Exclusive Expressers #2

[Astrolady]

Continuing on from here

[teesmum]

how's everyone going?

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).

just to clarify - if your little one doesn't finish a bottle, you reoffer it at the next feed if total time out of fridge is less than 8 hours? That would make life a bit easier, i tend to discard leftovers - well, i sometimes keep them for an hour or so but otherwise just chuck it. so good to know ok to keep it for longer.

my little miss is a little piggy-wiggy. She seems to be taking at least 1000ml/day, up to around 1200ml. driving me crazy and making me spend more time with my pump than i really want to lol. new found respect for those of you who have pumped feed by feed all along. till now, i always made heaps more than she made. now i struggle to get ahead. but at least she is feeding well

my dd has a huge sleep association with the bottle. thinking life would be easier if she develped a sleep assoc. with something else as well. but it is SO nice to have a baby that goes to sleep easily (ds, fully breastfeed, was not a great sleeper!). but she is due to have surgery for her cleft lip in a couple of months and i worry that she will be too sore to comfort feed.... guess i should ask others who have had kids go thru the surgery.

[Lisa B]

Hey there,

I did write a long post but then I lost it.

Wow your DD is drinking a lot. Maybe she is going through a growth spurt. My DS only drank that much a handful of times. Mostly he drank about 800mls. I hope the surgery goes well and that you can get BF established.

I'm down to 5 pumps from 8 (or 10 when I had low supply pre-motilium) so it feels a breeze now in comparsion. The drop in pumps hasn't meant too much of a drop in supply which I have been surprised about. I've probably lost about 100mls all up. I've decided to keep my middle of the night pump (4am) for now anyway. I'm enjoying the freedom during my waking hours, at the expense of a good night sleep.

I've always found occuping DS a challenge when expressing as he is so active and now with crawling is into mischief. I've taken to expressing during the day when he is either asleep or eating. I just leave him in his chair for an extra 10 minutes whilst I finish the pump.

DS is on 3 meals a day now and taking between 450-550mls plus I put a generous amount of BM on his cereal in the morning. I'm still making too much milk, perhaps because I"m on motilium. I make about 300mls more than I need. I will see if it settles down as I have only been down to 5 pumps for the last 5 days. If not I'm not sure what to do. I might have to reduce the 20mins to 15min for each session. Surely 4 pumps a day would have too much affect on my supply?? I don't want to stop the motilium because I know my supply is barely adequate without it.

I've almost reached my goal of 9 months. We are at 7.5 months right now. I can't believe I have gotten this far. I can reiterate what others have told me, it does get easier the other side of 6 months. The freedom of 5 pumps (4 during waking hours) is amazing. I can actually go places without too much clock watching

[Kmn]

Lisa - can you just drop the motilium a bit - from memory they make both 10mg and 20 mg tablets, so you could take it down very slowly until you got to that happy place where supply is a bit more than demand.

You can also reinstate a pump if you find your supply has dropped too far after dropping one - it will take a day or two to work, but it will work.

[Lisa B]

Kmn - is motilium dose related? I've been worried about dropping motilium because I know my supply would be barely there on 5 pumps. I barely had enough on 10 pumps

[Kmn]

You can have variable motilium doses - usually people "drop" motilium very slowly (10 mg per day per week or two), and see what happens - if it drops too far then you can go back to the higher dose.
How much are you actually taking?

[Lisa B]

Hi Kmn, I'm taking 8 tablets a day. I was initially on 3 but that didn't work so the GP bumped me up

[Kmn]

That is at the higher end of what others around here have reported taking, so you have some wriggle room. Maybe talk to your GP about slowly reducing it - you have the "advantage" that you know how much milk you are making, so you can always bump the dose back up if your supply drops too much.
You also need to remember that over the next few months your DSs demand may also decrease quite a bit as he eats more too.

[Lisa B]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd pop in and ask how you were all doing.

