Here’s my pumping schedule that has kept my little dude on 100% breastmilk since day one. I know I’m lucky to be able to say that, and it wasn’t just a schedule, beyond that I was graced with a combination of family support, genetics, emotions, timing and dumb luck.
Here’s the framework I followed and you can reference, but customize for your own use and adapt based on how your body and baby react:
Day 1: trying to breastfeed
I still had every indication that breastfeeding would pan out, so no pumping.
Days 2 – 6: 15 mins of pumping after every attempted feed (8-10 times per day, round the clock)
The nurse suggested I pump for 10-15 mins after every attempt to breastfeed, day and night. My husband was off work so our routine was that he’d give the bottles while I pumped, that way I could get a little more sleep. I must have been riding a huge hormonal wave because I remember being totally immune to the sleep deprivation. I didn’t want to miss a single thing my newborn did, but that would catch up with me eventually.
Result: BARELY keeping up with BabyO’s thirst.
Pediatrician Visit Summary: We went for our first wellness visit and reported that BabyO hadn’t pooped since we left the hospital 2 days ago, his pee was dark yellow and his feeds were about 30-40mls every 3ish hours. We left with orders to bump up his intake to closer to 60 mls per feed so that he’d poop….of course this sparked the competitive fire in me. After half a day of the bigger feedings there was poop everywhere. Everywhere.
I wouldn’t advise everyone subscribe to XX mls by day Y, but instead let the diapers tell you what to do. In retrospect, after seeing the dark yellow pee and a day without number 2 I should’ve bumped things up myself.
Day 6- Month 2: Pump until the flow stops and then go a few more mins, which usually meant 20-30 mins; every 3-4 hours (6-8 times per day, round the clock).
The theme for this time period was pure exhaustion induced insanity. My husband went back to work during week 3 at which point I was solo with the baby all day, and there’s no explaining to a newborn that he needs to chill so mommy can pump.
This is hands down the hardest thing exclusively pumping has to offer. Unlike breastfeeding, going back to work actually makes pumping easier because you don’t have to keep baby content and safe for 20-30ish mins every 3-4hrs. If you’re a stay-at-home-mom EPing you deserve a Parenting Lifetime Achievement Award, stat.
My goal here was to keep up with my baby’s demand. One way to do that is to pump every time he feeds, but BabyO was a grazer and wanted food so frequently I didn’t have the capacity to attempt latching, bottle feed and then pump every time he was hungry. Without childcare support that would be 24/7 feeding and I would melt into a puddle of delirium. Instead I bottle fed when he was hungry, practiced latching some of those times, and I stole any moment I could to pump during the day with a goal of pumping 6-8 times. I actually looked forward to the middle of the night pumps because my husband would do the bottle while I pumped.
I also slowly worked on getting my boobs to sleep through the night. If baby woke up less than 3 hours after my last pump I’d stay in bed and let my husband give BabyO a bottle. Then I’d sleep for as long as I was comfortable, first four hours, then five, then six, seven, **gasp** eight! I wouldn’t say there was a dramatic adjustment in my milk production timing, but over the course of a month my morning engorgement went from ridiculous to ‘normal’.
Here’s what a ‘typical’ day looked like, but honestly it wasn’t very regular:
6am – husband is home for baby duty so easier to steal time for pumping
9am, noon, and 3pm – insanity, make two pumps happen and hopefully a third, sometimes the timing was totally wacky
6pm, 9pm, and 1am – husband is home for baby duty so easier to steal time for pumping
Result: BARELY keeping up with BabyO’s thirst for the first six weeks, I think that was mostly related to some of his growth spurts. By the end of month two I was freezing five ounces per day.
Month 3-4: 15 – 20mins, 5 times a day
During the first two months I built up a healthy supply and freezer stash. Now that I was confident my supply could keep up with BabyO I focused on my pumping schedule for work and figuring out where to store all the extra milk!
While still on maternity leave I slowly tapered from 6-8 pumps per day down to five. My strategy was to settle at six pumps a day for a week or two, and confirm my supply was stable. Then tried five pumps a few times, and seeing no change in supply I stuck with it. I was also getting more comfortable with longer stretches of not pumping overnight until I could finally cut it out entirely!
Because our freezer was running out of space I actually tried to produce a little less for the first time, hence the 15 min pumps. So with five pumps here’s what my day looked like:
6am – pump until the flow stops (if the bottles are full – yay! – just replace them) usually 25-30mins
10am, 2pm, 6:30pm, and 10pm – pump for 15-20mins
Month 4 I returned to work. Stability at last. I could block time on my work calendar to pump and no fussy (adorable) baby could stand (cry) in my way. That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss my little guy like whoa, but that’s a different post.
Result: Where do we put all this milk? Freezing five ounces/day AND not pumping overnight.
Month 5-6: 20 mins, 4 time a day
So the schedule above was going great, and it was amazing to pump for just 15 mins at a time. But after a long day away from BabyO I was missing him hardcore and in no mood for the 6:30pm pump. Not to mention it was around our dinner time and BabyO’s bedtime. So I cut that session, moved my daytime sessions a little later, and pumped a little longer at each session. I found that with five 15-min pumps per day I was producing plenty, but once I dropped to four I had to up the time to 20 mins to keep the same production going. So with four pumps here’s what the day looked like:
6am – pump until the flow stops, usually 25 mins
11am, 4pm, and 10pm – pump for 20mins
The caveat is that my supply went down slightly so I’m only freezing about five ounces per week. Which to me is perfect, I’d rather have a little extra for growth spurts (and life after pumping) than not enough.
Result: On average matching BabyO’s thirst. Freezing about 5 ounces/week until he has a growth spurt and catches back up.
Month 7+: Stay tuned….
My goal is to stick with my current schedule and keep an eye on BabyO’s intake. We started solids at 6 months and in theory he should drink a little less as he eats more solids. At which point I’ll experiment with three pumps per day. Ohhhh the freedom!
Freezer Stash: I haven’t counted recently but I’d guess I have about 200 ounces in the freezer. Sounds like a lot but BabyO drinks about 32 ounces/day so that’s not even a week’s worth.
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