My 3.5 week newborn breastfeeds. We are beginning to introduce one bottle of expressed milk to her nightly (so husband can get in on the feeding), though would like to have containers on hand for the holiday. How often can I pump (manual) w/out fear of not having milk for baby? Is there a duration of time it takes to produce more milk after expressing? My daughter will nurse roughly every two hours after completing her feed (though, is experiencing a growth spurt).

Be very careful with introducing a bottle so soon. You are risking her developing a preference for the artificial nipple and doing serious damage to your supply. It takes a full 6 weeks to fully establish a supply so any supplementing you do before then or even after then could be a problem. I introduced a bottle at 6 weeks at night, got AF back almost instantly, almost completely lost my supply, and dd quickly preferred the easy bottle to me. It was devastating and I had to work so hard to get back to fulltime nursing, it took until 10 weeks.

Off my soap box...to answer your question the breast is never fully empty even though it may feel that way at times. If you pump and your dd wants to feed shortly after your breast will make more milk, your baby may just have to work a little harder and suck a little longer to get what she needs. If you start a consistent pumping session at a certain time of day your body will start producing more to compensate. You are likely to pump more in the early morning or in the middle of the night if dd sleeps any long stretches. Otherwise I just say pick a time that is good for you and just do it consistently every day at that time and your body should respond. Also if you go ahead with the nightly bottle routine remember you must pump at this time or your body will think it does not need to produce which could cause the problems I mentioned above.

Good luck and congrats on your baby.

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i'll ditto everythign that kenda said... from the early intro of fake nipples, to the supplementation to the supply and demand thing to the breats never being empty. on the money.

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Thank you.

Re: the artificial nipple, I originally had concerns but our pediatrician said three weeks was a good time to introduce it.

After the first few days of her birth I had a very healthy milk supply, she gained over a pound before two weeks & hasn't to date had difficulty latching or sucking, add that to almost twenty minutes of active pushing when she was born & I've had it very easy so far! <-- has nothing to do w/ nursing, I'm just still amazed.

It's not that I've felt my milk supply slow, more so wanted to avoid it happening. The the past few days I've been pumping in the AM w/ no problems, enough for one bottle in the PM & just began to wonder.

A problem / pref. hasn't occured yet, but then again, it could be too soon to tell.

Once again, thank you, the replies are appreciated.

3 weeks is right around one of the common growth spurt ages, it is usually better to wait to introduce the fake nipple until 4-6 weeks to allow supply to be adjusted to what baby actually needs. anothe rbig one usually happens right around 6 wks old. re- the ped saying it was a god time; maybe she needs a bit of an update/refresher/reminder? then again, MOST peds know very little about bf to begin with.

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Ignore most peds info on breastfeeding. Almost all have NO education on breastfeeding or infant nutrition. Most will also still tell you to start solids earlier than recommended by the AAP too.

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your breasts are never empty. when the main letdown is over my milk flows slower but still flows. I would say pump first thing in the morning because that will give the most milk with your pump.

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hi there

i'm new here and in a exact same situation as dei gratia. Question is, if we pump now to maintain/increase our milk supply but NOT giving it in bottle to our babies yet, wat do we do with the pumped out milk? I've been pumping since Monday, but for the past 2 days, i have not been pumping cos my dd is vomitting milk, and i have been bringing her to see the PD, plus she has been doing a 1hourly feeding interval, simply cant find the time to pump! So have slacked for 2 days now, worried my supply will drop Just now i pumped again after she feeds and only managed to get a mere miserable 5-10ml from both breasts combined!! My breasts gone all soft and i'm so depressed! Help!!

Welcome, fennho!
Freeze it! kellymom.com :: Links: Breastmilk Storage & Handling Kellymom.com is a great resource for all sorts of breastfeeding questions.

Your baby is much better at emptying your breast than a pump, so if she's nursing every hour then you have absolutely no worries about your supply. Breastmilk is considered a clear liquid so keep nursing her! Even if she is vomiting, some of it is staying in.
Having soft breasts doesn't mean there is no milk. As your body adjusts to your baby's needs your breasts do not become engorged very often, but there is plenty of milk. Pumping is not a good measure of how much milk is in your breasts. It could be that your body recognizes your daughter's increased nursing and isn't responding to the pump. If you are pumping right after she feeds there is not going to be as much there, as well.

this too shall pass! Nursing your daughter as much as you can is the best thing for her right now. Breastmilk is the ultimate clear fluid, full of nutrients and antibodies that will help her get well, even if some of it comes back up. Pumping can help build a supply, but the best way to keep your supply up is having the baby nurse, nurse, nurse! I almost never pump and have had no trouble keeping up with my babies It's all supply and demand, so more demand, more supply.

