Pumping question

[Caitlin]

So I've been pumping every 3.5 hours during my shifts this weekend. I'm only getting 3 ounces total and most of the milk looks like water. When the fat separates in the fridge there's barely any thick white fat; most of it is almost clear milk.

Could I be doing something wrong?

[Heather]

Are you pumping on both sides at once? How long are you pumping for during each session? Can you get more than one let-down? It does sound like mostly fore-milk, so if you can possibly try to keep pumping even after the flow has stopped and get another let-down I think that would help. If you have a Medela PIS I would switch it back to the original suck setting after the flow has stopped to encourage let-down again. HTH!

[Elaine]

All it is is more fore milk than hind milk. Are you using massage and compression when you pump? That helps to empty the milk ducts and get to the hind milk. If you're not, squeeze the heck out of the girls to see if that helps.

[Caitlin]

Yeah I squeeze the sh!t out of my boobs! :hehe: I can only pump for 15 minutes at a time, but I do manage to get 2 let-downs. I have a Medela PISA. I never really switch up the speeds when I pump...should I be? Lol I need some tips because I'm not responding well this time around. With Aiden I could get 7-8 ounces when I pumped!

[Caitlin]

Oh, and DH only has 4 bags of milk to get him by until I get home at 2pm. Should Connor not have the milk that's mostly foremilk? I think I've heard it makes them gassy?


If I sound like an idiot, I apologize. I'm running off of about 10 hours of sleep total for the last week. At some point I honestly expect myself to crash to the floor. :lol:

[Jojo]

My milk is like that too and I have quite a few letdowns :idontknow: I've always given it to James. I have about 1/8th of an inch of fat and on the bottom looks blue then goes to white then the line of fat.

[Heather]

That milk will probably be fine if you're getting two let-downs. I wouldn't worry, just watch for green, frothy poops (a sign of hind-milk/fore-milk imbalance). Is there milk coming out that entire 15 minutes? If so, I'm not sure there's really more you can do if there are time constraint issues. One thing I would notice when I was pumping when I went back to work is that the first time I pumped for the day, I had the bluer, less fatty milk. As the day progressed it got whiter. So when I would make the bottles the next morning I'd just mix it all together in the bottles so it evened out.

[bettercowpatty]

I almost never get two let downs... Why should that happen? What does that mean?

[Heather]

Patty, that shouldn't really be a concern unless you think you're pumping mostly fore-milk. The more letdowns the more you're getting to the fatty stuff, but some women only need one letdown to do the job. I rarely ever had more than one letdown per pumping session.

And Caitlin, I forgot your other question about the PIS. You know how when you first turn it on it has the fast little pumps that trigger letdown? That's the setting I was referring to. I would sometimes turn my pump off and back on to try to get a second letdown if I was having a slow pump session.

[bettercowpatty]

Oh. Whew! I was thinking, "my milk looks pretty darn fatty and my kid is a horse!" :hehe:

[Heather]

:hehe: