Thursday, November 13, 2008

Pumping breast milk?

Pumping breast milk never came easy to me. I bought a pump a few days after I decided I would breastfeed. I was thinking that with a pump, I could feed my daughter more easily in public and that my husband could help out with some of the feedings. My first attempt took well over 30 minutes and I don’t think I even got an ounce.

I didn’t have anyone to talk to who had breastfed for more than 2-3 weeks. Those who I did talk to, said they were able to pump like crazy and could get out more than 6 ounces in 10 minutes. Now, as a first time mom, I felt defeated. I felt like a bad mother.I felt a great sense of failure and disappointment.

Even though I was having a hard time pumping breast milk, I knew my baby was getting enough to eat, because she was consistently gaining weight. This was without supplementing with formula or anything. Also, we all know and remember quite vividly the projectile throw-up of a newborn. She threw up what seemed like gallons one day, so I knew my supply wasn’t a problem.

I continued to try and eventually I was able to get 2 ounces out most of the time in about 20-30 minutes. Sometimes, none though.

After a few months, I had gathered up quite a bit of milk, which always seemed like more of a hassle to use than just covering myself in public and breastfeeding my daughter. During the process of packing to move from South Carolina to Texas, I told my husband to just throw all the milk away, but don’t let me see him do it. I don’t know why I had an attachment to it, and why I was being emotional about it. I guess all the crazy hormones were still affecting me.

Nine months later, here I am still breastfeeding. I am completely comfortable breastfeeding in public and I prefer to do so straight from the breast. It just works out better for us.

So, when it comes to pumping breast milk, it’s not necessary, and it can be avoided, if needed. Just be proud of being a breastfeeding mama!

4 comments:

momstheword said...

We even taped some of the messes they made when they were little (like pouring milk all over the dog, or unrolling the toilet paper roll from the bathroom to the living room, pouring glitter all over the kitchen table and floor, stuff like that).

momstheword said...

Oh, yeah, definitely tape that. You can use it later for blackmail to make her clean her room, LOL!

He & Me + 3 said...

I don't blame you for not looking when hubby threw the breast milk away. It is liquid gold. I always had a hard time pumping too, but for a while with my son I had no choice because my milk was so low, but I got the supply up and we nursed for 13 months until I found out I had cancer and had to stop cold turkey. neither of us was ready for that, but my health needed to be attended to. I was just glad for the 13 months. Good for you. I nursed my middle daughter for 18months and loved every minute. She was the perfect nurser. Keep it up! It is so good for them.

Shoebee said...

For me, the only way I could breastfeed was to pump. I would sit there, feed my son from a bottle full of breastmilk, then pump. I would be able to pump 20-30 oz at a time. I had more breastmilk than I knew what to do with. I found that I could pump it all in 20 minutes. Without pumping, there would have been no other way for my boy to get the breatmilk.