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Pumpers unite!

Lanie- When it comes down to it, I know you are right! But it is so hard to give up on something that has taken so much work and effort. Somehow, the harder it has been, the harder it is to stop because you've invested so much. I think that I am going to pick a date and say if it is not better by X day, it is time to move on and devote my life to something else :cheeky: At this point, it feels like I spend half of my day applying various creams and ointments, taking different supplements, and boiling all of my clothes to kill the yeast. It has to end at some point! I'll do some thinking and just pick a date and that will be it. Formula is obviously not poison, but it can be so tough to get out of the "I must do what is absolutely best for my baby no matter the cost mentality."
 
Icekid- I forget if you said that you already tried it, but have you used gentian violent? I had a month-long nasty case of thrush that simply would not go away, through several courses of different meds and all sorts of creams. The only thing that worked for me was using gentian violet. I also had a vaginal yeast infection during the same time, which was good times, good times.
 
Oh I completely understand! And it's easy for me to say to give it up all together bc I haven't seen what you have put up with to this point already. It's like a bad relationship you've been in for awhile and you've invested so much, so you keep thinking "let me just try one more thing"! I think your idea of setting a date is a fabulous idea. I can't believe nothing is working...are they/you absolutely sure it is a yeast infection? And you haven't been able to freeze anything due to the infection, right? That sucks, just in the whole pain aspect of it, much less the hassle of boiling your clothes. good god woman! You are a saint!
 
Icekid, I hope something works out for you. I understand not wanting to *quit* - us girls like to do things on our own terms and not because we have to! All I can tell you is the few times I had issues - mastitis, then another clogged duct, both of which resulted in a poor latch for a period - I would tell myself if it didn't get better in x amount of days, I would consider stopping. Each time I set such a deadline, things looked up. I hope the same happens for you.

Oh, and during those times when nursing hurt, the nipple shield did help.
 
Lanie, what is your book? Is it written by an IBCLC? Breastmilk changes over time to meet the needs of the baby, formula can't. So formula must be increased since it has a constant caloric count. You will notice when looking at bags of frozen bm, or the milk in the bottle in the fridge that the fat content varies tremendously from week to week. Your question about daycare; mine keeps his refrigerated. When we were still trying to get him to take a bottle they put it back in the fridge once he was done or had totally refused. I sent him in with three 3oz bottles for 5 hrs. The Working Mom book I linked to earlier suggested sending several small bottles rather than one large one. Now that I send a bottle to be poured over his baked veggies and oatmeal, they just keep it in the fridge. I pump at work, drop that milk off at daycare when i pick him up for his next day's meals and I then dump whatever is left from that day.

Icekid, setting a date sounds very sane. What you are dealing with is not normal and isn't like you aren't fighting like hell to get this to work. I can't even imagine and I had mastitis twice. Through the hard parts I just promised myself I would do it for one more week and then call it quits. On all but one occasion the situation had sorted itself out and in that scenario I gave it 4 more days in honor of our four days of labor, and in that time we were sorted out. I hope you get healthy and kick this so that you can enjoy the easy months of breastfeeding.
 
Swimmer--thanks for the reply. My book is called Baby 411, and it's a book for everything, not just feeding. But the chapter on "liquids" is written by a certified lac consultant, but prob not whatever all of your initials mean.

Ok one more question then I'll stop. I've been freezing milk since it came in and I'm writing the date on the bags. When he goes to daycare at 11wks, my intent was to start unfreezing my stash, starting from oldest, and sending that To daycare. If that newborn milk isn't as "fatty" as he would get normally, is that a bad idea? Is that like eating a juicy steak and French fries and then all of the sudden eating celery?
 
LS- Did you only need one course of gentian violet? I just finished 7 days (and doing other things at the same time, as well.) It made an obvious difference the second day, and then the pain came back on the third day. I may just have some awful resistant strain from working in the hospital.

swimmer- I am certainly hoping to set me end date and have this infection GONE by then. Hopefully that strategy will work out for me as well as it did for you. Breast feeding has become such an emotional issue for me!

pupp- Thanks for the good thoughts. I hope it will work out too! Hmm, I never tried a nipple shield yet. Might be worth a try!

