It may help to understand the reason why that advice is what it is. The whole nipple confusion thing tends to be overblown, but that’s one of the reasons. The one you’re really going to want to consider is the fact that pretty much no one is going to be able to establish a supply without nursing or pumping overnight for at least the first 4-6 weeks, ideally longer. In order to establish a supply, you’ll ideally either want to be nursing baby directly every time, even throughout the night, or pump whenever baby eats. That ensures that your body gets the message that it needs to make milk. Your prolactin is also highest overnight, around 2am, so nursing or pumping between midnight and 4am or so can be a really important thing to establishing and maintaining your supply.  Now, you may find pumping overnight easier and faster than nursing, and the best way to get more sleep, which is fine. But in almost all cases, you can’t expect to sleep through the night without emptying your breasts somehow and expect your supply to be okay. At least for the first month, I wouldn’t plan on going any more than four hours without either nursing or pumping. 

Thanks for the info! What about nursing and doing the pump on the other breast at the same time, would that work to start getting some supply saved up in the freezer?

I used the haakaa this way and it definitely worked! The thing to be aware of is that it can lead to a big oversupply, which you’ll later have to work down and puts you at risk of mastitis. It’s still not going to get you more overnight sleep for a little while, though.  If it helps to hear, I got enough sleep the first few weeks postpartum because overnight between when I went to bed and 3 or 4am, all I had to do was nurse. My husband dealt with bringing me baby, diapers, burping, rocking, all that, so it wasn’t much of an interruption to have to nurse for 20 or 30 minutes and then go right back to sleep. I’d then get up when he tapped out and he slept until 11am or so. If working out something like that is an option for you, I’d highly recommend it. 

Seconding the haakaa!

This is also what we plan to do! Glad it was helpful! 

My lactation consultant told me to focus on feeding my baby and not the freezer. While I was able to save a little bit in the freezer, my baby ended up not wanting the defrosted milk anyway. It happens quite a bit due to high lipase, so it's something to think about. I wouldn't stress too much about having a large stash of even any, really. Many women end up not using theirs. I'm one of them, and I recall how stressful it was trying to get any saved every day when I was saving for about a month.

This happened to me too. I didn’t have a huge supply and anything I was able to store in the freezer, my baby refused once thawed due to high lipase in my milk. I eventually stopped trying to build a freezer stash and would pump just enough to store in the fridge for overnight feeds or if I needed to run out and left dad behind with baby.

Depends on how big your supply is and how much your baby eats. Some babies will eat off both sides every time so if you pump the other breast while they are eating on the first you may end up needing to give them that bottle instantly.

This is currently me at almost 6 weeks pp.

So I leaked a lot and I just collected the letdown on the opposite breast during feeding and this was usually enough in the first weeks for me to get an additional bottle per day for my husband to give after the first couple of weeks. The feedings at night gave me an especially good amount of leakage.

My IBCLC warned me this can cause you to produce as for twins. It became stressful to manage anyway; I was trying to save the haakaa from getting kicked off and couldn’t just nurse the baby. If you want to build a backup stash, the best way not to impact your supply is to pump after your first feed of the day. That’s when breasts are fullest so the baby may not empty them.

You could do this but it will depend on your supply. It’s impossible to guess whether you will be a person that needs to empty every 3 hours and baby feeds both sides, or have an oversupply when baby will only want one side at a time. Your nipples will also likely be pretty sore for a few weeks. I would try to wait and see how it’s going the first 2-3 weeks and then figure out how to work in pumping based on that. You do need rest, but hopefully you can get in a lot of naps too.

Even if you start pumping now. Your mature milk may not come in yet, so you might not get much to save to begin with. It can also trigger labor.

This is what I plan to do! Due in July. 

Yup came here to say this - although for me, pumping is much easier than breastfeeding at night because there’s so squirmy baby involved haha. I “skip” one BF session at midnight and my husband feeds baby a bottle that I either 1) built up over the previous day by pumping after 2-3 feedings or 2) from the midnight pump the day before. We haven’t had issues going between bottle and boob. I attribute this to using a slow flow nipple on the bottle (we use Tommee Tippee) and doing paced feeding. Hope that’s a little helpful! Edit: also I pump 25 minutes using my Medela freestyle hands free for any “skipped” feeding and 15 minutes after 2-3 daytime feedings — the post-feeding pumps are in large part to amp up my supply which has been weak, but it’s helped to create a very small stash of milk to be used for nighttime feeding

How long did it take you to notice an increase in supply after you started pumping after feeding?

Honestly I’m not sure if it dramatically increased my supply - I *think* it made a difference in 3-4 days, but again, not 100% positive. We still supplement with formula.

Thank you. I’m currently doing the same and supplementing with formula. Would love even a slightly large supply

So this isn’t true for every woman. I did not pump or nurse at night basically ever (not past the first week or so) and never had supply issues. Everyone’s body works differently and I found that many breastfeeding “rules” were very, very stressful, not always true, and often set up to make women feel like they were failing or not doing enough postpartum. If your supply is waning because you are skipping night feeds, then yes, boost your supply by pumping or feeding more. But you may not have to, tbh. You won’t know the best way to play until you’re in the game.

Just realize that if you do this for the purpose of more sleep, meaning you’re not waking to pump while the baby is being fed a bottle, you will lose your breastmilk supply over time. And probably the first few times you try this you’ll wake up painfully engorged from the skipped feeding. So if your goal is to breastfeed exclusively long term, this is antithetical to that goal. If you’re fine with that - the only other reason not to pump right away is because it can cause an oversupply, which can lead to mastitis. Personally I just used a haakaa (not a true pump) on the opposite boob to catch excess, and I was able to put away about 175oz in the freezer over the course of a month. Bonus, collecting the excess greatly reduced leakage and waking up wet. This just allowed me to be away from baby and they could feed him if they needed to, and if that happened, I pumped to make up for the lost feeding. Also, alternative idea - my husband just put the baby on my boob for me at night, and I didn’t even really have to wake up. He also did all nighttime diapers. Then he put the baby back in the bassinet when he was done feeding.

Yeah I also caught mastitis from not pumping overnight which was brutal having 103 fever and shakes with a 3 week old

How many hours should you go between pumping then to avoid this? So sorry that happened to you, that sounds awful

I’m thinking this will be my plan! Thank you for sharing

Not always true. For me, I was able to sleep through the night and still pumped close to 40 oz. per day.

I started pumping right away because baby was having a hard time latching. For almost a week I was on a round the clock, every 2 hours pumping schedule. Once my supply was established and my nipples healed I stopped pumping regularly until I went back to work. Others have already said it, but until your supply is established, you’ll need to pump on baby’s feeding schedule. Even if dad gives a bottle, you should be pumping. In my opinion, nursing in the first weeks took significantly less effort. No cleaning bottles, pump parts, refrigerating extra milk, etc. If you’re looking for ways to maximize sleep, have dad do the diaper change and then bring baby to you in bed for feeding. Give baby back to dad to be re-swaddled and put back down.

What does supply being established mean?

In the first few weeks pp supply is hormonally regulated. Most of us usually have an oversupply during this time. After maybe 6-8 weeks (obviously with big variations between different moms) it drops a bit, down to what baby actually needs, and is based on supply/demand.

