Exclusively Pumping: Our Journey, Pumping Schedules and Tips

I always wanted to breastfeed; I imagined it would be a great bonding experience and was the route I had envisioned for us when Kennadi was born. Kennadi was born a few weeks early (full birth story linked here) but latched in the hospital with no issues. About 12 hours after birth, the doctor informed us she had slight levels of Jaundice. Due to this, they wanted to supplement with formula to help break down the Bilirubin levels.

This became really challenging. We had to give her formula through a tiny tube while she was latched on to me. The lactation specialist helped us and by that evening, her levels had dropped low enough for us to be discharged the following day. The doctor informed us we would need to continue with the formula through the tube until she had her first doctor’s appointment a few days later.

When we got home, feeding became even more difficult. This girl was constantly wanting to eat. The problem was, she would be latched on for almost an hour and then be hungry an hour later. As first time parents, we didn’t know better and just thought this was the cluster feeding everyone talked about. In hindsight, there was clearly a latch/transfer issue.

Kennadi had her first doctor’s appointment and everything went great. She was still slightly Jaundice but the levels weren’t concerning and she was the same weight as when we left the hospital (5 lbs. 12 oz.) Her pediatrician wanted us to continue with the formula through the tube to help continue breakdown the Jaundice. Well, feedings became pretty miserable at home; it was extremely difficult to get her to simultaneously latch and suck formula through the feeding tube.

We had another doctor’s appointment a week later and that one definitely didn’t go as planned. She had lost weight (5 lbs. 9 oz.) so our pediatrician scheduled a lactation consultation for us. Her latch did improve after our lactation appointment so we thought we were finally on the road to success with breastfeeding. Her next doctor’s appointment was three days later and she gained 5.5 ounces in three days; we were SO excited! We also FINALLY got to stop supplementing with the formula tube!

Well, the next few weeks didn’t bring much success. Like I mentioned, she would be latched on for almost an hour, just to be crying inconsolably an hour later. We had a hard time believing she was already hungry again but that was the only thing to calm her down. As you could imagine, this made for extremely long days and nights. I felt like she was latched on to me 24/7 and it was honestly exhausting. Her sleep was awful… again, as first time parents, we kind of shrugged it off to the newborn stage.

Her one month appointment came and while her pediatrician said she was “healthy” … she had only gained a few ounces over almost a month of time. When she told us that, we knew there was an issue. I felt completely defeated and my husband and I both agreed we needed to do something different. I was physically and emotionally drained and Kennadi clearly wasn’t getting enough milk.

There were two options for us: formula or exclusively pumping. The only reason I even knew anything about pumping was because my sister in law exclusively pumped for our niece. I knew it was time consuming and a lot of work but I was bummed breastfeeding wasn’t working out and I wanted to still give Kennadi breastmilk. So, I called my sister and she helped walk me through everything I needed to know about exclusively pumping.

I was absolutely overwhelmed at first but also felt a huge sense of relief. A little something about me…. I am a slight control freak. It eased my mind SO much being able to actually see exactly how many oz. Kennadi was getting instead of just hoping she got enough milk to fill her up.

We noticed a HUGE difference right away. For one.. my boobs had never felt empty until I pumped a full day. I had nothing to compare it to but once I started pumping and felt the difference, I realized Kennadi had to have been getting hardly any milk when she was latched to me. When I was breastfeeding, I constantly had clogs and my boobs were in so much pain. Looking back, I laugh at myself and think “no wonder” but in the moment, everything is overwhelming and stressful as a first time mom and I just did not know better.

Kennadi was immediately happier; she was crying and fussing way less. This was such a relief.. for a while, we thought we would just have a really fussy baby! Turns out, she was just starving. Night time sleep immediately improved and since she was taking bottles, my husband and I both also got longer stretches of sleep since we would switch off who fed her. I had to pump in the middle of the night but would do this laying down, half asleep, most of the time (more on that below.) After three weeks of Kennadi taking bottles, she started sleeping through the night. And she has ever since.

I never knew how much of a sacrifice exclusively pumping is until I did it. It is rough but I don’t regret it at all. I didn’t enjoy being hooked up to a wall for hours each day, having to schedule our days around pumping times, and washing a million pumping parts all day…. BUT it was the best decision for us and helped Kennadi grow and thrive. She wasn’t even on the weight chart for the first few months of her life and by the time I finished pumping, she was in the 13^th percentile. Nothing made me smile more than this!