same amounts each time, ITMS. If we had any left over at the next pump & she hadn't drunk from that bottle it went into the freezer.

[ezymay]

Hi all, its been a long time since I've been in this thread or BB for that matter. It's good to see this thread is still going! Things didn't work out again on the Bfing front with DS so I've been EEing agin for him. Nearly 6 months! Its gone so fast. He eats a lot more then DD did and wakes during the night for feeds which Em didn't do after 8 weeks. Becuase of this I'm pumping during the night. I generally get what I need for him with 3 or 4 pumping sessions a day. I have the Medela Freestyle and LOVE it!!! Its so portable. Much easier than the Pump in Style I had with DD. I've had mastitis a few times (again not something I had with DD) it is the DEVIL!!!
I've just started on some motillium as my supply dropped when I started going to the gym and my water intake was down and then I got gastro so it put a big dent in my supply, its coming back up now. I certainly don't have the freezer stash I had with Dd either!
It was a tough choice coming back to EEing, I was devo that BFing didn't work out again but I was under the pump (no pun inteneded lol) to get the feeding issues sorted while DH was home on leave. (He is in the Army and lives in VIC whilst I live myself with DD and DS in Syd. ) Pumping was what I knew and I elt confident that I could do manage it and the two kids so decided to go with it and it has all worked out for the best.
I haven't put an end date on it yet, I think I'll know. We will have to see.
Its awesome there are new EEers being supported by previous ones. we need to take care of each other!!

[Takingthelongway]

Hi Teesmum

DS is 3 months old. I'm using a medela freestyle and it's awesome, haven't tried massaging though so will give that a go. I express 6-7 times a day and get about 900ml. I'm on motillium but trying to slowly wean off it. I've been taking it since day 6 when I had no milk. I'm down to 10mg twice a day now.

Yes it is an awesome offer, she is an awesome person I think between the two of us we should have enough milk for DS, depending on how much my supply drops when I drop a pumping session or two.

I keep my milk at room temp too. The most DS drinks at a time is 150ml so I keep that much out of the fridge. What ever he doesn't drink he gets next feed, as long as it's not out of the fridge for more than 8 hours. Has been fine so far (my lactation consultant said this was ok too).

Ezymay I'm so sorry to hear breast feeding didn't work out for you second time around either. That must be extremely upsetting. I'm already pinning my hopes on getting bit right "next time". It is great that you experienced expressers are here to support us newbies!! Makes a difference knowing there are others out there!!

Fleur, I've been told it gets easier. At the moment though I just can't see how! If it does get easier I may well just keep going. I'd love him to get as much breast milky goodness as possible.

[Lisa B]

Fleur, Kmn & Surprised- it is so nice that women who've been there before come in and offer their advice. It is so helpful and inspirational. So a huge thank you.

Takingthelongway - what an awesome offer from your friend. I could only set small goals as well. In terms of having a a life you do kind of fall into a pattern of knowing how long you can be away from ie: 4 hours but I think you can begin to stretch it out a bit as you keep going. I find having the freestyle amazing because it does mean that I can be portable. I have pumped in a shopping centre parents room, in the car, believe it or not whilst driving (with a big shirt over me, I had to twice when I had back to back meetings at work and I had to drive from one location to the next). When going to a friends house I sometimes have it packed up in the boot JIC. If I"m going somewhere with DP I will often pump as a passenger. Oh, one little thing I did to make things easier is that I would sometimes do a pump just before I go somewhere even if it is only 2 hours since my last pump. There are times when it can be an inconvenience for example I will leave mother's group first usually to go home and pump. I haven't been game enough to pull the pump out whilst there.

Teesmum - I find just having one child makes EE a juggling act, so you are certainly doing brilliantly. 5 pumps to get 1L is fantastic. I had some supply issues so I've had to be careful about the number of pumps I do and am taking motilium. I'm getting about 900-1L on 7 pumps a day. Today I'm dropping to 6 so we'll see how that goes. in relation to your other questions:
- my son take varying amounts each feed anything from 30mls (after solids) to 130mls. yep refilling is a bit painful
- I put my EBM in the fridge and refill the bottle with freshly pumped milk, I pour about 120mls into a bottle to warm for each feed. When i go out I sometimes warm ahead and put in the bottle bag or take cold and warm where I'm going. I'm also reusing once, sometimes, milk if it isn't finished. I got into this habit when my supply was quite down. I know it's not ideal but I find it hard to throw it out if there is a large amount not drunk.

Ezmay - well done on getting to the 6 month point, almost. Really sorry that BF didn't work out again. I can see that it would be so disappointing. You must have a wealth of experience with EE having been there before. I had to stop going to the gym as I had supply issues. It probably wasn't the gym that caused it but I read that exercise can impact so I stopped just in case. Motilium gave me a lot of breathing space and has allowed me to pump at a sane level. I had to do about 10 pumps a day (at one point) just to make the minimum amount to feed DS.

Well today I'm starting to do 6 pumps a day. I've moved the overnight pump to 4am and will now do 4am, 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 7/7.30 and 10pm. I'm not necessarily on time so it will be the first time that I sometimes go just over 4 hours during the day

[Lisa B]

Okay my new pumping schedule has only worked for one day so far....grrr. I woke up this morning at 3am with a really hard bb so thought i would just pump then (now). I have a history of blocked ducts which can take up to a day to clear so I listen to my body to prevent any problems. So I'm on a 7 pump day today. If this happens tomorrow I guess I will just have to express enough for comfort (although sometimes when I get like this comfort means a 20 minute express) at 3am and get up at 4am to do the rest. What a pain, I really don't want to be up more than once.

[Astrolady]

New thread is found here