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ditto to kara's post. (again! , lol)

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hi kara

thaks so much for your response. Am feeling rather worried cos i've got mixed advices from different camps of people. One camp is telling me to jus latch, latch, latch, but the other camp told me the ONLY way of increasing supply is to latch and pump, latch and pump! The "latch & pump" camp told me that if i jus latch on, sooner or later, my milk supply is jus going to petered off. That's why i've been so worried that if i jus contd to nurse like this, i'm gonna run out of milk soon.

Do u mean that even if i dont pump and jus continue to nurse, my milk supply will increase without me noticing it? I tot we shud gauge our supply by judging how "lumpy" or rather full our breasts are. Cos back when i was pumping i noticed when i sleep for 4hours straight, the next morning, my breasts are full and hard (not engorged though, jus full of hard lumps) and i can pump out about 100ml. So without pumping now, and at an hourly (sometimes even shorter), i can feel my breasts are soft all the time, thus, am worried i have very little milk inside!

Another worry of mine is i hope this hourly interval is really a cluster feeding cos she's about 3weeks now, which i read is normal for a growth spurt. But i read this is only supposed to be for a day or two. If it carry on for more than a week, then, possibly baby is not getting enough. Right? It's been Day 2 she's doing this hourly interval and more so at night...i think i am going crazy soon cos i hardly have any sleep and rest cos i'm all alone (hubby is in HK and i'm in Singapore now) and again, i'm worried my lack of rest will also cause my ss to be reduced.

U mentioned "this too will come to pass"...can u roughly advise when can i expect this to pass? Reason is i'm going crazy wondering when it'll end...it'll help to have a "goal" in my book and work towards that "date", like " the light at the end of a dark tunnel". It doesnt help that my mom and also mother-in-law are from the generation of formula feeding, thus, as and when baby cries, they'll think she's hungry or i do not have enough milk to keep her full. Lots of pressures and scoldings as to why i am persistence (they call it stubborn) to let my dd go hungry. Have tried explaining to them that it's for the best of my dd, but they jus scoffed and shake their heads, STILL thinking i'm the fool. I can only keep quiet and tolerate.

When is a "safe" time to intro feeding EBM via bottle? That's cos i am relocating to HK and frankly, the public there frown or rather dont take to breastfeeding in public too well and there's almost zero public breastfeeding room there. So am thinking ahead and wondering when i can intro the bottle to feed my baby ebm when i bring her out and about.

Sorry for all the questions as i'm a 1st time mom and have no support at all. Thank you all for your kind responses and patience with me.

Latch, latch, latch. Pumping will help you build up a stash, but the baby is so much more efficient that the more she drains the breast the more milk. Your breast is signaled to make more milk when it has been drained, and a pump just can't do as good a job as a baby can, even the hospital-grade pumps.

Yup. Total supply and demand system, the more demand (baby at the boob), the more supply.

When your breasts feel lumpy and really full, that's engorgement, and it's your body's way of making sure you have enough milk before it figures out how much your baby needs. It is essentially an oversupply and as your body figures out what your baby needs you stop having the oversupply (although it will still happen on occasion). Soft breast are the norm once this whole newborn thing is over - they will get fuller and then less full, but rarely get hard. Perfectly normal!

This is perfect timing for a growth spurt, and should only last a few days. BUT if she likes to comfort nurse it may go on for longer and not have anything to do with not getting enough milk. As long as she has enough wet diapers (at least 6 or 8 if I remember correctly) then she is getting plenty to eat. My first daughter was like that, she wouldn't take pacis or bottles or anything and all she really wanted was my boobie all the time. I found that a sling was a great way to carry her around and she could nurse without anybody else even knowing what we were doing (unless they got nosy and tried to look ).

Give it a couple of more days and she will go longer between feedings. It's also a gradual process, the older she gets the longer it gets, with a few bumps in the road for growth spurts.

Ugh. Sometimes babies just cry. Just because they are crying doesn't mean that you are starving them. She may have colic, gas, or just be a cranky girl. Again, if she has enough wet diapers then she's doing just fine eating. Stick to your guns and tell them they had their chance to feed their babies, and she is YOUR baby and you decide what is best for her. Educate yourself as much as you can and throw it back in their faces kellymom :: Breastfeeding and Parenting and LLLI | Home are great places to start.

Sounds really frustrating! I'm not an expert on that because DD#1 NEVER took a bottle and we started at 5wks. OTOH, DD#2 got her first bottle a couple of weeks ago at 9wks old and she took it right away without fussing and was pleased as punch to get fed. I think your best bet is to make sure that you and she are comfortable breastfeeding, that there are no bad latch issues, and that she's gaining well.