Lanie- Yeah, I am pretty darn sure that it is a yeast infection. Jumper had some symptoms of it (which have cleared up) and I even have a rash on my nipples that looks like candida. And yeah, no freezing. Lately the pain has been bad enough that I have not been pumping at all! And you cannot freeze anything with an active infection, so..... meh. We'll see. I am trying to stay positive!

So the official end date will be January 31. At that point Jumper will have had 2 whole months of breast milk, which is something that I can feel good about. And it gives me a couple more weeks to keep at it. After that, it will seem pretty certain that this thing just is not going to go away as long as we continue breast feeding. Sigh. Send me breast milk dust, please :bigsmile:
 
Oh icekid, that sounds awful! I agree with Laine, you're a saint!! I think having a set date is a good idea. I did something similar the last time I got mastitis, I told myself if I get it one more time I'm done. Whether that's true or not I guess I'll see (though hopefully it won't come to that). If you stop BFing will the thrush clear up on it's own or would you stop just because of the pain? Why can't you freeze milk with an infection? Is that true for mastitis too (because I froze a ton when I had it both times...)

AFM - Pumping and being the only one home all day with LO has turned into quite a challenge. He seems to always wake up or be on the verge of waking up right at my scheduled pump time. Then I have to decide if I'm going to start pumping and chance that he's not going to wake up or try to wait until he goes to sleep and hope it's not too long after I'm supposed to pump. I had to cut my morning pump short by 5 minutes today and I started leaking this afternoon because of it. I hope this doesn't lead to bad things!! On a positive note, I'm down to pumping 6 times a day. Yahoo! What a difference that one pump makes. I'd like to be down to 3 or 4 pumps a day by the end of April because I'm going to be traveling for work and I think it will be easier if I'm not pumping as much.

Logan/drk, how long did it take you ladies to transition to just a few pumps a day? Did you do it slowly over a few weeks? Just curious what your plan of attack was!!
 
Icekid- I don't remember how long I used the GV for, but I'm pretty sure I did 2 courses. Good luck. I remember it was excruciatingly painful. I ended up freezing my milk b/c it's up in the air whether you can use the frozen yeasty milk and I figured I would freeze it and make up my mind later. Here's what Kellymom says:

"Milk frozen during thrush treatment can be given to baby without a problem while you are still being treating for thrush.

Many sources recommend that mothers do not freeze expressed milk for later use when they are being treated for thrush. We do know that freezing deactivates yeast, but does not kill it (Rosa 1990), so there is a theoretical risk that milk expressed during a thrush outbreak could reinfect baby at a later date. However, there have been no studies that tell us whether or not this defrosted milk is really a problem."

I ended up throwing mine away several months later b/c the thought grossed me out and I had plenty of frozen.

Kunzite, I remember those days of pumping on my 5 month maternity leave! Back then, I wasn't on a strict time schedule but more worried about getting in the requisite amount of pumps per day. I planned my 4 of my pumps when LO was sleeping- 12am, 5am, 6pm at the dinner table, and 9pm. Other than that, I pumped whenever DS napped, so that meant I never got to follow the advice of sleeping when DS slept. I pumped when DS slept and that was so tiring.

I don't remember my exactly schedule of transitioning pumps earlier on but when I went back to work in mid-Sept, I transitioned to 4x/day 1 week beforehand. I stayed at 4x just up until a few weeks ago. I've also reduced the amount of time from 30 mins to 25 and now to 20 mins. I'm doing it slowly b/c I'm prone to clogged ducts. I'm having a hard time figuring out when to transition to 2 pumps b/c of the logistics of not having lactation room available from 12-1pm at work and I assume I should space out those pumps 12 hours. As of now, I get up at 4.30 to pump before work and I have to be in the shower at 5 and out the door at 5.50am. I also leave work at 4.15pm and don't get back home until 5.45pm. The lactation room doesn't open until 8am so I guess I could do an 8.30am pump and an 8pm pump.

