Question about pumping and supply

I have been exclusively pumping and I am almost 12 weeks pp. I usually pump every 2-3 hours during the day (or on demand whenever my ds is hungry). I am able to let it go longer at night while my ds sleeps without any change in supply. I'm making a pretty decent amount- enough to feed ds and then extra to freeze. I have a pretty decent freezer stash built up already. My question is, I'm going back to work in a few weeks, will I need to continue pumping this frequently? I can't imagine pumping every 2 hours at work especially because I'm in field work and not in an office during the day. Can I space the pumping further apart or would my supply greatly decrease? Say pumping every 4 hours? I'm going to try my hardest because I really want to continue. I also would love to continue to save extra! Help!!!

Question about pumping and supply

Once you hit 12 weeks, they say you have established your supply. I think you'd be ok spacing out your work pumps.

Question about pumping and supply

I would think every 3-4 hours should be fine. I went back to work at 18.5 weeks and would nurse at 6, pump at 9-10, pump at 12, pump at 2:30, nurse at 4. The punp has never been super efficient for me, but if it is for you (it has been for my sil - she can go 6-8 hours between pumping sessions and get a lot of milk) then you should be fine. If it starts to drop off, you could try to pump more.

Question about pumping and supply

You should pump as often as your baby eats. So if your baby is eating every 3 hours, you should pump every 3 hours.

Question about pumping and supply

When I dropped a pump during the day, I made sure to power pump at night for a week or two to make sure my supply didn't drop.

Re: Question about pumping and supply

I was pumping about every 3 hours while I was home on maternity leave and freezing as much as I could. When I went back to work I was pumping at 6 am, 10 am, 2pm, 6pm and then before bedtime. It wasn't until vacation last month that I dropped the 6pm pump. And now I'm only pumping at 6 am, 3:30 pm and bedtime. My supply has dropped a lot though and it dropped before I started dropping pumps. In the next month or so I plan on dropping the pump at work. We've been trying to extend the BM supply by adding formula into each feeding.

Question about pumping and supply

i think you should be fine. I used to pump 8 times a day for the first 12 weeks and built up a good supply and freezer stash. Once I went back to work after 12 weeks, I used to pump 6 times a day (twice at work) and haven't seen a significant reduction in supply.

Question about pumping and supply

I pump once before DS wakes, then a half hour later or so he wakes and eats (on me). I think pump about 3-4 hours later at work, and once more, another 3-4 hours later at work, then I pump once after DS goes to bed, before I go to bed. He has slept through the night for the last 7 weeks or so, 10-12 hours per night, during which I only pump that once before I head to bed. My supply has actually INCREASED in the last few weeks, even with the drop in pump sessions, I just make sure to pump for a solid 20+ minutes each time (except the pump first thing in the morning). I have to send DS with 3 - 8oz bottles each day to daycare and I get enough each day.