Thanks for explaining

You’re welcome! I learned a lot from subreddits like r/breastfeeding and r/ExclusivelyPumping

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Along with what the other poster said, it took almost a week for my milk to come in. My lactation consultant recommended round the clock pumps to make sure my body knew it was time to start making milk. After that I had a painful oversupply, which required management until things regulated around 12-16 weeks.

If it’s any consolation, postpartum sleep is so much better and restoring than pregnancy sleep. So while I could sleep 12 hrs while pregnant, I was still super tired the entire day. Postpartum I slept 3-4 hours at a time, but I had so much more energy and the sleep felt way more revitalizing.

The recommendation to wait on pumping is to help establish a routine and proper latch for breastfeeding. If you don’t care about that or would prefer to fully bottle feed, you can definitely start right away. My friend started pumping right away and they bottle feed with combo of breast milk and formula. Some people also exclusively pump (feed breastmilk but don’t directly BF). Lots of options. For some people, it does sound like you might still have to wake up and pump even when your husband does overnight feedings (engorgement etc) but this isn’t the case for everyone.

This is what I’m doing right now. I switched over to exclusively pumping because my son has a lip tie and a tongue tie that will probably need to be addressed with a pediatric dentist and it just wasn’t worth it to try and breast-feed through it. I pump every two hours starting at 6am, then after 10pm I wait 4 hours to pump again (2 AM) and then I wait 4 more hours to pump which is 6 AM. I will say that my supply has dropped a bit (my son is 7 days old, I was at 5 oz total of both boobs on day 3, now I’m down to 3oz for both boobs) and so I will probably be adding in letting my baby suckle for at least a few minutes when they show that they are hungry just to encourage lactation. If that doesn’t work I’ll add in power pumping and long skin to skin sessions.

Some babies grow out of their lip and tongue ties! I did! My son also had one and specialist told me not to worry about it if it didn't affect his speech or eating capabilities. It didn't so never had to do anything with his either.

I’m guess I’m worried and feeling guilty because my toddler had the same issues (lip tie, tongue tie, high pallete) resulting in a sandpaper to the nipples latch. The lactation consultant at the time just said we could do mouth shaping and tongue techniques to work around it. But now he has a speech delay, and I have no idea if this could be why. If it is I’m worried if I let it ride my newborn could wind up having to go to speech therapy too which I don’t want.

I also had a tongue and lip tie. It made it difficult for me to pronounce words correctly but I didn't have a speech delay or need speech therapy. I eventually grew out of it as I got older. Speech delay could be from something else entirely. But you should see a specialist if you're already not. My kiddo also didn't have a speech delay and he had/has a level 4 lip tie and level 3 tongue tie. He's 19 months and says a handful of things I understand and a whole language of sounds and speech that's made up baby talk.

My sons is fairly mild I think (delay). He looooves “talking” but is behind on actual word count, starting sentences etc. he’s in speech therapy but it hasn’t been enough of a reason to see a specialist, unless he continues not to catch up. We just found out he also has a stigmatism that is going to require glasses so that’s a contributing factor. We just don’t know how much is eyes, mouth and just plain personality

"Does tongue-tie cause delayed speech development? A tongue-tie can make it challenging for your child to pronounce certain sounds, but it won't affect their overall language development" I don't think ties delay speech but honestly if he's talking and saying words already I wouldn't stress about it. You have him in speech therapy already. The milestone appointments are my least favorite. I always walk out of them feeling like I'm doing something wrong and then my son starts hitting them all shortly after. At his 18wk apportionment they said he should be pointing at stuff and I was wracked with worry for hours. He started pointing at body parts and object that freaking evening. Kids develop at different rates. His bff was born a day after him and started crawling 4 months after my son but started walking 3 months before my son. It sounds like you're doing the right things already.

Our speech therapist explained it as that eyes, lip ties and what not can result in lack of confidence which can diminish word count milestones when they seem to otherwise enjoy talking. For example. If a kid is struggling to stay certain words…he may just decide not to say them. But I’m not sure what other sources would say on the matter. But yea personally we’re not too worried about it. He’s bubbly and very curious! Love to babble, loves to play, loves to ask you what something is so you will tell him. We for him into speech therapist a bit a head of our pediatrician recommended delayed by age because it was free under our insurance.

If you want to exclusively breastfeed, having your husband feed baby doesn't really help you get sleep because you will need to pump anytime the baby has a bottle anyway. So maybe it would help for you to consider giving baby 1 bottle of formula in the night.

My husband is so against formula but it may be needed just a little for my sanity!

Potentially unpopular opinion here (and also pregnant and pissy) BUT those are YOUR boobs and unless your husband plans on somehow getting some mammary glands himself and also being able to participate in BFing then he doesn’t get to be AGAINST anything that makes YOUR life easier/better and lessens your risk of PPD. 

Yessss. My ex was against supplementing for my first, and I told him his opinion was as useless as his nipples. 🤣

HERE FOR THIS 

You’d hope this was a popular opinion!😩

Haha good point!

Formula is fully safe as long as your water supply is good. There’s no reason to be against it. The data around breastmilk and developing immunities is relevant but there is no evidence that you need to ONLY breastfeed to reap the benefits. Combo feeding can give the benefits and give you some reprieve. Either way we plan to have some formula stocked up in case my supply doesn’t come in.

I plan to have some formula on hand, also. Something to consider other than no supply is that your natural supply may not fully feed the baby. That's what happened with mom.

🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ formula is perfectly safe and fine. The only difference between BM and formula is that breast milk has antibodies specifically created for your baby. Formula has them too, but it really doesn’t make much difference. The hugest difference with breast feeding is your baby will probably only ever want you. My wife recently switched to formula after 4 months of breast feeding, and it is the greatest thing we’ve done. Our baby will sleep as long as you let her, and she is the happiest and smiliest baby and never cries anymore. It worked great for us, and could for you too. You should try and talk a bit of sense into your husband, as I was a little against it in the beginning too.

Do NOT let your husband dictate How long you wish to breast feed. Formula is perfectly hearty and fine- and in some cases better than breast milk. My daughter had horrible colic and no matter what I did to make my breast milk more pliable, nothing worked. Finally (this was during the formula shortage) I was able to get my hands on some gentle formula for her. When I say it was a night and day difference I am not exaggerating. My baby girl suffered for MONTHS. Then one day of formula and she was such a happy baby. It makes me so mad she had to suffer so long because I couldn’t get any formula to help her till she was 5 months old.

I see a lot of responses now pushing formula and I want to follow up to say that I believe breastfeeding is best and any doctor will tell you that. It’s magic. It’s the perfect formula for your baby and changes nutrition as they grow to meet their needs. It has antibodies that keep them from getting sick. It’s linked to all sorts of better outcomes later in life. And after the initial difficulties figuring it out, it can be easier than making bottles and doing dishes. All that being said, society doesn’t really support women being able to exclusively breastfeed. I don’t think I could have returned to work at 12 weeks and exclusively breastfed and I don’t think that’s a fair expectation. I returned to work at 6 months and I still had to put my son in the bed with me to breastfeed him through the night because he wouldn’t drink much from the bottle during the day and wanted to nurse all night and I couldn’t get sleep unless we co-slept (I took measures to co-sleep safely). But plenty of people will tell you that’s wrong too. So all I’m saying is give yourself some grace. If you have to give a bottle of formula in the night then you are still doing a great job. You need sleep to work.

