Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

I know that some people probably don't want to hear me complain about my over-supply, but I am seriously getting a little overwhelmed with milk over here. I stretched myself out to every 5 hours and for 15 minutes. I just pumped 19oz! And that's at the END of the day! Every single time I pump, I am getting over 13oz. Usually I get 14-16. I have over 350oz of BM in my freezer I have no where left to put this stuff. I have been dumping everything today because I have enough bottles for two days and my freezer is full. I know everyone says this is a blessing, but I need this to cut down, I can't keep up. What can I do?! I don't want to chance getting clogged ducts by drastically cutting my pumping right away. Is half a week long enough at 5 hours that I can switch to every 6 hours now?

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

I wish I had advice but if you're going back to work it might be really great that you have this much milk. I believe it's good for up to 12 months frozen in a deep freeze.
Can your parents store any for you?
Have you considered looking into donating milk to a milk bank. They use it for preemies who need breast milk or mom's who can't give their babies breast milk but the babies need it over formula for various reasons.

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

I would suggest that you start pumping further apart, like 3/4 times a day. I had the same exact thing, my freezer was so full of frozen BM that there was hardly any roomfor food, unfortunately, when I defrosted the milk around 90% was rancid, so it was a bit of a wasted exercise.

Try pumping at like 9 am, 12/1 pm, 5/6 pm and again at 11 pm. If you can go without pumping overnight, do it.

Don't forget, the more you pump, the more you stimulate your milk production, so you need to stop pumping so often to avoid overstimulation!

Hope this helps you Dairy Queen!

Message edited 7/6/2006 7:02:01 AM.

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

Sooooooooooo not fair!

Message edited 7/6/2006 6:42:33 AM.

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

I suggest donating some, maybe call a local hospital. I am sure it would be appreciated

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

invest in a deep freezer! I did b/c I had a similar "problem" as you and it was the best thing I did.


I will say that when I switched to 3/4 times a day (at about 6 months) - my supply evened out for what I needed for the day and nothing more.

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

just FYI - donating is hard to do. I think the closest cetner is in Deleare - you need to get a complete physical by them first and the periodic blood tests.


instead I kept mine and stopped BFing at 9 months and made the 1 year mark without formula

Re: Girls who exclusively pump...help me please!!!!

i reduced my pumping to twice aday and able to feed her just enough. i worry about my supply diminishing since its 6 months already. i would keep to 3-4 times a day. i made that mistake.