V: Valuable Lessons in Exclusive Pumping #AtoZChallenge
The last four months have not been easy. When Baby Diva came down with hand, foot, mouth, she decided to quit nursing. I tried and tried for about three weeks, but nothing could convince her to come back. In the meantime, I used a bottle of expressed milk to feed her. Because she was successful in using the bottle (after a few days of adjustment), I finally gave up on trying to nurse and just rested in the assurance that she was at least receiving nutrition that I was giving her.
With each of my children, I had the goal of breastfeeding for the first full 12 months. Baby Diva’s older siblings never would take a bottle, so when she suddenly wouldn’t take anything but a bottle, I was thrown for a loop. All of my knowledge of feeding babies was thrown out the window. Suddenly, I was able to track her fluid intake. I was stressing over how much I could pump at each session. I was fearful of her waking in the night and needing a bottle — something I’d literally never done in my entire life.
I had to take to instinct and reading and last minute decisions. Along the way, I discovered a few important lessons in exclusive pumping.
- Drink water – If I ever was even a little dehydrated, the output wasn’t nearly as much as when I was drinking 100 ounces or more.
- Eat – Seems like a silly lesson; but any time I ate exceptionally well, I was able to pump more. Makes sense. If you fuel the machine, you are simply healthier.
- Lactation cookies – I don’t know if these made that big of a difference, but they sure were yummy. Filled with oatmeal, flaxseed, coconut oil, and yeast, this discovery was an awesome addition to my routine especially in the last two months.
- Boiling water – Every night before I went to bed, I boiled water and put it in a carafe. I thought of this after a few nights of the fear of having to warm a bottle in the middle of the night. Our kitchen is right off of the Animal’s bedroom, and I’m always worried we’ll wake him if we make noise in there. I never did need to make a bottle before waking the next morning, but having that warm water ready to go saved a good amount of time every day. I could go ahead and have the bottle warming (I poured the water into a metal pot to heat the bottle of milk) while I pumped. It was ready when Baby Diva woke.
- Plenty of supplies – When I first got the pump, I only had one set of horns and bottles. This made my days extra frustrating because I was constantly cleaning and drying. I went ahead and spent the money on a second set. While I was still doing plenty of cleaning and drying, the time between washings was longer for each set. This meant that usually one set was fully dry and didn’t require me taking the extra time to wipe out any water droplets.
- Careful cleaning – Sometimes, I would use hot water to rinse the mechanisms of the pump. I realized that any time I used hot, soapy water to wash the pump parts, the result was better output. Toward the end of my tenure as a pumping momma, I have noticed a decrease in my supply. I have been vigilant about cleaning the parts well so that I could get every potential drop.
What tips do you have for someone having to pump or exclusively pump? Share in the comments!