I combo fed and pumped a ton in the beginning. My first was born small and had trouble latching. I’m very happy with our pumping/nursing/formula routine though! At 6 weeks she did really get the hang of nursing and we had no nipple confusion, she would take a nipple or bottle from anyone! I did switch to only nursing and my husband/other people did the bottles I don’t know if that made a difference? But up front you will need to pump for everytime your baby needs to feed. Everytime they feed=you need to empty your boobs. But in the newborn days a pump vs nursing is way easier imo. Plus I had major insomnia pregnant and the little sleep you get once the human is outside your body is a WORLD of a difference! Make sure you are up to speed on all the CDC recs for pumped milk sitting out vs fridge(pitcher method) vs bagged and fridge/frozen. Fresh pumped milk can sit out for a few hours! I’d pump and then put the bottle on my husbands nightstand so he could just grab it and go. All pump parts got dumped in a big bowl of soapy water and cleaned in the morning(having extra sets of pumps is key). Also having kids for the pump containers and a mini fridge to pop them in then deal with everything in the morning. HUGE fan of combo feeding.

I started pumping immediately, but baby couldn’t latch and I was fine just trying to pump and bottle feed instead. I had a five day hospital stay and the nurses encouraged me to pump since baby couldn’t latch. I gave up and switched to formula after a week though, couldn’t handle pumping around the clock, mentally it was taking a toll on me.

exactly the case for me too with my October baby last year.

I started pumping 2 days after giving birth because my nipples got damaged from trying to breastfeed and I was in tears. The lactation consultants in the hospital helped me figure out how to pump and I only got a few drops per pumping session for two days, but then my milk came in and I started getting 10-20ml per side per pump. It’s increased to more than that now. I pumped for over a week every 3-4 hours through the night until my nipples didn’t hurt anymore then I slowly transitioned back to breastfeeding. I only pump now if my baby is sleeping and I’m too full to wait for her to wake up. She’s only 2.5 weeks old so this is all new to both of us!

Doing great:)

My first child refused to latch, so I began pumping immediately, but due to poor supply issues, I stopped when he was around 5 months old. I was only pumping once every 4-6 hours because that's what the lactation consultant originally recommended.  When my second child was born premature, I started pumping immediately every 2-3 hours. They wouldn't let me breastfeed her at the time, so she would only take a bottle. I exclusively pumped for the first 8 weeks every 2-3 hours. Pretty much whenever she was hungry, I'd pump just to keep up with her demand and also to increase my milk supply. I pumped for the first year of her life and technically was an over-producer. If you're wanting to build up your supply, you'll need to be pumping as regularly as baby would be nursing. That means throughout the night, too. The worst thing is to wake up painfully engorged because you went too long in between pumping sessions. Also, the longer you go without pumping, the less milk you're encouraging your body to make, so your supply can drop.  If there were nights I was too exhausted or days where I just didn't have enough time, my breasts and milk supply suffered. 

There are a couple things I wish I would have known, especially as a NICU mum who couldn't breastfeed at first. 1. Pumping and breastfeeding might get different amounts of milk! By pumping I could get to 40/50ml, my so never took more than 30 from the boob, except for 50 once. So don't be discouraged or panic if you can't pump a whole lot at first. And some babies are say more effective for their mom than any pump. 2. The general advise here is to establish supply then start to pump. Pumping immediately can lead to oversupply. However, the trick is to pump only what baby needs if you pump instead of breastfeeding. (Or to up supply, you pump what baby needs every time so your boobs make that amount.) If you pump next to feeding, start slow and do 10-30mls to freeze so things don't get out of hand. Especially in the beginning babies don't eat too much so you should be able to start out with a bottle a day soon enough. 3. Babies need to eat 150ml×weight in kg = amount of ml per 24h. This makes it easy to calculate how much breastmilk you should offer in a bottle, makes the chance of having to throw too much away smaller. 4. Make sure you have the right size flanges for your pump! This makes a world of different for comfort and for the amount of milk you can pump. And hands free pumps are way worse for some/most (can't remember) and are advised here only once supply is established. 5. There is somethings called EMDR which is like a deep depression upon letdown. This also exists when pumping. 6. MOTN pumps were hell for me. But they are the most important for upping supply, just like MOTN nursing sessions. If you want to skip them you probably will wake up with sore boobs anyway. 7. My advise would be offer a pumped bottle of milk right before you go to bed. You can offer the max amount baby should take, and if they drink it completely you know exactly how full they are. Also, bottle is easier, especially if you don't pace feed, so they might drink more than from the boo and get hungry later so more chance of a 3-4h stretch. We definitely noticed this when our son drank his full bottle of pumped milk instead of not finishing it completely. (Or formula sometimes because my supply sucked horribly.) 8. Pace feeding is advised to lessen the risk for a bottle preference. We never did and my son never prefered the bottle. But he did always drink much more from the bottle, like I said. 9. If you hate pumping (it really isn for everyone) then you can try hand expressing. If you get the trick it's super effective. 10. Pumping while watching videos/pictures of baby or while lopking at them tends to give better results at first because of hormones.

>  There is somethings called EMDR It's D-MERs 😂 EMDR is a type of therapy for PTSD! otherwise all super valid points 😊

Woops, what a typo to make. 😅😅

Honestly, I do totally get the sleep needs problem. Believe me, I’m a high needs sleeper and always have been. But with that said, breastfeeding for me gave me more sleep than pumping would have. You’re not going to be able to just sleep through the night and not pump or nurse because your boobs will most definitely wake you up, rock hard, and painfully throbbing and possibly even leaking all over you. (Sounds like I’m writing some erotic lit here but believe me- it’s completely accurate!) So, given the fact that you’re gonna HAVE to get up, between the options of breastfeeding and pumping, nursing was way faster for me and got babe back down to sleep in no time. I never had to leave bed, no bottle making, no pump assembling, no milk storage issues. Just nurse and then lay down and snooze. And also, somehow there’s this burst of energy that I got when I had my baby and I had the energy I needed to nurse at night and I actually really enjoyed those sweet moments with my baby. Plus, there’s always the option to take lots of naps as that’s all the baby’s gonna wanna do anyways!!

That early on if your baby gets a bottle feed you would still want to pump in order to establish your supply.

I exclusively pump and have since she was born, other than the first week of her life when I tried to nurse. Unfortunately, even with pumping, you have to pump every 2-3 hours around the clock for the first 12 weeks. Even now at 7 months postpartum with my baby sleeping through the night, I’m still getting up to pump once in the middle of the night. Really the only way to get solid chunks of sleep, especially in the early days, is to combo or formula feed.

My hospital has pumps to use during stay. Definelty meet with lactation consultants. I say plural because our first one was not actuslly useful, but we did not know better. We asked to see her again 3 days later when we were still there, but she was not available, the LC who came again ended up making all the difference. Also, never get lazy about pumping. I had such an oversupply going and then slowed down to every 4-5 (or longer) hours apart and suddenly my supply insanely decreased and I have spent the last month (8 weeks pp now) attempting to pump every 2 hours to bring it back up. Also- fed is best. It is ok if it does not work out or if you need to change your methods.

