Thanks Pitbull, due to your song I will think of you every time I think about pumping. And when I am talking about pumping I don't mean backing it up like a tonka truck, I'm talking about my friends:
Medela
Lansinoh
&
My most constant companion:
The Ameda hospital grade pumps that the University Of Michigan awesomely supplies along with mothers rooms for nursing/pumping employees, you just have to provide your own tubing/flanges/collection bottles.
A fellow blogger I follow did two vlog posts about her experience with pumping
Here &
Here. I think she did wonderful job of explaining the ins and outs, especially for people who have little to no experience with it.
I am nearing on the end of my breastfeeding goal, I wanted to make it to 1 year! With her turning 11 months next week, we are oh so close. So far *knock on wood* I have had zero issues with breast feeding...pumping is another story, self caused I'm sure but we'll get to that in a minute. From the beginning we never had issues with latching, no supply issues, no engorgement issues. It truly was smooth sailing! I was lucky the worst thing was the feeling of let down for the first week or so.. wholly shit, it felt like needles for the first few seconds. Other than that I have literally had no issues with breast feeding.
Pumping on the other hand S-U-C-K-S, Sucks, Sucks, Sucks, Sucks. From the first time I first tried it until the day I retire the pumps until the next baby, I hate it! I feel like a dairy cow, I feel like it consumes my life when I am away from my child, its the one time I wish I chose formula cause at least then I could have been away from my child for more than a couple of hours without finding a place to hide so that I can pump!
In the beginning when I first went back to work I tried to pump twice a day as much as I had the chance to, I had more than enough milk supply to build up what I thought was a massive freezer stash. Fast forward to month 10 of doing this, we have used up every last drop of what I had in the freezer, I got lazy at work and dropped down to one pumping session. (I'm away from the house for work for 10.5 hours a day) and I stopped trying to pump before I left for work in the morning because I was dying for the extra 1/2 hour of sleep. All this lazy ment I was going sometimes almost 12 hours between feeding her and pumping around 9-10 am if she slept all night. Duh, basically telling my body that it didn't need to produce as much. On top of the lazys that hit me with the pumping I had decided it was high time to kick the last of the baby weight that I was determined to have off of me by now and I was restricting my calories, apparently more than I should have because that seemed to have some affect on my production as well. So when that last zip-lock bag of frozen milk baggies got pulled from the freezer I went into panic mode. I was only pumping enough milk for one bottle a day, she needs AT LEAST two while I am gone sometimes she'll take three. Major panic.
I had to stop and think about what I was doing wrong, why wasn't I able to pump enough? I'm not sure why I feel so much like I can't supplement with formula for the last month, I really have nothing against it. I've just made it this far and breast feeding is just one of those things that, damn it, I wanted to say I never used a drop of formula! So I read about issues with pumping supply, things about let down problems (yep), supply issues (double yep), increasing pumping sessions, and about herbs called Fenugreek, Alfalfa and Blessed Thistle and how some of them can help. I stopped at Meijer and bought a bottle of Fenugreek. I started taking it three times a day like the bottle says, until you start to smell like maple syrup the internet tells you (and I like syrup so what the hell) Back to pumping or nursing every 4 hours, unless we are talking at night then I still allow myself sleep. It took me longer to realize that the way I was eating (just watching my calories a little closer, still allowing the extra required for breast feeding) was affecting my supply when pumping, only noticed by chance when I ate like a pig over the weekend and my supply was back up to what it used to be, gee thanks body. So hopefully I can keep myself from being lazy with the pump which I despise so much, at least for the next month! I am determined to make it for a year. After One at least the pumping is over, I'm not concerned about weaning her, as most days she only nurses twice a day anyway so I don't think that will be a problem at all. Plus she's already used to sippy cups, and straws so long as shes got food she'll be happy however it comes to her! Here's to another 37 days of pumping.
Pump, Pa-Pump, Pa-Pa-Pump it up!
