Thrush

Pumping... it doesn't have as much "joy" as breastfeeding.
It's not as convenient as breastfeeding.
It's much more challenging to motivate yourself to pump in the middle of the night.

But we still, yep, we STILL get the fun of thrush, mastitis, and sore nipples (sometimes chronically sore!)

Thrush is a yeast infection that can occur in your baby's mouth and in their diaper area. This happens because your baby has a weaker immune system and has not developed their gut flora to the extent that you (as a healthy adult) have. Sometimes people who have weakened immune systems also get thrush.

Thrush also spreads to your nipples. This can especially occur if you don't let your nipples air dry, if you don't change your nursing pads often enough,  or if your baby gets it and passes it to you. Then your nipples become red/shiny/flaky/PAINFUL and you still have to pump (which is not a comfortable experience in itself).

But! There is good news! You don't have to get Nystatin or Diflucan! There are some great natural remedies for both you and your baby!

Ready, go!
-Raw garlic! Garlic has antifungal, and antibacterial properties (it is a GREAT antibiotic because it doesn't create super bugs). Cut a few cloves into pill size pieces and swallow them whole so you don't get garlic breath. Do this once a day.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor. these are things that worked in my experience and I'm not trying to cure any disease. Follow up with your OBGYN or midwife for other remedies)

-Coconut oil! This is the good stuff. Not only does it have wonderful fatty acids for your baby, but it also has antifungal, antiviral, and anti bacterial properties! Apply this topically after every time you pump, on your nipples.

-vinegar rinses: dilute vinegar in water (1T to 1c water) and soak a cotton ball in it. Then squeeze it out over your nipple and areola without touching. Let air dry. Do this after every pumping session.

-Give your breasts some sun and air. Letting your nipples have sunlight is one of the best killers. yeast thrives in moist and dark places, and sunlight and air will keep them dry. Strategically place yourself on the floor in front of the sunbeams coming through your window. Plus, this is a great time to have skin to skin time with your baby!

If all of these fail, it's important to remove refined sugars and large amounts of carbohydrates from your diet, and start consuming probiotics, through food (like kombucha!) or supplements. You may have to find a baby probiotic supplement to give your child to help balance their gut flora.

I found that I never gave my baby thrush, even though I had it. Pumping defeated the yeast!

One very important preventative for thrush is washing your pump parts often.

It is also important to boil your pump parts once a day for at least five minutes (some LCs will say 20 minutes. It's impossible to wait that long without worrying that your precious milk removing devices will get damaged) You have to stir them.

It is also said that if you truly have thrush, the milk that you pump that is extra should be thrown out, because you could continue to infect your baby. (my opinion is if the baby never showed symptoms, then you should be ok. I am not an MD). They also recommend replacing any artificial nipples, pacifiers, or toys that your child had in their mouth while having thrush. At least, boil them.


You can get rid of it! and you don't have to use prescription meds. They are expensive and hard on your liver. If you do end up having to take them, remember to use some dandelion root tea to help detox/strengthen your liver.

Nystatin does not work for everyone. I found that it was not very effective for me.

the MOTN (middle of the night) pump

I find it fitting that I sit here at 4:30 in the morning writing this post.

The middle of the night pumping session is SO important for your milk supply.
It is at this time at night, and between 1 and 5 in the morning, that the hormone prolactin is at its highest. Thus, when you pump during this time, it helps engage and maintain your milk supply.

It is hard to motivate yourself to pump at nighttime. I know. I'm doing it right now, but I'm determined to get all those ounces out so that I have enough to feed my baby.

There used to have to be an alarm set for me to get up because the baby would sleep through most of the night and I was trying to get two pumpings in during the night. But now I know my body wakes up normally (and so does the baby) and so I pump once at night (unless I wake up at 1am and 6:30am or something.

This is also the time of day (night) that your milk is the fattiest. Fat equals happy healthy baby. :) Happy Healthy baby means happy momma.

There's always the challenge of when little N wakes up while I'm pumping (happened tonight). I just leave the flanges hooked up (I wear a handsfree bra) and go soothe her and help her back to sleep (and clean up spit up off my shirt).