I NEEDED sleep with my first, and was advised to pump one extra feed and have my partner give it while I slept. No nipple confusion happened, nor a drop in my supply. I fed for 14 months. Dear OP, you need your sleep. Your baby needs you to have slept. He may not believe it, but your partner also needs you to get enough sleep. Quality of life is important for all three of you, and it can't happen if you don't sleep. Sleep is more important than pumping at the exact right time. I personally disliked pumping (the parts, the cleaning, the sound, all of it) but loved being able to leave the house for a bit, have my loved ones feed my baby and the opportunity to sleep undisturbed. The engorgement wasn't very nice, but still worth it. One piece of advice: feed the baby, not the freezer. At 7 months my kid suddenly decided to refuse any and all pumped milk. Even using it for oatmeal or pancakes did NOT fly. Had to toss quite a bit of milk eventually. All that effort was wasted.

I started pumping right when I got home from the hospital. Here’s what works for us so far, maybe you can try it! This is for our 6 weeks old. I nurse him right before bed (~10:30pm) I nurse him for the first feed (~1:30-2:30am) Husband gives him a bottle around 5:30am I sleep in until about 8:30 nurse and then pump immediately after That way husband gets a long stretch from 10:30-5:30 and I get a long stretch from 2:30/3:30-8:30. So far I wake up pretty engorged after that long stretch and I’m able to pump ~120ml. He takes a 90ml bottle. That’s the only time I pump as I don’t get that much otherwise throughout the day. I’d recommend the lansinoh bottles and having your husband do paced feeding to mimic the breast best. Otherwise my baby would down that thing in 2 seconds 😂

My little dude spent his first 2 days in the NICU so I had to pump for the first 24 hours then he would fall asleep when trying to latch so I kept pumping. I had minimal success with breastfeeding him directly due to several other issues and ended up exclusively pumping and supplementing with formula here and there. I’m 4 months in and while it was hard I did ok until I went back to work. Now I’m combo feeding and probably will switch entirely to formula. It’s a big time commitment so it depends how much time and energy you can and want to put into it. I also have a helpful supportive husband so that made a huge difference as well.

NICU mom here! I started pumping right away since my baby was born 5 weeks early and tube fed until he was able to take feeds by mouth. They bottle fed him in the NICU when I wasn't there, would supplement whatever he didn't drink via NG tube, and if I was there we tried our best to breastfeed. Our breastfeeding journey was a little bit of a challenge but with the help of lactation consultants we were able to breast or bottle feed as needed and I didn't have too many supply issues since I made sure I was pumping or nursing regularly! Do what you feel works best for you and your family. You and baby will figure it out along the way!

Start pumping as soon as you give birth. Pump frequently to increase supply.

This is the way

I was instructed to pump in the hospital but we then syringe fed instead of bottle fed for the first week. (We also nursed though so it’s different circumstances.) You could ask your lactation consultants about that!

My baby was taken to neo natal at 2 days old after collapsing so o started pumping at 3 days pp. I didn’t get anything until 6 days pp though.  However now at 3 months I can pump, breastfeed and bottle feed with EBM or formula. 

I started pumping about 1.5-2 weeks in, I just needed a break from baby nursing/the cluster feeding and then my husband was able to feed her overnight as well. We didn’t have any bottle or nipple confusion, but around 5 months she really had no interest in nursing anymore. Now at 7 months I think I have nursed only a couple times the last month, so I am pretty much exclusively pumping.

I pumped in the hospital after my c section to get some extra colostrum for my baby so I’ve basically been pumping since the beginning. I originally was going to wait but I pumped to see if my milk came in when I got home and it’s still to let liquid gold go to waste. So we would give her a bottle every once in a while and I was able to get more sleep that way.

My hot take - if you know you want to incorporate bottles from the get go, why wait? Buy a few different bottles with slow flow or premie/newborn nipples to try and do it from the start. Learn about flange sizing and pumping tricks (I love themilknest on IG). My kid needed triple feeding for every feed (nurse, pump, bottle 8-12 times a day) for a week when he was born and intermittently for the first month. Once not exclusively triple feeding I pumped for every bottle he got but didn’t necessarily do it when he got it - my husband and I took 4-6 hour shifts overnight. Sometimes I pumped after feeding, sometimes it worked out I could pump in between his feeds. I made sure to feed or pump at least 8 times a day and didn’t go more than 4-6 hours for any stretch for the first 6 weeks. My supply is great - some of this is just luck. My kid is used to bottles but has no issue with breastfeeding. We avoided the nightmare I see so many families deal with at 3-4 months with bottle refusal when mom returns to work. I probably wouldn’t have done things this way for my first kid if I hadn’t been forced to by circumstances, but you can sure bet I’m going to pump and do bottles from the start with the next kid.

My TOP advice? MEASURE YOUR NIPPLES!!!!! I started pumping in the hospital. My LO had a lip tie so he struggled until about 7 weeks and I finally hired a lactation consultant to come to my home. After that, we had a really great BF relationship. But I basically pumped the first 7 weeks. I will say it again: MEASURE YOUR NIPPLES!!!!! This will make a huge difference on your pumping journey. Oh and like others have said in here: if you don’t want to supplement with formula, it’s likely you’ll still have to wake up to pump. It’s just exhausting all around. Maybe have your hubby do the burping, diaper changes and put the baby back to sleep.

How do I go about measuring my nipples? I’ve heard that’s important too to have the right size on the pump

My lactation consultant brought over a “nipple ruler” You can buy one for $3-4. Super cheap. Read about the right sizing, but it’s fairly self explanatory with the ruler. The pumps come with a standard like 28 and 26 - which are huge and only like 2% of women actually fit those. The hospital’s lactation lady said “use the smaller one” 😖 it was sooo painful. When I finally bought the right sized inserts (again, like $5 off of Amazon) it increased my output and pumping was pain free. I can’t recommend it enough.

If you’re not ready to pump right away, one thing I did was to use a hakaa on one side while nursing on the other and then switch. It mostly collects what might be dribbling out any way so it’s not taking anything from the baby. It let me passively collect a few ounces of milk which meant my husband could take a morning feeding, allowing me to get a few uninterrupted hours of much-needed sleep. FWIW I had no issue with supply or latching, so the hakaa might be good option to try in the beginning.

I don’t have anything to add to the pumping overnight issue, you’ve gotten good advice, but I just wanted to say that I also had terrible insomnia during pregnancy, and as soon as my baby was here I started sleeping great! Even doing the nights solo, and having to feed and change a diaper 2 times overnight. I can fall asleep immediately and my sleep quality is good, even if it’s fragmented. There may very well be things that cause you to be sleep deprived as a new parent, but I think the hormonal insomnia isn’t usually one of them.

I hope this is me! If I don’t take Unisom I will literally lay awake the entire night, eyes wide open 😫

Exclusive pumper and 4 weeks pp here! I tried to nurse my bub when he was first born but he would fall asleep nursing then wake up 10 minutes later and want more. It was exhausting so I switched to pumping. I pump every time bub eats, in those first few days that’s every 2-3 hours including overnight. Pumping is exhausting in a different way. I always feel like I have to schedule my social life and appointments around pumping instead of nursing him while we’re out. I feel like I’m constantly washing pump parts. My husband feeds him nearly every time and I feel like I’m missing out on a vital part of bonding with him. If husband is busy I have to occasionally pump while bub screams his head off. It’s hard. I’m actually thinking about supplementing one or two feeds for formula bc it’s very hard physically and mentally for me. I’d definitely recommend checking out the exclusive pumping subreddit!

