New mothers feel overwhelmed balancing pumping schedules and weight gain checks

“I see a lot of posts and convos around the motn pump and how it helps increase/maintain supply. my question is do we count a motn nursing session the same as a pumping session? My understanding is that babies are generally better than pumps at emptying our boobs and stimulating milk supply so I would think that a motn nursing session would accomplish the same as a pumping session. Is this right? Thoughts? I have a 7 week old and right now my last pump is around 9/10pm. If my baby wakes up for a”

“FTM looking for some advice. I do plan on going to a breastfeeding support group but I just have to wait to get my schedule more aligned with the group so looking for help here first. My LO is two weeks old and has been a "lazy" feeder where he has always fallen asleep on the boob. I've navigated it by undressing him, changing him, rubbing his feet etc. I now get him to at least eat off the first boob for about 15+ minutes, the second boob though he usually fights and stays on anyw”

“Baby is 8 weeks today and I’m about to throw in the towel. We are still struggling with a bottle refusal though, which is equally putting immense pressure on me yet also extreme guilt. I am spent. Physically and mentally drained. My mental health is absolutely terrible and I’ve been crying nonstop for 2 days because I am so sleep deprived and overwhelmed not being able to do anything for myself and having baby attached to me 24/7. I have been able to spend NO time with my toddler and feel so neg”

“this may be really weird, I can't tell if I'm just still a hormonal mess or if this is a normal experience or what 😭 I am almost 3 weeks postpartum now and planned to EBF. baby girl was latching great during the first week, but the pain of my nipples getting used to breastfeeding did force me (under recommendation by my lactation consultant) to use nipple shields for a bit to allow my nipples to heal. did that, weaned off of them after about 5 days. went back to normal breastfeeding rel”

“For context - my LO is a week old today and has had success with breast feeding, I seem to have a strong supply and she latches easily. At night we’re feeding her three times and she sleeps decent stretches in-between. She was born 9lbs so is able to eat / sleep longer for her age. My question is when should I start pumping? I want my husband to be able to bottle feed her for bonding at some point but don’t want her to get disinteresting in the boob and want to make sure we don’t give her a bott”

“My girl never had a great latch. I stopped worrying about it because it stopped hurting, she was gaining weight just fine, and I was overwhelmed learning how to care for a newborn. I would like to address it now. I've watched the videos on latching and I think I have a good idea of how to do it if she's in one of the positions where I am holding her in my lap (wait until she opens her mouth/shove her onto my breast), but those positions kill my back. The only position I can really do is”

“I have a breastfed 11 month old but only got 8 weeks of mat leave, I work M-Th. So since 3mos, I have nursed morning and bedtime, pumped 3 times during the work day, and pumped once before I go to bed to supplement my supply. Then breastfed pretty much all Fri-Sun except maybe one pump/Dad gives bottle when I need to go out somewhere or want a break. I feel like exclusively nursing seems kinda straightforward - give baby the boob when she wants/needs it, you're both in sync and your supply a”

“Hi there! I’m 37 weeks today and have absolutely no idea about breastfeeding other than the little bit I learned in NCT which confused me even more. I want to breastfeed but I also want to introduce a bottle as soon as physically possible. I want my partner to be able to feed the baby and also I would like to be able to leave the house and do things for myself for my mental health. Everyone I’ve spoken to says not to pump for 6 weeks, and then just do 1 pump a day, but I don’t want to wait that”

“5 days postpartum with baby #2. Still trying to decide long term feeding plan, pumping a few times a day, and combo feeding with expressed milk + formula in the meantime. Anyway, I saw a lactation consultant yesterday, and we got baby to latch directly at the breast (which I much prefer in theory to pumping). I even was able to do it myself without her physically doing it for me by the end (albeit, still with her verbal guidance and watching and telling me what to do as we went along). But I tri”

“I have gone back to work and have to pump while there but when home and on my days off I breastfeed. I have the spectra and have been using 73 wave setting on 3-5 for 10 minutes each side and doing two pump sessions in an 8 hour shift, I get around 12-16oz total from those two sessions. Well, so far after my first week my boobs on my days off are all out of wack. Producing a lot with heavy letdowns and my baby can’t keep up. I’m also super sore. What am I doing wrong. What settings should I be u”

“i posted this in my baby bumpers group. i am really torn on my decision so i wanted to post this publicly and get some feedback and advice. for more info, my baby is almost 8 weeks old. i would go back to work October 13, one day shy of him being 3 months old. i exclusively pump. so… i’ve been crying for the past few weeks about baby going to daycare full time. before maternity leave (& the first 4 weeks of his life) i was perfectly happy to go back to work. my husband and i worked opposite”

submitted by /u/Chemical_Editor4057 [link] [comments]

“First time poster long time reader. Ok I don’t really know what I want I think I just need to vent and get some reassurance. I had my daughter in early July and I was so excited to try breastfeeding with her. I had my son three year ago and breastfeeding was horrible (2 nasty bouts of mastitis back to back, bad latch, non interested feeder, etc) I stopped feeding around the 6 week mark, but always felt like I gave up too early. Now with this baby I was nervously excited to give it another shot.”

