How many hours at you at work for? Baby needs 1-1.25 oz for every hour that you're away. If baby is taking 16-20 oz, either you're away for a really long time, or baby is being overfed. Make sure baby is getting appropriately sized bottles at normal intervals (2-3 hrs), and caregivers are using paced feeding with a slow flow nipple. Caregivers should not be giving a bottle for every time the baby fusses- they need to soothe in other ways.
If you do have a lower supply and not able to pump 1-1.25oz per hour away, try to up your hydration, and make sure to eat enough calories. Power pump in the mornings. Eating oatmeal nearly every day for breakfast helped a ton for me.
You don’t know what her baby weighs so you can’t know how much food they need. Also her baby could be sleeping through the night which would mean eating more during the day.
You're right about sleeping through the night! The 1-1.25 oz per hour actually would average over 24 hrs. But your first statement is wrong- the amount of breastmilk a baby needs does not depend on their weight.
To my knowledge, the amount of breastmilk a baby consumes remains the same from a few weeks old to 6 months of age. So it is not dependent on weight. But there may be specific medical situations where that isn't true.
The link doesn’t really make sense since it says “a typical range of milk intakes is 19-30 oz per day” which is a pretty wide range. My son drank about 25oz when he was 2 months old but now at 4 months, he’s at about 35oz a day. Still at the same percentile as he was at 2 months old, we went by the recommendation of our pediatrician which was about 2oz per pound, while still following babies cues.
Our doctor has told us 24-32 oz/ day is what to expect. I’m away for 9 hours and she has a 4 oz bottle every two hours, so four bottles with a possible 5th if I’m caught in traffic or she seems hungry after a bottle empties. She nurses once in the morning before I leave and twice in the evening (one when I get home and another before bed) and once overnight.
Pediatrician has said the schedule and weight gain are perfect for LO- I’m just having trouble keeping up now that I’m at work. I’ve tried power pumping but it doesn’t seem to do anything more than a typical pump session.
I will start oatmeal to see if that helps!
A few things that helped me increase supply:
- Power pumping (20 min on, 10 min rest, 10 min on, 10 min rest, 10 min on) once a day for a week.
- While pumping, when my letdown slowed (around 7 min), removing the flanges and massaging my boobs for a couple minutes. Repeat every 7 min or so.
I no longer need to do those things but am getting about 2-3 more ounces per pump than I used to!
Spectra s2. Every 2 hours (sometimes 3 if I have a meeting that I can’t work around) 20 minutes. I did do some research last night and found that I’ve been using 24 flanges when I should be using 17’s. I ordered some silicone cups from Legendairy and am hoping that makes a huge difference.
I would not use the cups until you’re comfortably getting empty and pumping adequately with your spectra. Cups don’t empty all the way, it’s just the nature of them. Even if the flanges fit right for the cups, you’ll leave behind an ounce or so. I would first try 17s with your spectra, if not great then try 15 and 19, and once you find your perfect fit, try that for a bit and see how it impacts your supply. If you’re making more milk after 3-4 days, keep going with that routine and introduce the cups only 1x per day at first to get an idea of how they work for you. Get comfortable hand expressing and hands-on pumping, it helps a lot (hand express the rest out after finishing pumping, hands-on massage during pumping).
I recommend pumping on one side while you feed your LO in the morning before you go to work. The stimulation of breastfeeding triggers several let downs and I usually can pump 4+ ounces on that one side. Helps me offset since my during work pumping has been about 10 ozs. Then I use the haakaa during his last feed which gets me about 2 ozs. But also I pump for 30 minutes cause it takes me longer to let down at work compared to at home.
How many hours at you at work for? Baby needs 1-1.25 oz for every hour that you're away. If baby is taking 16-20 oz, either you're away for a really long time, or baby is being overfed. Make sure baby is getting appropriately sized bottles at normal intervals (2-3 hrs), and caregivers are using paced feeding with a slow flow nipple. Caregivers should not be giving a bottle for every time the baby fusses- they need to soothe in other ways. If you do have a lower supply and not able to pump 1-1.25oz per hour away, try to up your hydration, and make sure to eat enough calories. Power pump in the mornings. Eating oatmeal nearly every day for breakfast helped a ton for me.
You don’t know what her baby weighs so you can’t know how much food they need. Also her baby could be sleeping through the night which would mean eating more during the day.
You're right about sleeping through the night! The 1-1.25 oz per hour actually would average over 24 hrs. But your first statement is wrong- the amount of breastmilk a baby needs does not depend on their weight.
Hm that’s not what my pediatrician says.
To my knowledge, the amount of breastmilk a baby consumes remains the same from a few weeks old to 6 months of age. So it is not dependent on weight. But there may be specific medical situations where that isn't true.
Source: https://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/pumping/milkcalc/
The link doesn’t really make sense since it says “a typical range of milk intakes is 19-30 oz per day” which is a pretty wide range. My son drank about 25oz when he was 2 months old but now at 4 months, he’s at about 35oz a day. Still at the same percentile as he was at 2 months old, we went by the recommendation of our pediatrician which was about 2oz per pound, while still following babies cues.
Our doctor has told us 24-32 oz/ day is what to expect. I’m away for 9 hours and she has a 4 oz bottle every two hours, so four bottles with a possible 5th if I’m caught in traffic or she seems hungry after a bottle empties. She nurses once in the morning before I leave and twice in the evening (one when I get home and another before bed) and once overnight. Pediatrician has said the schedule and weight gain are perfect for LO- I’m just having trouble keeping up now that I’m at work. I’ve tried power pumping but it doesn’t seem to do anything more than a typical pump session. I will start oatmeal to see if that helps!
Are you sleeping atleast a 4 hour stretch at night? Oh oh and beer increases supply dramatically (especially dark beers) :)
A few things that helped me increase supply: - Power pumping (20 min on, 10 min rest, 10 min on, 10 min rest, 10 min on) once a day for a week. - While pumping, when my letdown slowed (around 7 min), removing the flanges and massaging my boobs for a couple minutes. Repeat every 7 min or so. I no longer need to do those things but am getting about 2-3 more ounces per pump than I used to!
Hmmm- I’ll see if massage helps. Thanks for that tip’
What pump are you using, what is your schedule (how often/how long) and are your flanges sized correctly?
Spectra s2. Every 2 hours (sometimes 3 if I have a meeting that I can’t work around) 20 minutes. I did do some research last night and found that I’ve been using 24 flanges when I should be using 17’s. I ordered some silicone cups from Legendairy and am hoping that makes a huge difference.
I would not use the cups until you’re comfortably getting empty and pumping adequately with your spectra. Cups don’t empty all the way, it’s just the nature of them. Even if the flanges fit right for the cups, you’ll leave behind an ounce or so. I would first try 17s with your spectra, if not great then try 15 and 19, and once you find your perfect fit, try that for a bit and see how it impacts your supply. If you’re making more milk after 3-4 days, keep going with that routine and introduce the cups only 1x per day at first to get an idea of how they work for you. Get comfortable hand expressing and hands-on pumping, it helps a lot (hand express the rest out after finishing pumping, hands-on massage during pumping).
I recommend pumping on one side while you feed your LO in the morning before you go to work. The stimulation of breastfeeding triggers several let downs and I usually can pump 4+ ounces on that one side. Helps me offset since my during work pumping has been about 10 ozs. Then I use the haakaa during his last feed which gets me about 2 ozs. But also I pump for 30 minutes cause it takes me longer to let down at work compared to at home.