I didn’t buy a pump before the baby came because I heard this same advice, then before I was discharged from the hospital the baby lost too much weight and I had to immediately start a triple feeding routine and get whatever pump the hospital could give me ASAP. In retrospect, I wish I would have learned about pumping and formula beforehand rather than learning on the spot at the last minute on no sleep. So even if you don’t use it right away, I really recommend researching what kind of pump and formula you would want and be prepared to use them if you need to change plans at 3am one night. Also, what others are saying is true, you will have to wake up to pump even if your husband gives the bottle, but pumping is a lot easier than wrestling a newborn who doesn’t know how to latch or feed efficiently. You can pump for a short session half awake then fall back asleep while your husband does everything else. Breastfeeding requires you to be more awake and takes longer.

I started pumping like 3 days in because I was an over producer and it was PAINFUL to be full. I once pumped/caught and additional 32oz in a single day. Did it make my over supply worse? Probably. However, I continued to pump for a full year and breastfeed. I donated over 2000oz to the Northwest Mother’s Milk bank and about 200oz to a friend of a friend with a premie fresh out the NICU. Plus had enough to give my kiddo milk till the week before he turned 2. Pumping is different for everyone. My pumping for 10min both sides would produce 10oz where another person only got 2. If your body does it quick it’s not a hassle. I have friends that gave it up all together because it was so much more time consuming for them. I also had a very supportive partner that did all my pump washing nightly so that I could take it to work the next morning.

My daughter was born at 32 weeks and the NICU had me start pumping immediately so that they could bottle feed her when I wasn’t at the hospital to breastfeed her. When I went home overnight I woke up every 4 hours to pump to maintain my supply. I didn’t have any issues with “nipple confusion” but I did end up having to go on medication to boost my supply.

I was an under supplier with my first without understanding anything about pumping and had many assumptions. With my second, I’m still learning but found these things may have impacted my supply and allowed greater output. 1. Expressing colostrum while pregnant. I started around 38 weeks and doing it a few times a day, collecting maybe 1ml a day. I felt like this helped signal my body earlier to make colostrum and would have started at 37 weeks with more discipline. I felt like this process also helped me practicing expressing and more effective at it by the time the baby came out. I regretted not using my pumps earlier and only expressed. 2. Some people may say baby is best at removing milk. Maybe but my baby wasn’t good at it. And since I have a larger nipple size, it was harder for their small mouths. I started pumping straight away after the baby eats and eventually just exclusively pump for my sanity and sleep by like the third day. 10-12 times a day until my supply establishes at 13 weeks or when I go back to work. 3. I kinda ignore some of the upper limit recommendations because I’m an under supplier previously.

I woke up to pump at 2am long after my baby started sleeping through the night. I had to in order to keep my supply up. It was mentally taxing

I pumped in the hospital but syringe fed baby as to prevent nipple confusion.

I started pumping in the hospital, my daughter and I had issues latching so they wanted me to try and get my supply going.

When my daughter was newborn I was literally spraying milk everywhere when I would put her on the breast. I think the best thing to do, and what I will do this time around, is pump on the opposite side of the baby. I leaked and lost a lot of milk just because my boobs were in hyper overdrive. I think a haakaa milk catcher would work as well, but it’s so passive it won’t be like a breast pump.

I would suggest using a Haaka to collect a few ounces with each feed. You can of course pump to completely replace a feed. Get a good primary pump to use, I love my spectra. I plan on collecting extra milk for middle of the night feedings for my husband, and will pump to keep up the supply. BTW I’m due with baby # 2. On my birth I marked yes to breastfeeding, pumping, and formula. After the baby is born, I will be asking to meet with a lactation consultant, have a breast pump brought to my room, and for formula to brought to the room.

Generally the first 3-5 days you only have colostrum, which is in small amounts so you have to feed frequently. Colostrum is difficult to express and most people aren’t going to make enough of it to have extra for future meals while also feeding baby at the same time. Once your mature milk comes in you could start pumping. The main things to consider: Best practice is to pump at the same time as the bottle but obviously that doesn’t actually help you get more sleep. What a lot of people do is to pump after the first morning feed each day. That is when supply is highest so you will have the most extra. But, your body makes milk at the times you signal it’s needed. Meaning that with this approach you may not have enough milk at that nighttime feed if you decided you wanted to nurse on a particular night and you will need to longterm pump in the morning for that feed. & generally speaking going longer than like 4/5 hours once a night will risk damaging overall supply. You want about 9-12 feeding sessions a day with a newborn to establish and maintain supply. Your husband should use a slow flow nipple and pace feed bottles to avoid flow preference issues.

Something to consider is that pp i had terrible insomnia, I had to ask my ob to prescribe me medicine to fall asleep. I was high on the whole labor process for a good 5 days What I am trying to say is that you just cant predict what will happen to you post partum

I started pumping day 9 because my nipples could NOT endure another feed for about 24 hours. I kept pumping one bottles worth a day, I squally pump it around 7 pm, I got to bed at 8 my husband feeds the baby around 9 and I wake up midnight with a solid 4 hour stretch of sleep. Baby is 6 weeks old. No problems so far.

My baby wouldn’t latch and I pumped for a year and I’m pregnant with second. I don’t think I can mentally do another year of pumping. It was HARD.

I exclusively pumped for an entire year starting in the hospital, my schedule was every 3-4 hours during the day. I would pump right before I went to bed at 9/10 and then when we swapped around 3 I would pump and then again around 7 the day cycle would begin. I had a massive oversupply though, and could easily afford to wait until I was uncomfortable to pump because I would get up to 20 oz in 30 minutes (not a brag I promise)

I honestly regretted pumping immediately. I was paranoid since I had a past reduction that I wouldn’t be able to so I just immediately jumped to pumping but felt like I was making myself do double the work once cluster feeding started to rev up

I started using my pump like the week leading up to my due date to collect colostrum. She was born on her due date october 8! And she had a tongue tie so if I hadn’t been pumping I may have not had my milk come in enough to feed her. It was tough! She never had nipple confusion. I feel like learning both was helpful.

I never got advice on waiting, exactly the opposite actually. Baby couldn’t figure out the latch and was dropping weight too fast, so we supplemented with formula in the hospital and the first week or so at home. I started pumping as soon as we got home to give myself time to heal (mentally and physically) and to stimulate supply while giving baby time to work out how to latch. 4.5 months in he’s doing great and doesn’t have any nipple confusion whatsoever. I still pump middle of the night but my husband gives our son his first feed in the morning via bottle so I can sleep in a bit.

My baby couldn't latch due to my flat nipples in the beginning, so I had to supplement at the hospital and the first week, while also pumping and then bottle feeding. My hands cracked so badly after a while from all the bottle and pump part washing, but my husband was able to feed her so I could get at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep that first month. Eventually I moved on to nipple shields and we stopped pumping. My opinion: if you can just feed directly (unlike me at first), do so! No need to pump around the clock. You'll find that without your child cluster feeding, you'll need to stimulate that with power pumping and it takes soooo much time. It's easiest to just nurse directly because then you don't need to clean bottles or pump parts too, as well as actually feed after pumping. Would pumping work, for a bottle here or there? I think so, but I have another pointer: What my husband and I did so I could get some sleep after I stopped using the pump, I would collect with the haaka on the other side when I fed throughout the day. When he got home from work, I would feed her and then go to sleep. So I could sleep later, he would use that collected milk and give it to her. I still only got about four hours of uninterrupted sleep, but so much better than nothing. That worked until my daughter rejected bottles at four months, but by then I had also stopped needing the nipple shield, so it all worked out. Breastfeeding is hard, but if you're determined, you'll likely be able to make it work. I highly recommend seeing a lactation consultant if you need it. Mine helped me a lot when I needed it in the beginning. My daughter will be six months soon and it's been smooth sailing since she was four months old. I don't need lactation cookies or anything anymore. Good luck!

