NICU – Pump Eat Sleep Repeat!

My Milk Production / Breast Pumping Journey

A few weeks before my delivery, my Kindle order had arrived. First thing I downloaded was “Ina May’s guide to breastfeeding.” I was psyched about breastfeeding. I was not planning on pumping at least for the first 6 months or so. Me and my baby were going to live symbiotically. That was the plan. Well life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. *

While reading the book, I don’t think I understood a word. Definitions were all conceptual to me. It was difficult to put myself into nursing mom’s shoes and internalize the information. I had to start practicing it. Well that also didn’t go as planned.

I also never got to finish the book😊

very much like me except for the amount of milk in the bottle. **

My breastfeeding journey began way later after delivery. But I became buddies with pumping.

Right after the delivery, a nurse came over to explain the manual breastfeeding process for colostrum extraction. She instructed me to do it every hour or so. My breasts were so tender, it was actually painful. I was motivated to do it anyways as it was my only connection with D.

Then, I was provided a hospital grade breastpumping machine, which was an outdated one and did not do much. I pumped, pumped and pumped. Nothing! I was told that my body was preparing/adjusting for milk production

First ever milk production

For the following 72 hours, I could express only colostrum manually. Pumping with a machine did not produce any milk. On the fourth day, I was able to produce milk for the first time. Good thing is that D. did not need milk in the first 72 hours, she was only given colostrum.

I was originally suggested to pump 8 times a day. Pumping required discipline for sure as I did not find it a very enjoyable activity. So, I made myself a schedule and sticked to it big time during our NICU days.

This was my initial schedule. After some time, I realized my daily production was not going to be enough for D. I started cluster pumping.

Cluster pumping is an imitation of baby wanting to feed almost all the time. During cluster pumping I pumped for 15 minutes, took a break for another 15 mins and then pump again. I repeated it in two-hour long periods. So, by the end of two hours, I would have pumped 4-5 times.

Out of all things that is recommended to increase milk production, cluster pumping was the one that significantly worked FOR ME. I drastically increased my milk production with cluster pumping. I tried all sorts of things such as brewer’s yeast, grapes, dates, dill, lactation cookies, lactation tea just so you know.

During cluster pumping, I used the same bottles. When I finished with one session, I would put them away, took care of other stuff: Eat, shower, wash clothes from the NICU. Then start pumping again.

When I was pumping, I made a ton of video calls with my sister. I also finished a dozen of TV shows on Netflix😊 Some days, my mind would be so busy with all the medical conditions we had. So, I chose to read medical articles online to keep myself up with the latest technologies in terms of imaging and treatments.

I am sharing my journey in detail because nobody really talks about how difficult/challenging it is for a mother to adapt to this new world of nursing & pumping. Hope this is helpful for you.

Happy pumping😊

*Widely known quote by John Lennon

** Photo credit: https://www.verywellfamily.com/pumping-and-increasing-the-supply-of-breast-milk-431851