Breastfeeding

I guess this is more of a question for BTDT mommies but if you first time girls have a plan for this I'd love to hear it. I'm a little stumped as far as it goes to all the breastfeeding equipment I need to purchase along with the breast pump. Sorry in advance for all the questions
So far my cousin gave me her Medela Swing (only the pumping mechanism and I'm going to purchase all the tubing and bottles that come along). And I'm still following up with Edge Park on getting the Medela Freestyle (waiting for my insurance to follow through).
So I guess my question is did you feed right out of the bottle you pumped into or did you transfer the milk into the Dr. Brown or event bottles?
When freezing milk did you find it significantly easier to pump directly into the attachable freezer bags or you pumped into the designated bottles and then transferred into the freezer bags?
I received this Medela accessory kit at my shower: Linky Do I really need any of this stuff?
What other useful accessories could you recommend?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all these!!!!

Re: Breastfeeding

With my first son I only had my Medela pump in style pump. I would pump directly into the medela bottles then transfer the milk into my playtex vent aires. I didnt pump on any kind of scedule and lost my milk pretty fast bc I pretty much knew NOTHING about what I was doing!

With my 2nd son it was a whole other story. I had that same pump, but I also purchased the medela manual pump(http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2409078). It was WONDERFUL. I pumped in the hospital with that to stimulate my milk when he was first born and then when my milk came in i used it to relieve the pressure that I had which was INTENSE! I made sure to stick to a STRICT schedule. I nursed exclusivley until I went back to work when he was 8 weeks. I made sure to feed every 3 hours at most (on demand if he was hungry any earlier) and at work I used my regular pump every 3 hours so my body stayed on schedule. The nurses in the hospital when I first had him said I was making so much milk my body must have thought I had twins!

Ok I rambled there a little, but basically I needed: My electric pump, my manual pump, breast pads (keep these on you ALL the time! Plenty of extras bc when you really start producung they just burst!), and then bottles. With my 2nd son we used playtex drop ins. I bought this, http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2969614
It had an adapter so I pumped directly into the bottles.. they had a storage top and then you just put a nipple on to feed and your ready to go :) I never froze my milk.. I always had just enough since I mosly nursed. Whatever I pumped at work would be used for my DH to feed him the next day while I was at work.

Good luck!

Re: Breastfeeding

I think you have all the accessories, if your planning on pumping at work it's very helpful to have extra of everything so you don't have to wash parts every night.

I pump into the medela bottle and store in fridge. If it's not used in 3 days I transfer into freezer bags and freeze. I use the laniosh bags which I'm not a big fan of because they get little holes from air bubbles when they freeze and than leak easily.

Re: Breastfeeding

I pumped into the bottles and put the bottles in the fridge - i always put the newest in the back - i would put them in the freezer after a couple of days - i used the medala bags - they worked fine for me - i threw them in a ziploc too

my little guy did not have that much trouble with bottles - so we gave him the BM right from the medala bottles - just put the nipple on - i never moved my son off the level one - i wanted to make bottles harder then nursing - my ds BF for a year and i went back to work when he was 5 months - but every baby is different - my son preferred if we used the born free bottles as he got older


i had the freestyle - i started with one set of pieces and got a second set when i went back to work

i did not like the wipes for cleaning - i felt it made my pump not work so well - they were good in a pinch but don't buy many


i recomend bringing your pump to the hospital - especially the horns you have - have the lacation consultant check that every thing is the right size - -also they give good freebies - i loved the gel packs - got one set free from lacation consultant at hospital- used after nursign to relive soreness- put in frige between times needed- they also have small things of lanish which are nice for throwing in diaper bag

Re: Breastfeeding

I have the Freestyle - I pump into the bottles and transfer them to either the Lansolin storage bags or the Dr. Brown bottles. DD wasn't picky about using the Medela or Dr. Brown bottles.

The Medela accessory kit is helpful, although I received a lot of those parts from the hospital. I wasn't able to nurse b/c DD has tongue-tie so they brought in a pump to make sure my supply kicked in (you'll need to pump every 2-3 hours in order for it to really come in).

Make sure you have the lactation consultant check the sizes of everything for you. I used the wrong sizes for a week and they damaged my breasts.

HTH!

Re: Breastfeeding

don't forget your nipple pads and nipple cream!!