Btw, dropping to 3x/day and 20 mins, I've seen a reduction in supply. I was getting about 30 oz when I initially went to 3 sessions and now I think I'm getting about 24-26oz.
 
what a great, supportive thread!

i pump about 95% of the time since i've gone back to work (2.5 mos)

BF has been a challenge from the get-go. my supply was/is pathetic, and N has never been the most effective nurser. he's very leisurely, easily distracted and has now bitten me a couple of times (ouch).

i know that baby is supposed to be more effective at getting the milk out than the pump- well, not my kid! he gets frustrated by the lack of supply and speed and just loses interest.

about 3 weeks into going back to work, i decided to skip nursing him in the morning (i would only do one side anyway as it took too long to do both) and we were both happier. Then the bedtime nursing session eventually also went away and the one lone nursing session was right when we got home from work/DC. He began solids a month ago, and now that nursing session has been replaced by a puree. At the same time, we revised his feeding schedule and upped his oz per bottle to 6ozs. He takes in 30ozs/day which equals out to 5 bottles: one in the morning, 3 at DC and one at night.

I know this sounds bad, but there just isn't "time" to properly BF feed him. and it's not like the boob turns him off, he just prefers a bottle. so now i'm pumping about 100% most days, but will BF him once/twice a day on the weekends. i miss nursing him, but figure he's still getting the benefits of my BM due to the pump and via a bottle.

on a good day, 3 of the 5 bottles are my BM. But then every 3rd day or so it's the other way around- 3 of the 5 bottles are formula. it all depends on my output. i pump 7x/day and get about 2ozs each time.

my goal is to BF until he's 10 months old, so i've got 3 more months to go. i never thought i would be pumping this much, but if that's what it takes then so be it.
 
Logan - Thanks for the advice on scheduling. I need to get it out of my head that I have to pump on time and go with the flow more!! That's not easy for me to do :) Today I tried just pumping when O was down to sleep but that didn't work either because he's not sleeping consistantly at the moment. Both times I had to stop after 5 minutes and go get him because he woke up crying. I put him in the bouncer and just let him watch me. I think he liked the white noise of the pump so he stayed pretty calm. I don't think that trick is going to last long though. I only pump twice during the day when DH isn't home so you'd think there would be plenty of time, but this kid is unpredictable!!

Charger - Thanks for the PSA on the PIS. I just received mine yesterday (I'm still using the Symphony at the moment). I hope it doesn't have that problem!! It sounds like you're working really hard to get BM for N. Kudos to you!! I sure wish there was an easy way for me to share my freezer stash with you!! :)
 
Sigh.. looks like my yeast pain is jumping from somewhat tolerable back up to excrutiating again. It really should not be like this! The thought of giving him formula is still really hard for me. I have now located a few threads on kellymom about some really resistant infections involving multiple courses of multiple medications, oimtments, etc. Were I going to be a sahm, maybe treatment could go on for months but i will be back at work in one month and this just does not seem compatible with my crazy work schedule. It is so, so frustrating.

I am gearing up for one big last effort, redosing meds, diet, washing bed sheets, clothes daily. And if that does not work, what else can I do?

Ironically, i do own a recalled medela PIS that looses suction and did not realize the problem. It kind of feels like a sign that bfing is not meant to work out for us in the long term.

Anyone know- is there any reason i could not use the same pump with baby #2 a few years down the line? My aunt bought my pump as a very generous shower gift and it feels like such an awful waste of money now. I guess it will be a new one anway, and it should be okay sitting for a few years I would assume.

Charger- congrats on being able to give your little guy bm for so long! And thanks for the pis info. I had no idea!

LS- ah it was so nice to be free of the gv for a couple days. It is so messy! Probably we will do one more course though, as much as i would rather not. Oh well...

Lanie & kunzite- haha, i am not a saint- just stubborn! :bigsmile:
 
Oh icekid--sorry it escalated. That stinks. What stinks even more is you going back to work in a month. But I digress...hope this last round of treatments does the trick. If not, you are one dedicated momma and jumper owes you big time in life! Like bringing in the groceries every day and washing your car weekly!
 
Icekid - sorry to hear you're struggling so much with the pain and yeast. I hope it finally clears up, but if not, having an end date in mind will probably save your sanity.