We are hitting the 8th month. My supply has ended up see-sawing on 5 pumps. It must be about 3 or so weeks now on 5 pumps. I'm ranging from high 700mls thru to about 950mls. I think I'm averaging at about low-mid 800mls. It's a bit unsettling on the low volume days. I'm really, really enjoying the freedom of 5 pumps so I'm hoping my volume doesn't drop below about 700mls. I feel like it's very manageable with my lifestyle and I no longer feel chained to the pump. I can go out and almost forget about my pumping schedule. I'm not sure that I want to go back to 6 pumps, but I'm also not sure I want to stop EE yet. Hopefully I won't have to face this dilemma.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[teesmum]

hey lisa, thanks for the update. sounds like even on your low volume days you are making more than enough to meet his needs? it is off-putting though when your supply fluctuates. glad to hear you are enjoying the freedom of five pumps. i agree it is worth doing the overnight pump in lieu of one during the day. hard to wake up but easier than doing it when bub is awake.

my supply is up and down a bit too. some days i've had to do 7 pumps to get enough. not sure why. i'm thinking it could be a result of not drinking enough/too much stress etc the day before. do you think that could be affecting you too Lisa? I'm still aiming for around 1200ml a day for my little miss gobble guts. i need to weigh her i think she would've gone up the percentiles a bit I'm happy for her to take in lots, better for her to be a bit chubby - her surgery is 5 weeks away now - so fat reserves are good! that will be my next challenge - keeping my supply up, fitting in the pumps, while she is in hospital. expected to be in for 2 nights, though it could be longer if she doesn't recover quickly. I think I will take in a litre or so of frozen ebm so the pressure isn't there to get the volumes. altho of course she may not take much either. hard to know what to do!

alright, better get on wtih my day

[Kmn]

Lisa - you should be in really good shape, because milk needs actually decrease over the next few months as more food gets eaten.
Teesmum - all the best for the surgery.

[Lisa B]

Teesmum - sounds like you little one is in great shape for the surgery. The hospital might have it's own breast pumps and areas for lactation so you might be able to do what you need to do at the hospital. great work building up a little stash to take the pressure off. Wow, I never got 1200mls and I'm on motilium!! You must have a great stash in your freezer. Not drinking enough could be a factor for me, it was quite warm here yesterday and perhaps I didn't drink enough. I try and take heart that I have some good days and some bad but make enough to cover the feeds and a little extra, or a lot extra depending on the day.

Kmn - yes, I try not to worry too much about the low days because I know things will taper off even further as food takes over. I know that even though my supply can be up and down there really isn't too much point increasing pumps if I can help it as I don't want to trigger a supply increase at this point.

[teesmum]

how is everyone going??

i just reread this thread, and i have to say, found relief in reading Lisa that your little one is down to taking around 500ml at 7 months. I am struggling a lot at the moment. Makes me realise how easy i had it in the beginning, making soo much more than she needed. Now I am constantly pumping for the next feed, an have been dipping into the freezer stash a lot. My supply hasn't really dropped, altho I guess there is huge variation as to how much I get out of the first two or three pumps in the day (i pump whenever overnight - b/w say 1am an 4am, first thing in the morning - say 6 or 7 am and then again a couple of hours later). One day ihad 570 ml from two pumps, other ays it takes me four pumps to get that much. If i don't get a lot at the start fo the day the rest of the day i am just playing catch ups

monday i got 1265ml over five pumps. the next day i needed 7 to get that much. sigh. the unpredictability scares me. Especially on the days i go out. i'm not confident i will get enough when i pump out anymore.

ho hum. sorry. just musing over it all really. my little guzzle guts still seems to be going thru over a litre a day. i'm certainly not putting any into the freezer...

on a brighter note... nearly at our first major milestone - we are 2.5 weeks from her first surgery. Nearly there...


what has everyone else's experience been with milk intake once on solids? i'm of the belief "food is for fun until they are one" so i'm not really expecting milk intake to drop off. but... it would be nice if it did.

lisa - are you still going ok with the five pumps?

[Lisa B]

Hey Teesmum,

Great news that the surgery is almost upon you guys. I can't believe you much you little bub is drinking, very impressive!! My DS on average before solids had about 800mls. I would have liked him to take more because his weight gain has never been fantastic.

On 5 pumps my supply has dropped a tiny bit more recently so I'm averaging at about 800mls and that's on motilium. On a big day my DS takes about 600mls including what I put on his breakfast cereal and we have many days now where he only takes about 400-450mls. Again I wish he would take more due to low weight gain. My DS is now on the 10 percentile for weight gain only which worries me constantly.

