To have a good breast pumping experience, you need to create a routine and have a good time schedule to continue to maintain a good breast milk supply.  Just as you need to breastfeed your baby on a schedule initially you also will need to breast pump on a schedule.

In the beginning, when you are trying to establish a good breast milk supply, you will need to breast pump every 2-3 hours.  Once you establish a good supply, and a keeping up with your baby’s feeding demands, then you will be able to spread you breast pumping sessions further apart.

You will need to find a good routine to fit into your schedule, but you should try to stick with the same times (more or less) each day.  A good idea is to find equal intervals each time each day to help maintain your breast milk supply.

Such as:

• 6am
• 3pm
• Midnight

What kind schedule or you on and how quickly were you able to maintain this schedule and keep your breast milk supply up?

Don’t force the breast pump to pump too quickly or too hard.  Sometime when we lack the time or motivation to breast pump, we decide to put both the rhythm and pressure of the breast pump too high.  Some moms may jump on the breast pump with both dials pushed up to the highest level thinking that they will be able to get the breast milk out quicker.

Wrong answer.  What results is a painfully horrid experience.  Breast pumping first should mimic your baby and secondly, should not be painful.  Initially each time you start breast pumping you should:

• place your suction on the lower levels,
• as time passes, you can push the suction level up just a little to feel some pressure.

If you force the suction too quickly, you will find the pain too intense and quit pumping, your breast milk will begin to decrease and you will eventually crack your nipples causing bleeding into your breast milk.

Many of the newer models of breast pumps have very good settings for the rhythm and suction and help you determine the best settings for the best results for your breast pumping experience.

What do you find are the perfect settings for breast pumping?  If you have used the newer models of breast pumps – do you find them to be easier to control?

We all wait for that perfect night when baby sleeps through the entire night.  Is it possible; will it ever happen?  Well, yes, believe it or not, in the near future your baby will probably begin to sleep through the night.

However, as wonderful as it may seem, if you are breast pumping, you probably need to continue to wake at least once at night to breast pump.  I know if sounds horrible, but most moms have found that as soon as they stop the night time pumping session, they soon find that their breast milk begins to decrease.

By the time your little begins to sleep through the night, you probably have gotten a good routine and timing when you breast pump.  A good schedule is to find 3-4 evenly spaced time intervals:

-          6am

-          3pm

-          Midnight

This kind of schedule will help you keep the breast milk flowing.  And remember that if you use some of these other breast pumping tips, then you will not have to be up longer than 15-20 minutes each night.

How often do you pump each day and do you still get up in the middle of the night?

If all you do while breast pumping is sit and stare at the clock waiting for the time to finish, then you will feel like your breast pumping sessions will last forever.  You should have something to do while breast pumping to help the time pass by more quickly.

Some things that you may want to do while breast pumping are:

-          Watching television – of course the easiest and don’t require you to use your hands

-          Smiling and talking with your baby

-          Make phones calls

-          Read your favorite book or magazine

-          Listen to your favorite music

-          Drink a warm cup of tea

-          Relax and do nothing (how often do you get to do this)

Also, using a hands-free breast pumping bra helps immensely, allowing you to free yours hands from the breast pump and do numerous things while breast pumping:

-          Using your computer

-          Writing lists or important notes

-          Playing and feeding your baby

Whatever you choose to do, find something.  This will help you to breast pump for a much longer period of time and ultimately help you to make more breast milk for your baby.

What are some of the things that you do while breast pumping?

Many of us lack the time that we need to breast pump for very long, and we wait impatiently while watching the minutes on a clock to decide whether to finish pumping at this time.   Well, if you want to maintain a good breast milk supply, the last thing that you should be doing is watching a clock to see how many minutes you have been pumping.

To maintain a good breast milk supply and have plenty stocked up in your freezer for later use, you need to:

1. breast pump until the very last of your breast milk drops into your bottles and then pump just little longer.  No matter how long it takes – 5 minutes or 25 minutes – continue to breast pump until you can no longer get any breast milk out of your breasts.
2. In addition to waiting until no more breast milk comes out, you will want to continue to breast pump for 2-3 minutes longer to make sure that your breasts are completely empty and to signal to your body that next time you want a little more.

Do you normally wait until all of breast milk is before you stop breast pumping?  How has this helped with your breast milk supply?