“I go back to work tomorrow, and given this I plan on pumping at 7am, 10am and 1pm (teacher!) and then nurse my LO around 4:30 when I’m off. If I’m pumping at say 7am but she doesn’t take a bottle till 8-8:30, how will this affect my supply when it’s a weekend? Also will pumping on a schedule help regulate my supply because right now I’m struggling bad with an oversupply on one side while trying to up my other side’s supply. Love to get them evened out 😭😭😭 submitted by /u/Sarcastic”

“I’m 32 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and throughout my pregnancy I’ve planned on breastfeeding. Ideally, I’d like to do a combination of nursing and pumping so my partner can give bottles too. But as I get closer to actually having my baby, I’ve realized I have a lot of anxiety about nursing specifically, and I’m wondering if anyone else felt this way before giving birth. This is a little embarrassing to admit, but one of my biggest worries is simply what breastfeeding is going to feel like”

“Need some support and positivity right now )-: For context, my baby is 12 weeks old and EBF. I absolutely love breastfeeding which I honestly did not expect. I love waking up in the middle of the night and nursing him back to sleep, I love having the ability to comfort him whenever he is fussy, and I just love having that time with him. He has been pretty miserable for the last several weeks (I’d say going on 6 weeks now). Upset literally any time that he’s awake, fussing at my boob, just crying”

“We have been pretty exclusively pumping the last few days to give my poor nipples a break. Baby finally seems to have figured out her latch! It’s still early but she was able to BF for 10 min on my right side. I then pumped for 5 min on the left side as my left breast was rock hard and sore. I have been pumping both sides simultaneously up till now. My question is: how do I manage transitioning from exclusively pumping both sides simultaneously to BF one side per feed? Also, am I suppose to be c”

“6 week old baby is finding latching very difficult. I’m pumping atm. I just did two weeks of nipple shields which saw weight drop and supply drop too. When baby latches he drops off v quickly (too used to bottle and milk not quick enough?) Prior to nipple shields I was producing approx 100ml more than he was eating. Supply has now dropped to 100ml short. I’m doing some power pumps but am fairly confident supply will get there. Option 1:- offer breast, then shield if not taking, (hmmm…?), then to”

“Hi everybody I’m a first time mom who just gave birth on Saturday 8/29. I’ve been exclusively breastfeeding. However I am wondering if it would be possible to start pumping as well so that me and my partner can do shifts? My baby is doing well with latching, having enough pee and poos, pediatrician said his weight gain is good, and my supply seems good. I saw online not to pump if my breasts feel engorged because it can cause an oversupply. So does anyone have experience doing this in the early”

“my 4mo was on a strike for 6 weeks before finally coming back to breast. the strike happened because of bottle preference and having an EXTREMELY stubborn baby (we love! but very stressful for feeding lol). during this 6 weeks, I EP and fed her around every 3 hours during the day. now that she’s breastfeeding again, I of course don’t know exactly how much she’s taking in, but am confident she‘s overall getting enough (plenty of wet/poopy diapers). I am offering around every 2ish hours, and somet”

“I am trying to understand pumping and supply. My baby is only 6 days old so things are all new and early on still. We have had to introduce bottles early as we needed to supplement with formula while we waited for my milk to come in as baby was slightly jaundiced and the doctor wanted to ensure she was having plenty of pee’s and poo’s. Additionally, baby’s latch is not great and my nipples are pretty damaged now. My milk came in a couple days ago and there is plenty. I am currently pumping to gi”

“The title says it all, LOL. It’s literally something new after we have our lactation consults 😭 My little gremlin is 11 + 2 weeks and we’ve gone to a lactation consult once a week since he was 6 weeks because this little one is giving me massive anxiety about latching and transferring. He quite literally does such a good job that it makes me look like I’m worried over nothing. He appears to be transferring efficiently and I guess is gradually spending less time pulling milk. For example, our la”