I used to need a snack when I woke up in the middle of the night (and sometimes it's tempting to eat when I'm at my in law's house and they have a super stocked snack cabinet) but now most of the time I just drink some water (and oh I drink a lot of water), and that keeps me until morning. I also found that eating in the middle of the night made it harder for me to maintain the amount of calories that I wanted to eat during the day (because of what I accumulated during the night).

Happy pumping!

Grace

Pumping and Driving

Yesterday was a LONG car ride. We got stuck in bad snowy/icy weather in states that do not know how to handle it: Pennsylvania, Maryland (all ten miles), and West Virginia.

It turned a 4.5 hour car ride to an 8 hour one. When we got home, my family from OH (who'd made the trip the day before in the same amount of time, which is good time for the trip) was here in Virginia with us. My mom asked me how we did on the car ride, "Did you have to go the whole time without pumping?!?"

I said no, and realized that we could have been in a very challenging situation, had I not started using the battery pack with my PISA (Medela Pump in Style Advanced). There had been a couple trips to my husband's home that I did not pump the entire way (and instead, hand expressed), and was pretty full when we got there.

Because I decided to start using the battery pack (and the PISA, while I normally use my symphony when stationed in one place) I survived the trip without much stress in the pumping area. But stress in other areas--baby pooping and puking at the same time, changing baby in the car, dealing with fussy baby, being thirsty and hungry.

Do you worry about the people passing you seeing you  pumping? I just have a loose shirt on with a hands free bustier and don't worry about it. The only bad thing is the seats tilt your pelvis back, so I have to intentionally lean forward so I don't get milk. It's also difficult to hand express in the car because of that angle. I drip milk down my belly.

I decided to purchase an outlet adapter for our car so that I can use the Symphony pump in the car, because the suction is different-- less powerful.

I'll have it for the next trip--it arrived after we left.

Got a crying baby to attend to.

Pump on!

Cloth Diaper helpful information!

I just found some GREAT links to working with cloth diapers!

This one is a trouble shooting diagram for when you have stinky diapers, and the other is on how to strip cloth diapers!

We've been using cloth diapers since little N was about a month old. Recently they started really stinking in the diaper pail so I started to look up different things to help with the smell.

Here's a diagram from this link about trouble shooting.

And here's a link about stripping diapers. The most helpful I've found this far.

Most sites have some suggestions about stripping and then they ask people. there were far too many opinions and I found this one to be the most helpful.

THey talk about how to do the simplest strip (with just hot water and lots of rinses) and then what to do if that doesn't work for you.

How much suction?

When you are pumping, the beginning two minutes (or so) engages your nipple and areola to let your milk down. This is done by quick, low suction.

Then your pump switches to deeper, longer sucks, pulling your nipple and areola deeper into the flange. This is the suction it maintains until you turn off your pump.

Your pump has a standard suction for both of those, and you have the option of turning it up or down to your needs. The question is? How strong of suction should your pump be giving you.

I read on one website that the suction stimulating the letdown reflex is the equivalent of a sleeping baby sucking, which means that to have your "active baby sucking" you really need to turn it up. This website endorsed the idea that you should put the suction as high as you can stand it.

I've also read that you should let it be and not get too much suction going on because you could give your self nipple trauma.

The lactation consultant I worked with through WIC said to turn it up as high as you can stand it.

Well, if you are like me, you are relatively sore during pumping sessions (this is partially due to thrush, which I'm working on) . so I draw the line with my suction. On the Medela Symphony, I usually turn it up three degrees of suction after the initial let down. There have been times that I've pushed it (and myself) to maximum but I usually cannot stand that much suction.

Gotta go. Crying baby.  

how long to pump?

As a rule of thumb (where ever that phrase came from),
you should pump 15-20 minutes each time. 

I just can't get over how ridiculous the ads for hands free pumping bustiers are. 

I also read that in order to stimulate your milk supply,
you should pump five minutes after your milk stops flowing. 

"I wish I could wear my pump ALL day, I love it so!" It's like they think the pump is their baby in these pictures!

Now I have yet to figure out if that means when your let down stops, or if you actually have to wait until the occasional drops quit altogether. I think that it's somewhere in-between, and for me personally, with the sore nipples that I have been fighting since day one, I usually don't stay on the pump for more than 25-30 minutes. When I start reducing pumps, though, that will need to change.

You should pump the same amount of time every day.

