Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

I am planning on strictly pumping and supplementing with formula when needed. Do you know how this works in the hospital? Do they have you start pumping or with they just give LO formula and you will start when you get home?

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

It will be simultaneous.

Be forwarned that strictly pumping sucks I did it for 6 months with DS. I'm so going for the boob with this one.

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Posted by LaurenExp

It will be simultaneous.

Be forwarned that strictly pumping sucks I did it for 6 months with DS. I'm so going for the boob with this one.

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

The hospital will provide a pump for while you are there if you ask for it.

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Re why does exclusively pumping suck-- Here is my take: BF is easy. Pumping is not. Pumping takes dedication and forethought, while BF entails basically lifting your shirt. Bottlefeeding in general invovles cleaning, sterilizing, storing and heating the milk. All a pain in my book! BF is just much easier, with the added benefit of the warm fuzzy feeling you get being that close to a baby, which you don't get with a pump. I always feel like a cow... mooo...

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Yes they have a pump and my suggestion is pump every single time baby eats and give baby what you make,. The 1st 1-2 days they won't really be hungry yet but you can suppl. what colostrum you have with formula. I second that ep suckss. You just never get a real break. Even if DH feeds baby you have to pump just as often as beby eats to have a suppy. I just always felt guilty I was up and so was DH so I would feed Emmy, Pump 20mn, clean up and get to sleep 1.5hrs before she was up and ready to eat again....repeat this 8-10 times a day and you're just freaking fried. I don't regret that I did it, but if this baby doesn't latch I'm not ep again. I just can't. WIth having a toddler, a nb, and starting new meds I have to save my energy. I don't doubt ebf is tough, but I can not imagine it being as bad or worse then ep.

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

at LIJ they had pumps you can use and gave you the basic parts and tubing but it may be different than the pump you want to use.

If you want to exclusively pump.. it does suck. It's very time consuming to build a supply from pumping alone. It's especially hard when you have a newborn to care for!

Here is some basic advice from my own experience (I had to pump for DD in the NICU for the first 4 weeks)..

-If you plan on building your supply on pumping alone, you will need a hospital grade pump. It is more difficult to build and maintain a supply from pumping alone, and it's even harder without a hospital grade pump.

-It is NOT easy to build a supply on pumping alone. If you put baby to breast for the first few weeks your supply should come in much more effectively than pumping alone from the beginning. However if you really do not want to do this you NEED to pump every 3 hours or whenever baby eats if its less than 3 hours. This includes in the middle of the night.

-Don't expect a lot of milk right away. Hopefully you will be blessed with a plentiful supply but from pumping alone it may take longer to come in or it may not come in. You will get next to nothing at the beginning, but keep pumping. You will get small tiny quantities of yellow colostrum. Give this to your baby, even if you have to mix with formula, it's liquid gold for your baby. Even when it seems like there's nothing, keep pumping. Your body needs to think that the baby needs more so that it produces more.

-Some women just aren't great pumpers. I nurse DD, but I can't pump more than 5oz MAX and most of the time it's more like 1.5-3oz. That's just how it is. I will never have a freezer stash. I wish it were different but it's not. If I didn't nurse I would be upset but I know she's getting as much as I can give her. And that's what matters most.

Good luck!!!!

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

I EP'd for 2 months... worst 2 months EVER! One day I just put DS on the boob and bam, things were so much better.

Message edited 8/12/2011 6:09:03 AM.

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Well this is an unsupportive thread.

They give you the pump at the hospital. I EP'ed for ONE WHOLE YEAR and I had challenges but I achieved my goal. My advice is to do a lot of skin to skin contact to keep your milk supply up and to wake up at night to pump even if the baby doesn't wake up.

Good Luck! FM me if you have any questions!

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital

Posted by cappy421

Posted by Tilde

Well this is an unsupportive thread.

They give you the pump at the hospital. I EP'ed for ONE WHOLE YEAR and I had challenges but I achieved my goal. My advice is to do a lot of skin to skin contact to keep your milk supply up and to wake up at night to pump even if the baby doesn't wake up.

Good Luck! FM me if you have any questions!

Thank you for the encouragement I know my supply might not be as great as if I were to EBF but that is why I plan on supplementing with formula if need be. I will give LO whatever I can supply and the rest will be up to formula. do you think this is bad?

Re: Spinoff to do we pump in the hospital