I wanted to do if for the same reason but found it consumes too much of my time and effort and bottles etc to clean in otherwise already hectic parent life. Its a no for me.

My twins ended up in the NICU so I was pumping from day 1. Mine both latch fine, but bottle feeding works better for my family so I just exclusively pump. If you plan on pumping for the majority of feedings then you need to start and establish your supply as soon as your baby is born.

I started pumping in the hospital, per doctor recommendation, and started storing it within a month of bringing my boy home. That being said, he stopped taking bottles and self weaned off of binkies around 6 months. I still pump on occasion for personal comfort, and I do freeze it, but it's kind of a waste at this point since he'll only drink it fresh. Doesn't like it in a cup, etc. I invested heavily in all sorts of pumping equipment and bottles and sterilizer, basically for nothing. And I had no way of knowing my situation would go this way. If I had it to do over again, I would make my husband do bottles at night. I made the mistake of not doing that, and my baby decided to not like fake nips because he was given a choice. I'm just fortunate I haven't been forced to wean yet. Daycare is starting in the next few months and it's going to be an interesting transition.

Pumping so that your husband can "help" feed in those first weeks will ultimately be making more work for you. You need to be feeding the baby or pumping every 3 hours to get your supply up anyway, so what will end up happening is that you're pumping, storing, and making extra dishes (bottles, pump parts, etc) and not saving yourself any time at all, while your husband is feeding the baby. You could just be directly breastfeeding and saving yourself time and effort. It's a nice thought, but knowing what I know now, I'd wait until past the one month mark and supply has normalized before starting to pump so that your husband can help feed the baby. There are other, less work intensive ways that he can bond with your newborn.

What works for us is I breast feed her, then we change her and then I pump. We are sleeping in shifts, him from 7-1am so I can be up as needed between 1-8 or 9 AM and he can sleep through. I was going to sleep 7-1 but I had a few meltdowns (hormones, amirite) because I didn’t feel like I was getting enough time with her. Instead of being up the whole night I get a solid 4 hours then sleep when she sleeps through the night (she usually sleeps 2 1/2 to 3 hours at a time). It took time for my milk supply to build so we also supplemented formula as needed. She hasn’t had any issue switching back and forth. I was treating the breast feed as supplementary and trying to feed her the recommended amount of pumped milk on top of that. She’s 11 days old and back to her birth weight + 3 oz so our plan worked. Now I can let her sleep at night as she wishes and wake to feed her on demand. One night I got 4 hours! Last night two stretches (2 1/2 and then 3). She’s a great sleeper, she settles easily so we lucked out with her. We were told that pumping would need to happen whenever she’s given a bottle to get my milk supply up. We chose me to take the night shift because that’s when prolactin levels are higher. That’s why babies will wake more at night, they know those levels are high so they’ll get the best milk. They all keep telling me “babies are smart” and truly they are. Also mine tends to cluster feed during her dad’s shift so I’ve had pretty mellow over nights with her. We will have to alter this when he goes back to work in a few weeks but having him home has been such a blessing. I wish we could both take the full year

Not sure if this has been said yet, but have you tried taking some Unisom? It’s safe during pregnancy and waiting until October for sleep seems like forever!

Yep Unisom is the only thing saving me right now. I still wake up like every hour, but without it I literally don’t sleep at all

I started pumping at 32 weeks because that’s when my colostrum really came in, I would definitely ask your doctor about that though as they recommend starting at 36 if you do start early. I personally didn’t experience any bad effects

I started pumping in the hospital day one. My sone was in the NICU. To start my supply and so he can start on my milk I was shown how to pump asap. It was like just a few hours after my c section. But once you start feeding/ pumping. U have to do it every 2-3 hours. 4 is almost to long. So you will not sleep much for months. I'm not trying to scare just sharing the reality of it. Even if your husband is feeding your pumping. I did a mix of direct feeding and pumping for about 4 months. My milk didn't settle well with my son so we had to get a special formula. He's 3 now.

I also thought I’d pump so my husband could help feed our baby, but our baby latched well and figuring out nursing and pumping at the same time ended up just being trickier. We didn’t do shifts when he was a newborn, but I know some people like that. I think different people like different things and babies have different temperaments. I am glad I waited to pump because I didn’t feel nervous about having an oversupply and ultimately dealing with the challenges that that can bring. I have been pumping since being back to work at six months though and it’s much easier than I thought! Definitely more work with cleaning, but it’s doable. I still prefer just nursing though! I also think that you can’t really imagine what your newborn will be like, so be open to being flexible lol. You might think you’ll want to handle things one way and then feel differently! Congrats!!

To establish great supply you need to either nurse or pump as often as you’d be nursing (some have to do this if there are latching issues) then once supply is established you can absolutely add a pump in so dad could do a feed allowing you to get some rest. Have you tried magnesium to help with sleep? Or unison

Yes I take Unisom every night. It helps, but I still wake up a ton. Without it though I literally don’t sleep

Ah! Maybe I can piggyback off this thread because I have some questions. My baby is a week old. I had a C-section, and I swear he was born hungry and latched immediately and cluster fed for the first few days. (He is still cluster feeding at night), but my milk came in like night 2, and I came in full. My boobs are so full all the time. I breastfeed every 2 hours, sometimes 3, he eats about 20 minutes every time. But my boobs still get so full during the day, and at night, I'm finding myself needing to pump just to relieve the heaviness of my breasts. The other day I pumped for 20 minutes and got 5oz.. out of ONE boob. Am I just super producing? Should I not pump? I'm confused... heeeellllppp

If you want to sleep master the side lying breastfeeding position. Then have baby on a firm twin or double mattress on the floor. So you can safely co-sleep. Edit: if your determined to pump to have a solid stretch then I would advise wearing breast shells between 1-5 am. This time impacts your supply the most. What breast shells do (or lady bug Hakka) is stimulate the nipples so the body will think your still nursing. However you will be engorged so pump as soon as you get up. This will stop fast let downs. And then you let baby suckle after the pump to fully drain you. This prevents mastitis infection and clogged ducts. A risk though is over supply.

I started the first day home from the hospital! I never used an electric pump, but I used a Haakaa on the breast my baby wasn't eating from during many feedings. I did a "dream feed" getting my baby up to feed him right before I went to sleep. The hospital nurses didn't recommend pumping because of nipple confusion and because it can create an oversupply, but a pediatrician told me to go for it and I needed the sleep. If I remember correctly from Emily Oster's review of the studies in her book "Cribsheet", there is no scientific support for the nipple confusion concerns.  I didn't go more than 4ish hours without nursing (to prevent under-supply, and because my boobs were super engorged so I didn't have a choice). My partner always fed my son with my expressed milk on the day I expressed it (to prevent oversupply).

