Making sure you have the right flange size

Being a pumper is hard work!

It is not comfortable  at all to be hooked up to a pump 15-20 minutes a day for 8 to 12 times a day. It inhibits flexibility, getting out of the house, soothing your baby (although if you have a hands free bustier, you can diaper, feed, play with your baby, and blog while you are pumping (guess what I'm doing right now), and taking care of other things (like other children, eating a snack, getting water to drink).

Pumpin' Pals flanges. I want to try these1 I've heard wondrous things about them!

But what can be even more uncomfortable is when you get a blister from your nipple/areola rubbing against the side of your flange. FOr this reason, I recommend oiling up your flanges before pumping--it's almost pain free, and you can just be left with irritation of having to be still when you want to go for a run.

Because pumping is so uncomfortable already, it is vitally important that you are wearing the right sized flange. One size (especially the standard that comes with your pump) does NOT fit all. I started with the medela 24 mm, and when I got the WIC Symphony pump moved up to the 27mm and it increased my supply a lot--all that milk finally getting out!! After my pumping consultation with the lactation consultant at WIC, she commented that I had rather wide nipples ---i.e. large-- and I had to purchase the size larger 30mm. There are also smaller and larger sizes, custom sizes and each brand of pump runs different mm flanges. I came across a diagram with information about being sized for flanges.

http://www.medela.com/IW/en/breastfeeding/good-to-know/right-size-of-breastshield.html

This website shows what the incorrect flange size will do with your breast.

The Beginning

I never meant to exclusively pump for my daughter.

We were going to breastfeed, and breastfeed a LONG time. That was on my list of things i wanted to do, along with babywearing, attachment parenting, co-sleeping (another thing that didn't work out), cloth diapering, natural childbirth, water birth, no induction, and birth at a birth center (this would have been homebirth if we didn't live in the basement of our landlady).

That's what we started with. Little N (well, hardly little, born at 9lb 3oz) was breastfeeding and we were using a nipple shield because my nipples were flat and she couldn't grab them.

But it was painful! SOO bad. And my nipples were peeling layers of skin after every feeding, coming out of the nipple shield misshapen and very sore and sensitive. And they were so sore though I would slather lanolin on them religiously after every nursing. Those first two weeks, i was in a perpetual flash--breasts exposed to the air in hopes that they would heal.

Then at N's (and my) two week appointment, she was still under birthweight, at 8lb 8oz, and our midwife was concerned. She said N wasn't nursing efficiently. She took one look at my nipples and said we should take a break. Pump for a bit and heal up, and get some help. My husband, N, and I went to a Le Leche League meeting that night, with our hungry screaming baby and pump in tow. The leader was helpful, attempting to latch her screaming mouth on my still flat nipple, and then said it was ok to give her formula. Your goal is to feed the baby. So my husband was off to the supermarket to get some formula and a bottle. Two things we thought we'd never need.

N also had a pediatric chiropractor look at her. He said she had tension in her neck, jaw, and diaphragm, and also saw a lip tie and a posterior tongue tie. We were desperate, exhausted, and into her belly the formula did go.

And I started pumping. I had a Medela Pump in Style, 24 mm flanges, and a couple bottles. We'd give her the ounce and a half I got, from I pumping every two hours, and I thought I'd have to quit then and there.

Thankfully, a week later, a lactation consultant from WIC (contacted by the LLL Leader for me) called and offered to drop by with a WIC symphony for me to borrow. She said it would help me increase my supply as opposed to the pump in style, which would only maintain my supply.

And the pumping began.

As I write this post, I have been pumping for nine weeks.