When you learn to breastfeed, you are told to massage your breasts to help with the let down of your breast milk.  Well, of course the same holds true for breast pumping.  However, in addition to massaging just prior to using your breast pumping, you will want to massage your breasts while breast pumping.

As you are breast pumping, use your thumb to put pressure on your breasts from your armpit and run it along to the breast shield.  This put pressure on the milk ducts pushing more breast milk out as you are breast pumping.

You can even hold the breast shields on with your index and middle finger (or use a hands-free bra) and actually squeeze your breast with your thumb and pinky, pushing forward from your armpit for the entire time you are breast pumping.  This helps to really get all the breast milk out more quickly and efficiently.

Hey, this may feel a little awkward, but if it helps you to fill up that freezer with breast milk for your baby, you’ll get used to it very quickly.

Have you noticed that you create more breast milk or breast pump quicker when you massage your breasts?  Let us know how much breast milk you have been able to produce.

Having a quality breast pump is essential if you plan to breast pump exclusively or even occasionally when returning to work.  If you do not have a quality breast pump intended for full time use, then your efforts at breast pumping will be useless.  After some time of using a lower quality breast pump (battery operated, single, even low voltage) you will find that your breast milk will begin to decrease.

That is why it is necessary to invest (yes, invest – because they are in the range of $200-300) in a good breast pump that will keep your breast milk flowing to continue to provide for your baby over the next weeks or months.

There are a few very good pumps (personal use) that are favorites with moms that breast pump on a regular basis:

-          Medela’s Pump in Style Advanced

-          Advent’s Isis IQ Duo

-          Ameda’s Purely Yours Ultra

In addition to these, there are hospital-grade pumps that can be rented and are perfect to help when moms needs that extra hard-working breast pump.  Since these pumps run so high ($800-1200), they can be rented to help alleviate some of the costs:

-          Medela’s Symphony

-          Medela’s Lactina

-          Ameda’s Elite

What breast pump did you use when breast pumping?  Let us know how you liked it.

Exclusive breast pumping is becoming more and more popular as moms become busier and busier.  But as each year passes, providing breast milk to our babies while still keeping the hectic schedule that we call our lives, it becoming must easier and more efficient.

The 10 tips should help you make your breast pumping more successful, whether you are pumping occasionally or exclusively.

1. Use a quality breast pump that is meant for exclusive breast pumping
2. Massage or squeeze your breasts from your armpits forward the entire time you are breast pumping
3. Breast pump for 2-3 minutes after the last of your breast milk has stopped
4. Make sure to relax or have something to do to preoccupy you while you are pumping (this helps the time go by much more quickly)
5. Do not give up the night time breast pumping session, even when baby is sleeping through the night
6. Don’t force the breast pump to pump too quickly or keep the pressure too high
7. Create a routine/schedule and try not to deviate from it
8. Remember that this will not be for the rest of your life (perhaps less than a year or even just a few months)
9. Have a routine for how to handle your breast milk after you are finished pumping, so as not to lose any from spoilage
10. Make sure to drink plenty of water during the day

What have been some of your favorite tricks to help you breast pump longer for your baby?  Let us know.

This is the busiest travel time of the year and you are pumping.  Well, congratulations, this is usually when most moms stop pumping because of the hassle of traveling and pumping.  But, remember, if you plan your pumping ahead of time, you will be more successful and be able to continue to give your baby that precious breast milk.

If you are staying in a relative or friend’s home, make sure to find and set-up a pumping spot as soon as you get there.  If you have your own room, this will be pretty easy to create a nice, comfy spot.  I admit that I normally found a spot in a bathroom, because I didn’t want to wake Gabrielle up in the middle of the night.

I remember when I stayed at a camp site with my in-laws when I was pumping.  I brought a comfy blanket, set-it out in a corner by the bath, and had my pump ready with batteries (since the plug was too far away) and a magazine to keep me awake at 2:00 in the morning.  And then I just covered everything up with the blanket when I was done, or bundle everything up into the blanket and move to an out-of-the-place.  My family was very supportive and just worked around my breast pump set-up.

It can be difficult sometimes, especially, when routines change (such as traveling during the holidays), but the most important thing to remember is that it is only for a short time in your life to give your baby the best milk that you can.

What kind of tips do you have when traveling while breast pumping or breastfeeding?  Let us know. Happy Traveling.