Kunzite - I pumped 9-10 times a day till 6 months, when I figured if my supply dropped (it's been a struggle the whole time for me), I'd be ok with supplementing or quitting pumping altogether. I just slowly started spacing out my pumps. Went from every 2 hours during the day to every 3, which was much more bearable. I think I was still getting up twice at night. Then I went down to once at night but every three hours during the day. So like 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6:30pm, 9:30pm, 2:30am. Then I went to every 3-4h to cut out 1 more pump, so 7am, 10:30am, 1:30pm, 5pm, 9:30pm, 2:30am. At around 9 months I went to 5 pumps a day to be down more before going on vacation. I've gone back up to 6/day since coming back because I noticed my supply dropping off. I can't say it's helped much though. Now I'm on my 2.5-3 week countdown to weaning. I think I'll cut back faster when I go to wean, because I'll drop my domperidone and finally not get up at night, and won't be waiting a week or two between changes to make sure my supply didn't take too much of a hit.
 
Charger - just wanted to say I so admire you for keeping up the pumping even though you have to supplement. I find my motivation wanes more with every drop in supply. You're doing so great to give your baby any milk at all!
 
Icekid, sorry to hear you're still struggling with the thrush. I remember it felt like straw knives inside my boobs that were really itchy and painful. I hope you get better soon. If you get a replacement pump from Medela, I don't know why you couldn't use it later on. I know a lot of people who've kept their pumps for years and they still work just fine.

I'm having a lot of mental issues over weaning. While rationally I know my supply should be dropping as I wean, I'm finding myself feeling a little desperate as I watch the oz decrease. It seems my body has finally responded to dropping a pump and I'm now getting about 24-26 oz with 3 sessions. DS drinks about 24-28 oz a day so I'm having to dip into my frozen stash. I'd like to keep pumping to supply him with a freshly pumped bottle each morning because he has this odd habit of not wanting to eat when he first gets up, even though he hasn't eaten since 7pm the night before. So, daycare will offer him the freshly pumped bottle when he gets dropped off and if he doesn't want it, it's no big deal- they can put it in the fridge. However, if he's getting frozen only, they'll have to warm it up and if he doesn't want it, which happens a lot, then they can't rewarm it and it's been wasted, and I'll have to send in a lot more than his usual 21 oz to make up for wasted and rejected bottles.

For some reason, this magical (and cursed) one year mark looms large in my head. I think I have guilt over not being able to breastfeed and the fact that I tried for only 5 days before turning to EPing. Even if I wean completely now, he should have enough frozen to reach that one year, but what if he doesn't? I know formula is not a bad thing (I was FF'd and so was my toddler), but for some reason, I still have an aversion to it. I think it's because where I live, people proudly say they exclusively breastfed for a year or more and I feel like I have to keep up with them. Crazy, no?
 
Logan Sapphire|1295555058|2827945 said:
<snip>
However, if he's getting frozen only, they'll have to warm it up and if he doesn't want it, which happens a lot, then they can't rewarm it and it's been wasted, and I'll have to send in a lot more than his usual 21 oz to make up for wasted and rejected bottles.
Click to expand...

LS -- Is is absolutely wrong to reheat thawed breast milk a second time, if within one hour of the first heating? I haven't had to dip into my freezer stash yet, but that is something I guess I wasn't aware of.

You've done an amazing job ... everyone here has!

Icekid -- so sorry the yeast infection isn't clearing up. Have you consulted a few different LCs for a few different opinions? Just a thought ... hugs!
 
Turtle- I always had heard you could only heat breastmilk twice, so defrosting it counts as one heating, and then one more time. But I'd be delighted to be told otherwise! Let me know if you find something to the contrary!
 
Question: I pump every 3 hours during the day and store the milk in the fridge. When Grace is hungry we get a bottle out, "heat" it with hot water on the counter and then feed Grace. If she doesn't finish the entire bottle how long is the milk good for? I'm trying to avoid throwing out any of my milk!
 
I would pump, refrigerate, warm/feed and if there was some left put back in the fridge. Heat and offer for the next feeding if he refuses I dump, if there is some left, I dump.
 
icekid - I hope the new round of treatments are bringing you some relief!!

drk - Thank you so much for your detailed schedule! It helps to hear what has worked for other pumpers. I go back to work in about 3 weeks so I'll probably start trying to transition to 5 pumps soon. We'll see how it goes!! I'm really jealous that you're weaning soon. As much as I love being able to give O BM, I really don't like to pump!!

Logan - There is so much mommy guilt out there, please don't add weaning to that pile!! You've been a hero in my book, pumping on an airplane, are you serious? Lady, you're a rock star!!! I have a feeling if all of those people around you who are so proud of making it to one year had to go through everything you did to get there, they wouldn't have made it. So give yourself a huge pat on the back... you deserve it!! (But that three stone ring will do...)