“I’m a STM with a 9 month old and my second time breastfeeding/pumping to this age. I want to continue until baby is 1 but I’m worried about the effort it would take to bring it back. Currently I’m breastfeeding when I’m working from home and pumping when I’m in the office. I really want to maintain my supply while I’m gone and I don’t mind bringing all my milk back but it’s been difficult figuring out logistics. I’m in Taiwan and flying to London for a week. The flight is 17 hours. Obviously on”

“If I am exclusively pumping, should I be pumping every three hours or every time my baby has any bit of a bottle? submitted by /u/noneavailable_ [link] [comments]”

“I’m currently 5 weeks postpartum, and one of the things I struggle with the most is balancing all of the information I have coming in from different sources vs what works best for me and baby. Our pediatrician gave us the ok to let baby dictate feeds 2 weeks PP when she was back at birth weight. My LC however doesn’t want me going more than 3 hours during the day, or 4 hours at night. Right now, that pretty much aligns with baby, especially at night. What I’m really trying to sort through is if”

“My baby is 7m old. When he was first born we had a lot of issues with ineffective milk transfer (1oz weighted feeds) and weight gain. We ended up using a shield and then weaning off with the help of an SLP (he also wasn’t great at using a bottle in the beginning). I’ve been mostly pumping since 2/3 months and I was a just enougher. He’s always been nursing at night and I’d get up to pump too. Recently he’s been nursing more and my pump output has been lower like 1 oz per side (if that) instead o”

“Hey everyone! My daughter is 4 weeks old and I have been exclusively breastfeeding her. I know I’ll have to start pumping before I go back to work so how did you transition to pumping and bottles? Right now her eating is sporadic and sometimes we’ll go 3 hours between feeds and sometimes only one hour. We’ve been so lucky to have an easy breastfeeding journey so far and I’m getting overwhelmed thinking of the logistics and extra work that comes with pumping and bottles. Ideally I’d still like to”

“Once? Twice? How did you schedule pumping during your teaching schedule if you pumped at work? submitted by /u/Electronic-Phones [link] [comments]”

“Hi, pretty discouraged and looking for advice. Recently implemented the nipple shield to help baby get back to breast and I’m wondering if anyone else used this technique- how long did it take baby to actually take a full feed? I’m not sure how long I should try before throwing in the towel. My little one is taking a few sucks and swallows (sometimes), then gets frustrated and pulls off or tired and falls asleep. He self soothes on it but has only taken a very small feeding. Any other mamas used”

“My baby (4 months now) has refused the breast for a month and a half. I have done everything under the sun to try to get her back to nursing, and had it confirmed by a LC there is nothing left to try. I still offer, and she has occasionally latched and fed while asleep, but will arch away 99% of the time. I’m just heartbroken and hurting and while I absolutely hate pumping, I like that I can still provide for my baby even though she won’t nurse. submitted by /u/Minimum-Conflict-176 [”

“I’m sure there are a bunch of threads on this already so apologies, but just wanted to a quick pulse check! I’m working on transitioning from exclusively pumping to nursing my 4.5 week old. She’s gotten so much better, but I’m noticing she loves to actively nurse for a bit, fall asleep, and then wake up 5-10 minutes later ready to eat again. She’ll do this a few times in a session. I assume this is totally normal but figured I’d check…is this cluster feeding? Will she get more efficient at eatin”

“I hate hate hate KB. Everyone recommends them but I cannot get a good fit! I've tried the brand I'm not allowed to mention as well and find them loose. I know breastfeeding makes it tricky, but on every bra I have, the little adjuster buckle always falls down easily and is impossible to get back up. So my boobs always sag and look absolutely massive. I have a wedding coming up and my dress has buttons. Please help so that they aren't bursting off? I've bought the biggest dress I”

“I just got going back to work, I am a high school teacher, I am pumping at work and trying to find a good schedule, so this one fine? 6 am breastfeed 9 am pump 12:30 pump 3 pump Is it too much to wait 3.5 hours? submitted by /u/Due-Conclusion-6157 [link] [comments]”

“How frequently is everyone's 9 month olds nursing? I have to be away from my 9m old for two 4-5 hour blocks starting soon and he refuses milk in all bottles/cups. I was wondering how feasible it is to hold him over with food/snacks with his father during that time. Currently he still nurses every 2-3 hours for small amounts of time and before/after naps. submitted by /u/radstrawberryhun [link] [comments]”

“Just wanna hear your thoughts and patterns pls.. I’m panicking .. submitted by /u/Responsible_Leg_6622 [link] [comments]”

