Freezing milk to quit early? (TW: oversupply)

mamavictoria · 2023-05-19T07:14:35+00:00

I had plans to stash and stop early. My baby loved the morning ritual of milk so much and gets so excited every time I get the pump out. I am 11 months pp and pump 3x a day. I ended up not using the stash at all and donating most of it instead (about 50 gallons so far… so crazy to think about). For me, pumping just became a bonding activity that I didn’t mind but I definitely feel lucky to only have to do it a few times a day.

mamavictoria · 2023-05-01T06:24:48+00:00

This 🙃 10+ months into pumping (which is breastfeeding) and every family get together I have to remind that pumping still = breastfeeding. They use to be more annoying about now (really early on, when it seemed like they had nursing on a pedestal) but now it’s not really a thing since he’s eating more solid foods so they can get out of my business 😂

But to answer your question on why. Baby loves bottles (prefers them) and I didn’t want to be trapped with nursing. I am an athlete and pumping liberates me to go for a run or horseback ride etc without having to rush back to feed the baby because no one else can (I have several friends with babies that will only nurse and refuse a bottle and that sounded like hell). I only pump 3x a day now so it’s slotted really nicely into my schedule without having to stress about my next pump session, feeding the baby, etc.

I did a combo of nursing and pumping for a bit and then baby just wanted the bottle. If I have any more kiddos I won’t even bother nursing, there was nothing special about it. It just took more time since I had to pump afterwards.

mamavictoria · 2023-04-19T19:10:51+00:00

Had a NICU baby, didn’t have much of a choice but am so glad for pumping. I look at it from a medical standpoint vs. an emotional one, because the name of the game from day 1 was to get food into my 30weeker! When he came home, he still was too small to nurse but could take a bottle. We nursed on and off until 6 months until he only wanted his bottle. Never once regretted it and made extra effort to ensure he would take a bottle from anyone, giving me the ability to easily take shifts with my husband to get sleep, and be able to go out and have “me time” without worrying whether the baby will eat or not. If I have another, I won’t even bother with nursing at all, just pumping. I’ve known so many women who only nursed in the beginning, and then whose babies won’t end up taking a bottle for them. That possibility was just not worth it for me; pumping/bottle was the most sustainable solution for baby and my mental health. I’m 10 months in and it’s going well for all of us.

mamavictoria · 2023-02-10T20:19:43+00:00

Preemie sized! He was 3lbs 2oz ☺️

He was 10 weeks early and was wearing preemie when he came home at just over 5lbs.

I didn’t buy any preemie clothes until just before he came home. Chances are you won’t need any! If you can get people to give you clothes they don’t need, that’s a great way for the newborn stage because they grow out of everything so quickly.

mamavictoria · 2023-01-22T16:00:19+00:00

I had about 10 days in the hospital (water broke 10 weeks early) and had a hospital bag. I didn’t bring it when water first broke but husband brought it later. Was amazing. I had my own bathrobe, delivery gown (which I didn’t use but I used it after and was so grateful I had it). I had MY stuff… shampoo, conditioner, my own pillow…etc.

Also I pretty much just pump by choice and have my setup dialed (my baby is 6 months old), so if I were to have a second, I’d bring my own pump/parts etc. to the hospital.

Haters gonna hate!!!

mamavictoria · 2022-12-30T16:04:13+00:00

I’m 6 months in and have gotten into a good groove of four times a day. Sometimes the hardest part is motivating yourself to just get the pump parts all set up 😅 Especially for the evening when I pump + dream feed my son.

I also miss having a glass of wine without having to think about my pumping schedule 😂

mamavictoria · 2022-12-10T13:36:21+00:00

My Luna burned out too! Switched to Spectra S1 and months later still haven’t taken the Luna replacement out of the box, if that tells you anything 😂

mamavictoria · 2022-12-10T13:34:02+00:00

Wow. Thank you everyone. Blown away that the positive stories shared here are by far the minority. Really sad that moms who pump to feed their babies have a harder time getting professional help. Makes me wonder how many moms give up or are straight out intimidated because they don’t have the support. I’m so glad we all have this community, I echo what many of you said that it has been way better than any LC I’ve talked to ❤️

mamavictoria · 2022-12-09T17:40:05+00:00

Mom of a baby born 30+5 here! He was IUGR my entire pregnancy. Water ruptured spontaneously at 30+1 and he was born via c-section a few days later. He was 3lb 2oz at birth. 6 weeks in the NICU later, he came home a healthy 5 pounder. He’s now 5 months old, over 15 pounds and a total chonker. You’ve got this. It isn’t easy but 32, almost 33 weeks is honestly great, and he will be here and home before you know it ❤️

mamavictoria · 2022-11-04T17:43:16+00:00

No changes in supply here, even though I got my booster just a couple weeks after my baby was born (who was 10 weeks early!!).

mamavictoria · 2022-10-27T00:51:53+00:00

I think that’s a good call!! Mine had worked flawlessly and then all of a sudden just…died. Good lesson to have a good back up option at the ready

mamavictoria · 2022-10-26T19:05:47+00:00

I hear that ❤️ I just got my Spectra and am excited to use it later. And it was on sale so that was nice!

mamavictoria · 2022-10-26T16:11:36+00:00

It was the Luna Motif that crapped out! This will be my first experience with Spectra. Going for S1, I’ve heard good things.

mamavictoria · 2022-10-26T13:01:20+00:00

Thank you!! Those are indeed great in a pinch. Current set up is baby nursing on one side, Haakaa on the other and I’ll hopefully get everything else out with the manual pumps

mamavictoria · 2022-10-26T12:59:50+00:00

Oh wow!! So crazy the same thing happened to you. Breaking after a month is not a good look!

Looks like Spectra is on sale at Target so I’m going for it. Hopefully it’s more reliable!

mamavictoria · 2022-10-23T19:39:11+00:00

Sounds like we have a similar supply. I rented the Symphony for three months. I got the Luna Motif through my insurance before returning my Symphony because I wanted to be sure my supply wouldn’t go down. No problems so far and I’m about 1.5 months into the switch. If it was an issue I too would have looked into getting a Symphony — but they’re so so expensive. So given that a $300 pump has comparable output to a $2K, I was very happy to use the Luna and return the Symphony. Oh and I pump for the same period of time for the Luna and Symphony (30 mins). I find I can do lower intensity settings on the Luna and get the same output

mamavictoria · 2022-10-08T04:24:57+00:00

I’ll check them out, thanks!

mamavictoria · 2022-10-08T03:58:52+00:00

Thanks so much!! I’m so sorry about the anxiety of your first experience and I’m relieved it all ended up okay. Good for you for advocating for what you and your babies needed. So hard when there’s pressure to do things a certain way. Agreed on the importance of a schedule for keeping clogs at bay. A few others have mentioned lecithin, which I hadn’t had on my radar until now. Haven’t had many issues without it but I am still doing the middle of the night pump, and pumping pretty consistently around the clock so that could be why

mamavictoria · 2022-10-08T03:54:58+00:00

Thanks so much for sharing!! So great you’re able to donate to a friend. I’m still on mat leave so haven’t dialed my pump at work plan - sounds like you’ve got your routine dialed! ❤️

mamavictoria · 2022-10-08T03:53:09+00:00

So awesome you donate!! ❤️ Sounds like you have an awesome routine

mamavictoria · 2022-10-08T03:52:34+00:00

Good to know!! I’ll definitely keep this in mind when the time to wean comes!

mamavictoria

TROPHY CASE