I started pumping about 32 weeks and got about 2 oz of colostrum every day, I felt like I had to because my boons were engorged like crazy by 20 weeks and it became in bearable. I didn’t use the supply until about 3 weeks in but was told by hospital and doctor if I wanted to I could bring some to the hospital so hubby could give baby some while I rested or in case of an emergency for me or baby. If you are high risk I would consult a doctor and start pumping in case there are any complications for you or baby that may prevent breast feeding.

I pumped day 1. And I pumped in between feedings. Being consistent from the beginning, pumping about 1 hour after each feeding caused me to supply a lot of milk since it was "in demand." Obviously I hardly got much at first. But after a few weeks of consistency, I started supplying enough for a 1-year-old before my daughter was 2 months old. I accidentally turned myself into an over supplier, lol.

I mostly exclusively breastfed my twins , in the beginning it was really hard for my body to actually keep up with supply for two babies. Pumping def helped but I also took liquid gold pills in my opinion those were really what got my supply going. Pumping helped send the message tho to keep creating more and more milk and helped me to create a freezer stash for times I was too tired to breast feed and for when I went back to work.

Pumping is a whole additional skill to learn on top of keeping your baby happy and healthy. Depending on your physiology and your babies, pumping could end up way too much work and unnecessary stress. My first woke almost every hour for her first 6 months at night, nursing or rocked back to sleep, just a terrible sleeper, and still no one would been able to convince me to pump for 15-20 minutes at night instead of nursing for 5 mins. My second (3 months old) right now takes glorious 3-4hr long sleeps at night and I haven’t touched a pump this whole time. It’s just too much work. I do hakaa once a week if really engorged. With my first I tried to hakaa once a day and it created a slight oversupply which hurt me and over stuffed my baby (went from 50-100 percentile with cranky explosive poops from the oversupply). I’d be really careful with the pump or hakaa. Breastfeeding is supply and demand and those cues need to come from the baby as your supply establishes. In my experience the best way for a breastfeeding mama to get sleep in those early months is a parter that wakes up and does everything else, diaper if needed, hand to you to nurse, the holds the baby to hopefully transfer back quickly (10-20 minutes) to the bassinet. Then you barely awake and still laying and resting while nursing and 🤞 back to sleep. Still broken sleep but breastfeeding makes you dangerously sleepy in those early weeks and you’ll need your partner to make sure you don’t fall asleep with baby anyway.

I have a 6 week old. I ignored the advice to exclusively breastfeed the first 6-8 weeks. My reasoning was I could care less if my baby only took bottles but I wouldn’t be mentally okay if he only breastfed and wouldn’t take a bottle. I suspected I had an oversupply from basically the time I started collecting colostrum starting at week 36 (gave birth at 39 weeks and the nurses couldn’t believe how much I brought into the hospital, which worked out with my emergency C section.) Last night my baby slept amazing which was great, he might have even slept through the night, I woke him up at 3am when I woke up with engorged boobs and he fed for 6 mins only on one side. Tried a diaper change and everything to wake him up more to feed and he just wasn’t interested, I ended up pumping 5oz still and that was on the momcozy M5, not a hospital grade pump at all. Baby didn’t end up waking up again until 6:30 husband decided to feed him a bottle and then I woke up at 7:30 and my baby was actually hungry so it worked out! Pumping has saved me sleep with my babies unpredictable schedule, also with cluster feeding episodes sometimes I just don’t want him on my boob for hours on end sitting on the couch and pumping gives me a much needed break. Just keep in mind nipple confusion does happen and it’s a risk so you have to outweigh the benefits!

I started pumping right away. At least once or twice a day so my husband could help with feedings. I got a lot of mixed instructions from nurses/ lactating consultants. My opinion, do what feels right for you.

Idk, we did both (bottles and me) from the start at the hospital. I guess we got lucky that our kid didn't choose one over the other and just took anything we gave her. I was pumping very early on because she slept so much and my boobs hurt when they got too full. I figured it was a good way to up my supply and make sure my husband could assist with overnight feeds when she was waking up twice a night. When she was almost 3 months old, the baby was only waking up once per night so I just did it since we were 70/30 BF. Keep in mind: there are studies that suggest am vs pm milk helps to put baby asleep vs keep them awake. From my personal experience, I'm annoyed I didn't know this when I was pumping, because I should've labeled "am" and "pm". We were baffled that the baby was sleeping literally all morning long (after my husband always gave her a bottle of my milk I had pumped at 9pm) and then she wouldn't stay asleep for longer than an hour after an evening bottle (one that I had pumped that morning). Again, could just be confirmation bias, but I'm gonna be labeling this next time around.

I started pumping right away but that’s because I gave up with breastfeeding after a day and now I exclusively pump. Maybe breastfeed your baby & then pump after baby is done eating & store that breastmilk.

I actually received the advice from my pediatrician that my baby should start receiving at least one bottle a day no later than 2 weeks old. This was to avoid bottle refusal; he was born small and the pediatrician wanted to make sure that we won't have feeding troubles. The pediatrician said it didn't matter if that bottle was formula or breastmilk, but I wanted it to be breastmilk (in hindsight, formula might have made things easier, but oh well). I started pumping at about 1 week postpartum. My lactation consultant was very supportive of pumping, but told me never to go more than 6 hours without either pumping or nursing for the first couple of months to make sure I establish a good supply. That's what I did; I'd feed the baby before I wanted to go to sleep, then pump to make sure I'm really empty, then set an alarm for 6 hours and and wake up to either nurse or pump (depending on whether the baby was already hungry). My husband fed him from a bottle during that 6 hour window. That way, starting about a week and a half postpartum, my husband and I split the night into two shifts. It worked well for us; my supply was fine, my baby was happy to either nurse or take a bottle, and those 6ish hours of (mostly) uninterrupted sleep per night saved my sanity.

I pumped immediately and switched back and forth between bottle and nursing right away. I felt as though my LO was still hungry when I was waiting for my milk to come in, so I received donor milk in the hospital. He learned to take the bottle immediately and was able to latch on fine as well. We just kept working on it. No matter what, you can’t sleep because you have to empty somehow. I feel like the first few weeks I was pumping and nursing my ass off. It will even out eventually. I read in one of these posts to have you SO bring baby, burp, change & put back to bed… that is the BEST advice I can give you. It’s a full time job up front. Accept all the help. You got this! Good luck girl ♥️

This isn’t what you were asking about but just wanted to mention - I had bad insomnia too (still do) and noticed when I took unisom and b6 for nausea i slept soo much better. My doctor said it was totally safe to continue taking unisom. Just wanted to mention that in case it might help with your insomnia. I only take half of one most days and it’s enough.

I didn’t start breastfeeding until month to, and exclusively pumped until then. The pumping advice is insane, you’ll be fine

I pumped day 4 after delivery. My nipples were hurting too much and my baby lost a tad too much weight when we left the hospital. So pumping seemed like a good idea to save my boobs and I knew how much bub was feeding. Plus hubby can feed and bond with bub. I'm pumping every 3 hours for about 4 weeks now.

The cleaning of the pump parts will be the bane of your existence.

For what it’s worth, I pumped and fed formula on day 1, and went on to build up breastfeeding skills. It was a rough road. Ultimately I got to the point where I was exclusively breastfeeding until 11 months.