Diva - Like Allie, I usually try to offer the unfinished bottle at the next feed. Something in my mind about using it ASAP. That being said, I'm sure it's like all other milk that's kept in the fridge and will be good for 8 days. I'm trying to stick closer to the hospital schedule of 48 hours in the fridge though.

For the ladies that pump 10oz + how do you do that (I mean logistically)? My bottles are 5oz each so if I cut down to pumping less and end up with 10oz + that means I'll have to do a bottle switch during pumping or do you just use bigger bottles?
 
Diva, are you asking how long a warmed bottle of milk can sit at room temp or how long can it sit back in the fridge until it's used again? If it's the former, I usually give it an hour or so (sniff and taste test though); if you're asking the latter, I use it at the next feeding and then toss. I really hate wasting milk!

Kunzite, do you mean ladies who pump more than 10oz out of each boob? Are you double or single pumping? Don't forget, you can always pump up to the top of a bottle. So, I use the Medela 5oz bottles but used to pump to the top, they hold about 6.5oz. I think the Dr. Brown's 8oz bottles filled to the top probably hold around 10oz or at least come close, and same with the 8oz Medela bottles. Otherwise, yeah, I think you'd have to switch out your bottles mid-pump.
 
Two weeks to go! I'm so on a countdown, and I think my body knows it. My supply is dwindling, even though I'm pumping as much as usual. Boo. I just really want to make it to a year, and I should have enough frozen to get there if I can get through the next 2 weeks and then still make enough to give her 10oz fresh milk a day for a few days.

LS - I hear you on the guilt and wanting to get to a year. I don't know why I have that in my head, when initially I said I wanted to make it to 6 months when I went back to work. I can't believe I've made it this far. Or that despite my crummy supply, I've managed to freeze about 700oz of BM. I'm so proud of myself! It was starting solids at 4 months that really took the pressure off, since she backed down to 20oz a day + solids, and has been gaining weight like a champ since. That gave me the room to breathe, destress about supply, and then finally freeze some. I think at my peak I was making 27oz a day, now I'm closer to 22-23oz.

I bought hands-free bras, but ended up just going with my freestyle apparatus since more of the breast is free to do compressions/massage while pumping. I wasted so much money on nursing bras and hands-free pumping stuff! I have lovely bras that I can't wear these days because I need one that my freestyle kit will clip to. Oh well. If I ever manage to get pg again, maybe I can wear them in pregnancy, because they'll be too big for me at any other time.
 
Okay smart ladies, I have more questions!!

I noticed today that O nearly always gets milk from the same boob. My boobs have vastly different outputs and it just happens that one of them always pumps the amount that I want to give him in his next bottle, thus the other one nearly always gets frozen. Does anyone see any potential harm from this?

How do you work giving a bottle when you're out of the house? I ask because when I go back to work DH will be off for 12 weeks with O. I'll leave them fresh milk every day before work but what if they want to go out for the afternoon or something? Would DH have to find a way to keep the milk cold and then also find a way to heat it up while they're out? Obviously I'm overlooking something simple because people must leave the house with BM!
 
K--fresh bmilk is ok out for awhile. I just put a bottle on my diaper bag before I leave and it's warm by the time we use it. I haven't been away for more than 3-4 hours so I guess you'd have to think of something then. It's easy! I fed Anderson in a La Madeleine the other day, and on the front lawn of a museum the next. One time it wasn't warm but he took it any way. Seems every time we go to the doc it falls right in the middle of feeding time. And regarding one boob...I'm no expert but my friend would feed her daughter with one while pumping the other and it was fine. When do you go back to work? You are so lucky your DH can stay with him while you are away! Any results from the barium test yet?
 
I'm sure there's no problem using milk from the one side while it's fresh and freezing the other. As long as you're emptying well to get the hindmilk out, no issues there. As for feeding while out, we'll just put a bottle in the diaper bag and let it warm up to room temp while we're out. We've never heated a bottle for K, except for the occasional time we forget to pull the next one out of the fridge 2 hours ahead of the next feed. Then we'll pop it in warm water for a couple min to warm up. When she was littler, she'd even drink it straight from the fridge, which is ok too.
 
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