“I’m going back to work where I will be away from my 3 month old for about 8 hours. My dilemma is I have been exclusively nursing on demand, and she will only feed on one side in the mornings. An example of our schedule (it varies daily) 4-5am left side 8 am right side 10 am left side 11:30 right side Then by the afternoon I can sometimes get her to take the opposite side. My issue is I have to be at work at 7am. So in my current example, if she only feeds on the left side at 4-5am, my right side”

“Ugh i just wrote a long post and lost it. So here I go again I've had a nightmare trying to feed LO. By day 10 had a tongue tie cut, was triple feeding by week 2-3 for several weeks. By week 6 I stayed doing mainly bottles. She's now 8.5 weeks and I want to get her into the breast exclusively. Her latch is good and I have heaps of milk (probably an over supply now from all the pumping) Its only been a few days but it's not going well. I can't keep her awake. She falls asleep with”

“I just need success stories lol. This is hard and I am SO tired. submitted by /u/Unlikely-Fish-2115 [link] [comments]”

“Idk even how to word what I'm trying to say, but here we go. My daughter is about 9 weeks old, born at 6 lbs 5pz, currently up to 11 lbs, so clearly something is working. However, this past week or so, she'll nurse for a very short time and fall asleep at the breast. I'm trying to avoid making that a habit, but since she's falling asleep, I don't think she's getting a full feed. Even stripping her down to diaper only, she falls asleep. So she's nursing what feels like”

“Hi all - looking for some advice! I've exclusively breastfed my 8 week old to date. I want to start pumping so that we can get him used to taking a bottle on the rare occasion I might have an afternoon or evening without him. I originally planned to pump before I go to bed so my husband can do a late night feed, but my baby has started sleeping through the night (lucky!) so I don't want to mess with our routine now. Him sleeping more has also left me with a bit of an oversupply so I'”

“My baby has been mostly direct BF, with occasional bottles of pumped milk. I HATE pumping though, so once shes 1 year old and can have cows milk, I would like to stop pumping. Figured hubby can give her a cup of cows milk when I'm away instead of a bottle. (Ill continue breastfeeding until at least 2) I was curious to see if we could transition her from bottle to cup now (and swap the milk type later when shes old enough). We tested giving her breastmilk in her straw cup, and she kept spitti”

“I'm currently 22 weeks and have already started the brain fight within myself over deciding what I would like to do. My husband has expressed wanting to help with feeding and also create that bond with baby, however I am completely at a loss of what to do. Breastfeeding is cheapest and mess free, however removes the help from my husband. EP seems very time consuming and messy, but allows husband to help Formula is the most expensive slightly messy but also allows husband to help. What did pe”

“Hi, I never post but my desperation has led me here. I am currently 6 days PP with my first baby. In the hospital, she latched PERFECTLY. Nurses even commented how perfectly she latched. We get home/my milk came in and it all changed. All of a sudden she had a shallow latch, bleeding nipples… and lots of tears from both of us. The pain was EXCRUCIATING. I tried to follow videos, tried various positions, and different tips to improve with no luck. I requested a lactation appointment (which is set”

“I'm 3 weeks postpartum and originally my mindset was that, if breastfeeding works - great and I'll try, but if it doesn't I won't freak out about it since I myself and my siblings were almost all raised on formula and we all turned out fine. After my son was born I got to see him about 12 hours later (during which he was getting formula supplementation), and I was taught by the lactation consultant how to latch him and breastfeed, and after a few discussions they advised me to us”

“I'm 33 weeks pregnant and anxious to start my breastfeeding journey! Does anyone have a recommendation for a watch that helped them with timing and alarms for feeds? I'm thinking that for the middle of the night feeds, I won't want to wake to my phone alarm and worry about messing with my phone every time, and I would rather just have something on my wrist that beeps to wake me up, allows me to simply check the time, and quickly reset a timer for the next feed. submitted by &#3”

“I want a bra that can be useful for breastfeeding but also want to feel sexy while wearing it. Any recommendations? submitted by /u/Almost_too_Innocent [link] [comments]”

“Hello world, So me and my wife had our first new born lqst march, since he was a preemie he stayed in the NICU for sometimes, they introduced the bottle to him at first which made him not latch to his mom when he was out, he had jaundice and they said when he is fed and after some time it will fade away so we went back home and my wife tried breastfeeding and when he didn't latch or he did and didn't suck too much we felt he wasn't taking enough and jaundice increased instead of fadi”