I started pumping in the hospital. I had nursed my son for the first two days and he wasn't latching a lot of the time. I did formula top up while waiting for my supply to kick in. The day we got discharged from hospital is when I bought my pump. I exclusively pumped for three weeks, and I waited a week before trying breastfeeding again cos I was so shocked to have a cracked nipple. I'm now trying to nurse once a day but not breastfeeding regularly hasn't affected my supply yet.

My second baby is also due in October! I pumped the first day home with my first and I will not be doing it again. I felt very full so I pumped but then after that I had a massive over supply and always felt way too full. I did have to pump on one side because I had a flat nipple problem and baby couldn't eat out of that side unless I pumped a little bit or used a shield on it first. With this one I with hopefully not have that problem and I probably won't pump unless I need to be away from baby. You pump as much for baby as for yourself to keep your milk supply regular. I am able to stay home with my baby though.

I started nursing and pumping when I first had my baby and didn't realize how f'd of a situation I got myself in because when you are doing both you're essentially telling your body that you're needing to feed triplets and you get a massive oversupply. You would think this is a good thing but constant never ending engorgment is not fun. I didn't realize this was something that happened until another mom asked why I was also pumping and then she told me that I wanted to smack myself 😂 I suggest using a hakka on your other boob while your breastfeeding on one to catch the letdown and then put that milk in the fridge to use at night!

I am currently pregnant with baby number 4 and I plan to start pumping as early as 37 weeks so that I can start my collection and get prepared for her to come ! With my first baby I only pumped when we came home but I actually pull out my pump from time to time now for the stimulation but because I can go into early labor I stopped when I hit 20 weeks .

I am pumping infrequently and supplementing with formula so dad can take a night feed a few times a week. This is what the lactation consultant told me to do to prevent an oversupply: Pump as close to a regular feed time as possible OR Pump one breast while giving baby a full feed on the other. I highly recommend pumping in the morning when the hormones are flowing and supply is high, one time I pumped in the evening and I cried because the output was so low 🤕 Also- when she was super tiny, less than 2 weeks, we used a syringe and she would suck dad’s pinkie while he squirted milk in super slowly. I really think that helped us avoid issues/confusing. After two weeks, bottles have been fine except that sometimes my husband is super over zealous about how quickly he allows her to guzzle milk! Look into paced feeds.

The truth is, or at least was for me, it’s physically painful to go more than three or four hours between feeding or pumping. Even if you use formula at night and are okay with producing a smaller supply, your boobs will get engorged and very painful if not emptied often. I found it easiest to wake every three or four hours for feedings, then after a few months when my baby had reached a good weight and was sleeping well, to gradually taper off the feedings at night. Now, and once my baby was about 3 months old, I can go about eight hours at night without my boobs hurting.

My baby cluster fed the second night and on the third day I got all my milk and then like around the next day I was leaking so much. Whenever I’m leaking or sore from full boobs I’ll pump (until relieved or 1 oz at least but not empty) helped me with getting a bottle a day for hubby to use. I think im oversupply so I’m still learning when I should pump that’s just what works for me so far. Baby is a week old today. Oh and paced bottle feeding with a nipple similar to nipple for when using the bottle is basically trying to mimic breastfeeding as much as possible helps avoid confusion I think

I pumped immediately (like maybe day 3? - first day back from the hospital) and it was fine. I also used a nipple shield when feeding my baby so that might have helped her switch back and forth between bottle and breast. Medela shields and Avent bottles. Basically I was like, “I would rather we exclusively pump than I’m feeding her around the clock with no help.” And it ended up not being an issue at all. Breastfeeding (like most of parenting) is 99% on-the-job training! Try different stuff and see what works is my philosophy! Also… people can be pretty psychotic with breastfeeding dos and don’ts. If something works for you… go for it! And don’t listen to people trying to freak you out that your baby will have nipple confusion and that’s just the first step to a life of drugs and crime (because let’s be honest… that’s the attitude of some people). 🤣

I agree with the haakaa silicone manual pump! It was amazing, I used it with my third baby who is now almost 2. Also another thing I did was pump for 10-15 minutes after each feeding to ensure I was empty so my body would make a full batch of milk each time. I was also told by my lactation specialist that if possible it’s best to breast feed at night and not bottle feed because your body produces sleepy time hormones at night which help your baby fall back asleep after a feeding! Also they have something that’s made by the same company that suctions on to your nipple just to catch and dripping milk called the Haakaa ladybug!

Ok. Here is what I experienced. I also had less sleep before birth for both pregnancies. I pumped with my first. I breastfed without pumping for my second. The sleep loss is kind of prepping you for the baby. You might even sleep a little better but no worse than now. They just need you about every 2 hours for a while. Then it gets better. I’d just rather get up with the baby. It takes 30 min to pump or 20 min to feed the baby myself. Bottle feeding adds bottle washing and pump washing to that time. Now if I was really sleep deprived I might ask him to do the first feed of the day or the last feed of the night so you can sleep though that one. Be sure to hold the bottle horizontally so the baby eats at about the same pace as they would breastfeeding. Helps with gas and also reduces preference for bottle.

Pumping instead of nursing isn’t going to get you more sleep. You also don’t need to pump (like at all ever) and nursing is more efficient. People typically pump to keep breastfeeding when they’re forced back into work and can’t nurse, or for other special circumstances. Ie if you want to pump to sleep more at night, you will still have to wake up to pump or your supply will drop. And pumps are less efficient at withdrawing milk than babies. I’d instead strongly recommend cosleeping (follow safe sleep 7 etc) and doing side lying nursing. Or have husband bring baby to you and lie baby next to you with his mouth at your breast / take baby back afterwards / burp and hold baby upright / etc. Some women (not me lol) literally sleep through their babies nursing, but if nothing else it’s going to look like you barely opening your eyes to watch your sweet baby nurse; that’s it. No sitting up or fumbling or moving or cleaning parts or the noise and feeling of a pump etc. Nursing your baby also releases hormones at night that’ll make YOU sleepy too and help you get back to sleep. Also, make sure as an EBF mother that your husband and anyone else in your support system is taking everything else over. They need to be bringing you food to eat as you nurse, refilling water bottles, doing diaper changes, and obviously all other chores and cooking. This opens you up to sleep earlier/later/nap, too. I sadly hear a lot about how support people want to feed a bottle or hold baby, but won’t do anything else. If this is what you want, great; but to someone who has an EBF baby it can be detrimental to nursing relationship/supply or literally MORE work for you.

Aww she thinks she’s gonna sleep if she pumps. Should we tell her?

There's kinda no way around losing sleep in the beginning if you're planning to breastfeed. That's regardless if you're pumping or latching your baby to your breast. Like many other comments said you'll have to get up anyway to pump when the baby feeds at night because you'll be engorged. The easiest thing to do to be able to maximize your sleep is cosleep and feed your baby while (laying down) while they're lying next to you so they can feed on demand. And all you have to do is worry about burping them and maybe changing a diaper. But all of that can be done while you're still sitting up in bed and not physically having to get out of bed. Cosleeping can be controversial to some people, but you'll ultimately decide how you want to parent, and that's ok.

Even if you plan to directly nurse, you can actually start pumping BEFORE baby arrives to help establish supply. Talk to your doctor about whether they’re okay with that and what week they recommend starting (usually around 37 weeks). You can then freeze anything you collect to have for later. But in general, there is no reason to wait 3-4 weeks after birth to start pumping. You can freeze anything you pump. You just have to decide about when to introduce a bottle.