The dietician I saw for my DS told me that milk intake drops to about 700mls for one solid meal, 600mls for two, and 500mls for three. I am giving him as big a solid meal as he will take on the advice from the professionals...unfortunately food isn't fun here, I thought it was supposed to be but people are worried about his weight gain and intake.

I know what you mean about the unpredictability been scary. I've always been really nervous about dropping pumps and other times just seeing less milk in the bottles. I can't remember how long you have been EE for. I had a big supply dip at about 9 weeks and there was nothing I could do to increase it and eventually went onto motilium. Once on motilium I kept up about 8 pumps a day to try and keep my supply up until about 6 months I think (my memory is a bit hazy now). Each pump I 've dropped has led to a small decrease. If increasing your pumps doesn't help with your supply remember there is always motilium and you would probably be a good candidate for it as it works best when you have already had an adequate supply but it has dropped. I had a prescription for motilium a few weeks before I had it filled and used it as a bit of a security blanket. Anyhow, I know i tend to sway towards medical intervention quicker than some people.

I'm almost at 9 months. I can't believe that I've come this far. It does get easier this side of 6 months. I need to make some decisions soon if I will continue past 9 months and then reduce my pumps to 4 (come what may with my supply) to begin to wind back a bit more or make a decision to stop. I have quite a bit of travelling to do on my own with DS through December and it will mean pumping whilst driving a manual car. It will be simpler to do it this way then having to explain to people why I need to disappear for 20 minutes when I get to my destination. I have expressed whilst driving an auto a few times when caught in a tough spot at work but not the manual.

Anyhow must go back to bed for a little more sleep before my early bird wakes up.

[teesmum]

Hey Lisa, sorry you are worried about your DS's intake an weight gain in T's early days she was being weighed weekly, struggling to gain. it was so stressful and i am very thankful that she is putting on weight so well now - even if it oes mean i spend more time with the pump than i would like. I can't imagine still having that stress. So, my thoughts are with you. Is there any known issue or is he just not taking enough?

well done on approaching 9 months. it is a strange thing this pumping. means the whole weanign thing is up to us. have you made any decisions on what to do? As for pumping while driving - I cannot imagine doing that! i struggle to reach the steering wheel as is without having to work aroun the bottles. Can you not stop somewhere on the way?

QUESTION:
those of you who have the medela freestyle - do you notice a loss of suction if you go from single to ouble pumping? i normally single pump but am trying to start ouble pumping more.... but the suction really decreased...

and... now i need to go pump lol. just for something ifferent.

[Lisa B]

Teesmum - my DS poor weight gain might be genetic, it could be coeliacs as he holds the gene and I'm waiting on some test results, or I'm not sure really. We see a paediatrician and I'm going to push for some more answers on Tuesday as at this rate he will probably be off the chart by 12 months. I'm a bit lazy really and don't really want to stop if I can help it when i have to do country driving, and also my DS may get a bit cranky pants. I will have to pull over definitely to set up and pack up of course. It's actually not to bad pumping and driving in an automatic as long as the seat is pulled right in and the back of the seat is very forward. I got the idea from some US websites and one day when I was at work I had the confidence to give it a go and I was stuck out on the road with a choice of either pulling over and running late for a meeting or giving driving and expressing a go.

In terms of single and double on the Freestyle, I reckon I notice a bit of a difference in the suction. The freestyle suction worried me when i moved from the Symphony to the Freestyle but I found I still got the same amount of milk. Are you finding you get the same amount of milk even the suction is different? You must be very patient to go so long with single pumping.

[Lisa B]

okay ladies, a lighter moment of EE...

I had a dream last night that I turned up to a work meeting. I was about to sit down and someone said 'oh my god Lisa, cover up'. I looked down and there I was double pumping with all my flesh exposed. i quickly grabbed at my jacket and pulled it across.

I guess pumping has well and truly become apart of my lifestyle!

[Lisa B]

I'm hitting the 10 month mark now. I am definitely finishing up at the end of the month as I have enough freezer supplies to get me through to 12 months.

It's very quiet in here. Hope everyone is doing okay.