in Breastfeeding/Nursing & pumping Mamas

Pumping advice

FTM to a 11 day old who is probably tongue tied, waiting for midwives to confirm. She struggled to latch from the beginning and gets super frustrated while feeding and latches on and off several times mostky shallow during a feed which is sooo painful and caused cracked nipples😔 I'm supplementing with bottle milk and recently got a Kissbobo pump. How many times a day should I be pumping? My boobs were rock hard and sooo painful for most of the week and my milk has only just strayed to flow waa barely getting 10ml after a half hour pump. Also the kissbobo leaks from underneath which is sooo annoying I wanted to cry the other day when I'd pumped or ages and then lost most of it! I'm.also worried she'll become used to the formula (kendamil), should I be pumping more and phase out bottles slowly? I've noticed she gets hungry so much sooner after breastmilk and worried she'll be hungry. Any suggestions for other pumps? Currently having to sit down and hold it in place while I pump which is frustrating as i can't just clip into my bra and go about my day.

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Gosh, this brings back such vivid memories for me. Firstly, well done for persevering. I promise it does get better. My daughter was 60-70% tongue tie and the snip helped so so much. We are still EBF 11 months on and I actually like doing it now. So make sure you push for tongue tie to be checked and dealt with if it’s there as it will be a game changer. In terms of pump, I tried to do the same in the early days, but sadly I never found a pump that worked well for me. I found pumping exhausting and frustrating (milk output seemed so low!?) and it was the only time my nipples actually bled! I also had the pump (bellababy) where I had to sit down and hold in place. I would have splashed out on a more convenient pump but I didn’t pump again after the tongue tie separation which we had when baby was 5 weeks old (she refused the bottle so I still BF directly). Good luck and wishing you all the best!

Hi, did you ever find a solution to the Kissbobo leaking. Ive just lost so much milk and also want to cry!! Hope youre doing ok xx

Hi @Emily not sure why but I just got a notification for this now(!) Weird. I didn't find a solution unfortunately ☹i honestly was so frustrated and upset with how much I was leaking and the whole process I stopped pumping. I was lucky as it coincided with baby latching better and then EBF. But I feel your pain. I have no idea how mum's pump exclusively It's definitely not for me. I actually found it soul destroying. In hindsight next time I would go for a more expensive pump. How's your BF journey going now @Emily p.s. I'm originally from Manchester 😊

Thanks for your reply @Aswiny wow can't believe 5 months have flown by so quick. I did actually get a referral and went to see a specialist for tongue tie (the lactation consultants and midwife thought my daughter had one) and in the end the paediatrician that saw her said she didn't! For my LO the biggest difference was seeing an Osteopath she had several sessions and that improved her neck/head movements and congestion drastically and in turn her latch and from then on BF was smoother.

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