Don't be sorry! I know I don't mind answering questions, and you've got to start somewhere! Ask away

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i think dats exactly wat i wanna do, ie build up a stash. If i do solely latching on, does dat mean my breast will only have wat it needs to latch baby on? Wat if i need to travel with hubby, or even jus attend a 1day seminar, will this mean, when i pump i wont get enough (becos breast is not use to pumping) and will only get a miserable amount cos bearing in mind the pump is not an efficient way of extracting milk by now...is there a "too late to start pumping" deadline for breastfeeding? Sorry..am i confusing u? I am jus worried i cant switch to ebm next time as and when i have the need to, since right now i seemed to have sufficient milk for bb but not enough for pumping. Jus worried this will happen in the future and i will have to continue latching or give up bf altogether.

Btw, Kara, when people say hourly interval, do u all count from the time the feeding starts or when the feeding ends? For eg, if i start at 1pm, and ends at 2pm, then the next feed is 3pm, is this a 1hour interval or considered a 2hour interval?

Yah the more i read your answers, the more i think i shud pump rite? Cos it seems dat pumping build up an oversupply so i cud store it and let someone use it in emergency cases when i need to be away.

I'm not Kara but I want to help. That said, my first suggestion is RELAX. Yes breastfeeding has its challenges but most of all it's a magical experience only you can share with your precious baby. So slow down a little and try to enjoy it.

Second, I personally think any time is a great time to start pumping if you want to build a stash. Preferably pick a specific time of day and then pump consistently at that same time every day until your stash is what you want. Do not be discouraged if you get very little milk in the beginning. Your body will respond to the increased demand over a few days or up to a week. Just be steadfast and confident in yourself.

Like Kara said, some babies like to comfort nurse which just means they would rather pass the time with a booby in their mouth. I had one of those and it seemed like she nursed endlessly. But at some point I just realized my life would go on. So I would nurse her in a sling so I could move around, or nurse her in front of the computer so I could work or play around etc... Trust me, before you know it your baby will be several months old and interested in the world outside the booby and you'll be begging her to please just breastfeed while she pushes you and tries to get down.

As for timing, this was frustrating for me because I went from the time the feeding started to the time the next feeding started. So if I fed her at 1:00 pm and again at 3:00 pm I said I fed her ever two hours. However she might have stayed on the boob for an hour or more from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm which some will tell you is outrageous. And for some babies they never would breastfeed for that long. But for my newborn and lots of newborns that was just her norm. It's what she liked to do. And fight it all you want, if you are committed to making breastfeeding work you have to listen to your baby and not the naysayers around you. Trust your baby.

Alright, I hope some of what I have said helps you a little. Trust me I know how hard it is. I have not had the easiest time. But I was committed and am so happy I never gave up. Now Addi is a walking almost talking 11 month old who is healthy as a horse thanks to me. We will continue to breastfeed for a long time and I absolutely adore the special relationship I have with my daughter. Best of luck. And come here any time you need advise or encouragement. That's what we're here for.

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Kenda makes a great point - RELAX! Listen to your baby and follow her cues.

There is no time that it is too late to start pumping, and like Kenda said even if you don't get much in the beginning your body will respond and you will be able to pump more and more. Your breasts are continually making milk, so even if the baby drinks it all, she can still get some out of your boob. Make sure when you do give her a bottle you find one that has a wide nipple on it so she has to keep her lips open while drinking, and the slowest flow nipple you can find.

Technically, you count time from the start of one feeding to the start of the next. That was frustrating for me, too, with Vivian because she would sometimes only go 1/2 hour off the boob because she nursed for so long

You're doing just fine! Pump whenever you have some free time, but you might have to wait a few days until this growth spurt is over just to get that time Keep doing what you're doing and your baby will grow, grow, grow

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I jus realised based on wat i've JUST learnt that my bb is actually on a 2hour interval instead of 1hour cos i shud count from feeding start time instead of feeding end time (which i have been doing !) For the past 2 nights i have been having the hardest time. From approx 4-5am onwards, my baby will fuss for feed but she will only latch for about 10mins and then fall asleep. I tried all sorts of methods to wake her up but to no avail, she sleeps like a log and even pursed her lips together refusing to budge. But jus when i tot she's sound asleep and put her back in her cot, barely 3-5mins later, she wakes up fussing and crying again. I'm trying to decipher if her cries are truly for feeding, i rock her, soothe her, sing to her, carry her, do everything, but she's jus mouth open and seem to be rooting for my breast with occasional fist-in-mouth actions and she just cries and cries UNTIL i latch her on, dats the only way to quiet her. This goes on ALL the way up to 9-10am. I am so zombied now but as morning dawned, i find myself unable to catch any nap at all. Is THIS cluster feed? I tot it's usually in the evening, mine is midnite! ironically, she also have a similar fussing time between 6pm to 9pm. But that's less taxing. Am starting to wonder if i do have enough milk... or if she's latching properly. But miraculously, after 10am, she's reduced back to "normal feeding" ie on timely schedule of a 2hour interval. What could be the issue here? Help!

Thanks to all for offering a listening ear and supportive words and advices. This is really tough!!