"Oh my goodness! You should totally try this!"

Here's my example. I pump nine-ish times a day for twenty minutes. That's 180 minutes (that's three freaking hours, I know!) So when I start reducing pumping sessions, I will still need to maintain 180 minutes. So for
8 pumping sessions: 22.5 minutes ( think I'll pump for 23 minutes. nbd)
7 pumping sessions: 26 minutes
6 pumping sessions: 30 minutes
5 pumping sessions: 36 minutes
4 pumping sessions: 45 minutes
3 pumping sessions: 1 hour

(remember not to reduce more than one pump per month!)

I doubt that I will get down to 3 for fear of losing my milk supply. I might not even do four. I'm shooting for a year of pumping as much as I can, and then I might still pump --maybe do the 3 a day to get what I can for Miss N so she can enjoy my benefits as long as possible.

I hope this helps!

How many pumps per day? (ppd)

Well, it depends on how old your baby is, how long you have been pumping already, how large your supply is, and depending on that, if you are ok with supplementing with formula towards the end of your goal time to pump breast milk for your child.

From the get-go, it is extremely important to pump as often as your child eats. Yes, that means every two hours or more. This is to simulate when your baby would actually nurse. If you have a hectic schedule, or another child (or children), then you should shoot for the minimum number of times, listed below. Your body produces the hormone prolactin (get it--lact-- as in lactate) to stimulate lactation during the first twelve or so weeks of your baby's life, so to engage and establish your supply, it is vitally important to pump

8-12 times a day (for the first 12 weeks).

I shoot for 9, and it's easy to do when you have developed a routine. I organize everything I do around when little N eats and when I pump. Not nap time (and the reason for that is that if I need to go somewhere and tis' nap time, I put her in my Ergo and she conks out. But we can talk about nap time later)

I've read many women who have no problem with pumping seven times, or six times a day and producing more than enough breast milk for their babies. They are very blessed with a good milk supply-- and some of that may be because of having a great start with pumping.

When I started, it was two weeks after my daughter was born and had been nibbling on my nipple for two weeks breastfeeding, so I really had to work to get my supply back to where it is now (supplementing only one bottle of formula a day). If this is you, it is super important to pump at least the minimum of times per day. 

If you are the mom with gallons of breast milk in the deep freezer, consider Human Milk for Human Babies and donate to a mom (willing) to use your extra milk. 

how much some women get

I get about half this much in the fridge in the morning. It dwindles to nothing around five pm

(side note: if you are donating, provide how old your baby was at the time you pumped the milk, because milk composition changes as babies get older. They specify milk between birth to 2 months, 2-6 months, 6-12 months, and 12 months +)

One other important thing about pumping is your middle of the night pumping. Between the hours of 1am and 5am, there is an increase of prolactin produced by your pituitary gland. Pumping at least once at night time is important, because you want to hone in on that prolactin increase to help stimulate and maintain your milk supply. This pumping session is one of the most important ones to keep for as long as you can, even if your little one sleeps through the night. 

Don't we all look this happy when we're pumping!? hah hah NO.

After 12 weeks or so (or so meaning you shouldn't just drop three pumping sessions on week 12-day 1, because the hormonal effect changes slowly.), you can drop one pump. I've read that the best way to do it is to drop one pumping session a month (see reason below), until you are at the number of pumps or (more importantly) the number of ounces you would like to maintain. 

As you drop pumps, it will take a month to notice any drop in your supply. There will be a drop. You may lose a half an ounce from your day's pumpings, or you may lose 2 oz. Knowing this, it's important to make a good decision in mind about how much formula you are willing to supplement (again, if this is an issue for you).

Many women settle down at 5 or 6 pumps per day comfortably. Some may settle at four, but that it on the verge of weaning. You know your needs (needs to get out of the house and away from that darn pump), your baby's needs (how much milk they need, how much formula you are willing to give them), and other extraneous factors--other children, your husband is tired of that machine, pain from pumping.

My daughter reaches twelve weeks this Friday. And honestly, I'm fearful of dropping a pumping session, but I know that it might give me more sleep, and more patience. I've started to come to peace with the formula she has to eat (it does help her sleep longer. :P) But I also know that as I drop pumps, and I lose ounces, there will be more formula and less breast milk. I'm not at peace with that yet.