“Is pumping about 2.5 oz per session at 6 weeks posted good or do I need to produce more? I pump while I am at work or if my baby is sleeping and my boobs feel engorged. I am able to imp about 3 times at work. When I’m with my baby, I breastfeed. Any tips on how I can produce more? submitted by /u/Every_Star7710 [link] [comments]”

“As the title says, I’m going back to work in about 2.5 weeks. I haven’t pumped one time, just exclusively breastfeeding. I am starting to get worried about how this works. I work hybrid, so will be going into the office 3 days a week. I am going to see how long I can work from home for before this happens. I’m a trainer though, so even remotely I need to be on camera for multiple hours while in training. I also feel that because I never pumped, I’m only making enough milk to breastfeed. I never”

“Hi there ☺️ I’m a new mam my baby she is 3 weeks and 4 days old I am exclusively breastfeeding her but I am using the Tommie tippie egg pumps as she couldn’t latch onto the breast so we bottle feed her the breast milk. Recently my left breast has become very hard. Painful to touch and massively engorged this has lasted 2 days and the right is now the same this has lasted one day I’m I. A lot of pain currently I’m expressing milk every 2 hours for 10 minutes not fully emptying the breasts and 10”

“What it says! If you’re DDD or greater, 1) what positions do you like to nurse in* 2) recs for bras compatible with nursing / pumping *and do you need to sandwich hold the whole time because your boob is double the size of your baby’s head? Just me?? I am probably a 32H right now but who’s counting submitted by /u/Specific-Flatworm632 [link] [comments]”

“Hi everyone! I'm a first-time stay-at-home mom to an almost 4-month-old. I exclusively breastfeed. I'd like to start pumping occasionally, maybe once or twice a week, so I can go out for a few hours and my husband can give her a bottle. Is it okay to pump that infrequently? Will it mess with my supply? I'm a little clueless about the whole pumping thing. Which pump, bottles, and nipple flow size would you recommend? She has never had a bottle before. Any suggestions would be so appre”

“Curious if any other moms combo feed in order to reduce the amount of pumping sessions at work! I absolutely hate pumping. I feel like I lose a ton of time every day to it (even though I work while I pump, I think it’s just a massive inconvenience in my mind). I currently pump 3 times a day but I’m heavily debating dropping 1 of those times and just supplementing with formula. I’m also terrified it’s going to tank my supply. I genuinely enjoy breastfeeding and would be sad if I had to stop befor”

“Our LO was born at 30w1d and is 3w2d corrected today (3 mo!!). I had planned to exclusively breast-feed and pump when I got back to work, but due to her early arrival, we lived in the Nicu for seven weeks. She was clearly small and has been on breastmilk fortified to 24 cal which is why we are using these bottles. She did well with the doc brown bottles in the nicu, but the narrow nipple made it difficult for her to latch on my rather large breasts. We moved to the Nuk perfect match whenever she”

“It’s my own fault and I’m mad at myself for not staying consistent with nursing. My son would nurse/ bottle feed up until I went back to work around 7 weeks. I got lazy and really just leaned into exclusively pumping because that’s what I was doing most the time anyways😔 we would nursing occasionally but as time went on he got more and more comfortable with the bottle and would refuse to nurse. He’s now 8 months and I want to start nursing again. Mostly for our middle of the night feeds. I’m tr”

“He is so darn lazy with eating we can hardly get him to suck and he is struggling with his blood sugars. My biggest question is do i need to start pumping or can i give it a day or two. I really don’t want to pump especially in the hospital submitted by /u/TightVisit9120 [link] [comments]”

“Looking for some recommendations for a high impact sports bra that is quick and easy to breastfeed in. Available in Canada! submitted by /u/user-sb [link] [comments]”

“can someone maybe answer my question? i just had my first on the 11th she really just wont latch she’s so uninterested in it. is it fine that i’m pumping and giving her it in a bottle ? she’s perfectly content with a bottle of my milk/ colostrum but no matter how long or frequently i try to get her to latch on to me, she just screams and continues to root around. they got her to in the hospital but even then she was still super uninterested in it and it took awhile. she won’t latch but she’ll ki”

“My BF journey has been anything but pleasant. After a ton of LC, PT, chiro my guy can breast feed like a champ and we never had to release his lip or tongue tie. HOW.EVER. He now gets pissed as hell at the boob if my let down isn’t fast enough unless it’s the middle of the night or he’s just waking up. He will take a bottle ravenously though. This leaves me having to pump a million times a day and I’m honestly going to lose my mind because this shit is already so hard. I’m ready to throw in the”