Pumping concern

[@llli*melrose723]

My baby boy is 9 weeks old and has been breastfeeding only. For the first time I have to be away from my baby for a few hours this coming Saturday. I know he is gonna need to eat so I bought the Medela hand held pump. Since I'm going to be a stay at home Mom I really didn't need the electric one. I have never pumped and am hesitant with it. I have just heard too many stories of babies not wanting the breast anymore once they are introduced to a bottle. I was wondering if that is true because I don't want that to happen :-( Also I was wondering if I'm going to have to always pump after I pump this once this Saturday?

[@llli*mtmama]

i would not worry about a bottle here and there, esp at 9 weeks. the worry is really in the first 6 weeks.

you would need to pump BEFORE sat to get the milk in the bottle while you are away, unless you already have some stashed. then you would just pump at the time the baby would be fed the bottle or around that time.

[@llli*mommal]

And don't worry that pumping once will trap you into an eternal cycle of pumping. You can just go back to nursing as usual.

[@llli*lllmeg]

I agree with pps above, an occasional bottle/pumping is not likely to cause any major issues at this point. If you are going to be away through a few feedings, you may get uncomfortably overfull-are you going to bring the pump with you? If not, you could also just hand express if needed.

Remember that what you pump is not indicative of what baby gets. Many moms who pump after nursing for a while freak out if they do not produce alot of milk for the pump and think they have low milk supply. But what you pump, especially when pumping only occasionally, means nothing as far as milk supply goes. Also make sure it feels comfortable when you pump, pumps can cause nipple injury esp. if the flange is the wrong size.

And no need to keep pumping! Pump only when you need to leave milk for baby due to separations. Too much extra pumping can cause oversupply and anyway, who needs the extra work?

And these techniques for bottle feeding are designed to reduce the risk of bottle confusion or over feeding with a bottle. http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...astfedbaby.pdf

[@llli*melrose723]

Thank you all for your replies! They are very helpful I just have one more question. How do you heat up the bottle? I do not have a bottle warmer and I have read online that microwaving a bottle is bad because it creates hot spots.

[@llli*mommal]

No microwaving! When I had to give a bottle, I would microwave a single cup of water, and then put the bottle into the cup of steaming water. It took a few minutes to warm up to more or less room temperature.

You may not need to warm the bottle, though. Some babies will happily take a cold bottle.

Have you ever given your LO a bottle before? At 9 weeks, he may not want to take one. So you might want to try a few times before you commit 100% to being apart from him. When I say that you should try, what I really mean is that a substitute caregiver should try. Dad, grandma, a sitter. Babies often do not want to take bottles from mom, since they know she has the real thing!

[@llli*mtmama]

i agree about trying the bottle before.

and for my dh to give a bottle, i just let it sit in a cup of warm water, we dont have a microwave

[@llli*melrose723]

Thank u all again for your replies! It really helped me out and I'm proud to say it was successful. I pumped my first bottle tonight and had my husband feed my LO. At first my LO wasn't to sure of the bottle, but then he started going to town on it! Lol!

With that said, I have one last question. I pumped 4 oz and he only ate 2 oz. I capped the bottle and put it in the fridge. Now I have read 2 different things online about storing the milk. Some sites said not to save the leftover milk and then other sites say don't throw it out and to just use it at the next feeding.

[@llli*mommal]

Link on storage guidelines: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html
Another one, more specific: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/r...essedmilk.html

I think you want to use that expressed milk rather soon, within a few hours. But don't feel like you must use the milk, since it's always preferable to nurse directly even if that means tossing some expressed milk. Since you're home with the baby most of the time, you can just regard this as an experiment.

[@llli*mtmama]

i would leave 2 2 oz bottles or a 3 oz and a 1 oz, that way if he finishes the first bottle and is satisfied you can just freeze the left over milk.

if the baby does not finish a bottle you would save it for the next feeding. after that you would toss it.