I'm looking for tips and suggestions on how I should start my pumping. I want to pump so I can freeze BM in order to use a little each day to try and get Kirsty onto bottles. She flat-out refuses a bottle so I think it's going to take a long time

She tends to feed from both breasts almost every feed so I'm not getting a chance to pump any. Any suggestions on how I should be pumping?

[Mars]

Fi, you could post this over in the Breastfeeding and Pumping boards for more help as well.

I'm not sure how you will work it. Can you add in a couple pumping sessions between Kirsty's feedings? At mt La Leche meeting they said the feeding & pumping together usually gives better results.

[Alison81]

Elsa was back and forth on wanting a bottle. She did HATE the bottle at one point, and would scream if you even showed her a bottle. I bought a couple different brands, and finally found that she hated the ones made for BFing babies, the wide mouth ones.

As for pumping, I used to pump about an hour after each feeding. And your body will adjust to the pumping session. Also, pick a time when you seem to have the most milk.

[Adriana's Mommy]

I exclusively pumped for 6 months.. I have an idea on what to do.. lol You should pump when your baby is asleep or pump on one side while your baby eats on the other.. If your hard core like I was, I pumped every 2-3 hours day and night.. Yes, it's a lot of work, exclusively pumping is.. But that's how I saved up a 3 months supply in my deep freezer.. It's good to have a stash set aside in case you have to go on antibiotics and have to pump and dump..

As for your little one taking the bottle.. You probably going to have to buy several types so you can find the one she likes..

[Frozendesire]

When I was saving up for this weekend I added two nursing sessions. 1 a couple hours after his morning feed and the other a couple hours after he had fallen asleep for the night. That seemed to help.

Through the day she tends to nurse between 1 and 3 hourly so I'm too scared to pump in between incase I do it and 20 minutes later she wants a feed.

Same with at night, she goes to bed at 8pm and can wake to feed anything between midnight & 3am. I tried her with a bottle twice today with no luck. But at least the second time today she allowed the teat to go into her mouth and she chewed on it a little with her gums. I'm going to buy a small necked bottle tmor, the 3 I have tried so far have been wide neck, therefore bigger teats. This is the last bottle I will buy though. If she doesn't like it, I'll persevere with the Dr. Brown bottle, and if it doesn't work, I'll try a sippy cup.

[Mars]

I hope Kirsty will take to her bottle soon.

[lauren in hi]

How's it going, Fifi? Could you possibly pump a few min. before a feeding? I'm not a big expert on this, but let us know how it goes.

If she nurses from each breast, you should be pumping both breasts immediately after she eats. This will show your body "hey, we need to make more". You may hardly get any milk when you pump after, but trust me, it will start to build up.

Try not to be worried that you will pump it all away and that she won't have enough for the next feeding. I had the same fear at first. Your body is still so new to nursing, it will adjust quickly to making more milk, and I highly doubt that she won't get enough at that next feeding.

I tried the wider nipple bottles as well (the ones that said they were best for a breastfed baby). Reid did not like them. He likes the plain ol' Platex Drop-In Bottles/nipples!

Thanks for that Bre! I bought a small neck bottle on monday, just a bog standard, nothing special... 3 bottles for £1.96... the others were 1 bottle for around £6.

I tried her with it twice on Monday and twice yesterday, she didn't actually drink from it, but kinda "lapped" the milk like a lil kitty cat Yesterday afternoon, she suckled twice, she gagged on the milk that came out but it's all about getting used to it. At least she played about with the teat, licking, chewing suckling for about 5 mins each time. Rather than crying immediately.

This morning I managed to pump 2.5oz as she slept from 8pm last night until.... 5am this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!! To say I was willing her to wake up from 4am onwards, is an understatement.... these boobies were HUGE and hard!!!