u/moondrop--

Hey everyone,

I’m 7 weeks postpartum and pump 7ppd. extremely clog prone so I’m looking to make sure my supply doesn’t venture too far into oversupply territory.

In the last few days, after a huge bout of clogs (hopefully) cleared up, my supply has gone from around 36oz to around 40oz a day. That’s a pretty big jump at once. I’m actually happy to maintain 40oz a day, but I really don’t want to go too much higher because of my clogs issue.

The way I’ve been pumping is by watching the sprays out of my nipple, and as soon as they stop/turn to dribbles, I cut the pump. I thought emptying the breast without going past empty would be a good way to maintain supply? But I seem to be increasing. But isn’t not fully emptying also a way to get clogs?

Anyways, what do you all recommend to maintain my current supply and stop increasing without doing anything to cause clogs or pain? (Other than dropping a pump, I want to keep 7ppd until 12 weeks at least.)

Title basically. How old was your baby when they reached their intake plateau? I’ve read that babies that eat breast milk exclusively will increase their daily milk intake up until a certain point, and then it stays basically the same until 6 months.

My little guy is a preemie. Born 5 weeks early and now 6 weeks old. He’s eating around 30oz a day already.

I’m trying to figure out if this is going to increase much more so that I can make sure my supply is the right amount before I regulate. I’m clog prone, so I don’t want to produce more than his intake by too much, but I don’t want to end up undersupplying either.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for by posting this, but I’m losing my mind over here.

I am currently on my fourth clog of the same duct in just over a week. It first clogged last Thursday, then again on Monday, then Tuesday, and now again today, Saturday.

I’m 6 weeks postpartum, and pretty sure the first one started because I was using the wrong flange size. The problem is that I have the right flange sizes now, but can’t get out of this vicious cycle of inflammation.

The first two clogs were awful and I did all the things, including things I know now didn’t help, to release them. Used heat and massage and cold and everything. Started taking choline supplements (read they were better than sunflower lecithin). Tried Happy Ducts tincture.

When it clogged the third time I went to my local physical therapist doctor who specializes in pelvic floor and clogged ducts. She did ultrasound therapy and lymphatic massage and told me to just do ice and ibuprofen and explained everything about how there is no actual “clog”, rather that duct is inflamed. Well, after 24 hours, it was clear to me that I can’t take ibuprofen due to blood pressure concerns. But I continued to ice and it seemed resolved. I went back to her on Friday for one more assessment and we did an additional round of ultrasound and lymphatic massage just to be extra cautious.

I felt great until this morning. The clog is back with a vengeance. I have an appointment scheduled to go back to the PT on Monday, but idk what I’m going to do for the next 48 hours. I’m in so much pain. Not to mention, her appointments are very expensive. Even if she fixes the clog every time, I can’t afford to keep seeing her multiple times a week like this.

Worst of all, I’m just so confused! I’ve done everything “right” now for the last 4 days, there is no reason this clog should keep coming back. This breast used to be my champion producer (not anything super crazy, usually around 3oz per pump). It’s now making less than my other side, around 1.5-2oz per pump, even on the days when the clog seems gone. I’m terrified that I’m going to permanently lose supply or get mastitis.

Looking for tips or solidarity, I don’t know. I don’t know what to do to clear this inflammation. I just hate this so much.

Edit to add: as of 2AM, 17 hours after the start, the clog has released. I didn’t do anything special, just been continuing to ice and very lightly massage. Crossing every finger that it doesn’t return a fifth time in a row.

My boy was five weeks early, and while I’m in the process of trying to teach him to latch now (6 weeks old, 1 week adjusted), I’m pretty much exclusively pumping. He’s getting worse at latching and sucking the more I try, so I might be EPing for the long run.

It is SO HARD when I’m on baby shift by myself and there is no one to look after him while I pump.

Especially at night, which is when my shift is. I feel like he always wakes up and wants to eat the second he hears me start pumping. So I have 2-3 pumps over night where I’m trying to juggle feeding the baby and being hooked up to the pump. My husband can’t help because he has no parental leave and needs to be able to sleep a full night every night so that he can work.

People talk about getting 5-7 hour stretches overnight too and I just cannot fathom that. I get, at most, 3 hour stretches at a time.

All of this has not been made easier by the fact that I’ve been dealing with a reoccurring clog for the last 2 weeks.

I’m working on practice latching with my 1 month old (who was born 5 weeks early). He’ll latch and suck for a few minutes before we need to switch to a bottle. He’s definitely not draining the breast. I’d love for him to be breastfeeding more and to take fewer bottles in the future.

My question is: should I stick to my pump schedule (usually an hour or so later)? Or should I pump immediately after his practice latch?

If I stick to my schedule, should I pump for less time on the side he practice latched?

Usually he only latches one side, does that make a difference?

I’m trying to avoid too much stimulation and ending up in oversupply, but I don’t want to do too little and have the reverse issue.

Thanks for the help! This is all so new to me!

Hi everyone, I’m 4 weeks postpartum and trying to understand everything milk related.

My boy was born 5 weeks early so I’ve been exclusively pumping for him to make sure he gains well (he’s been doing great!).

I’ve played with my pumping schedule after realizing I have a hefty supply. Right now, I’m maintaining around 950ml per day by doing 150-160ish ml per pump, 6x per day for 12 minutes per session. This has been pretty consistent for the last week.

But what I see discussed a lot and don’t understand— what exactly do people mean by regulating and being careful with supply until then? I’m pleased with the 950ml daily output. If this remains consistent until 12 weeks, am I good after 12 weeks? Or is the 6ppd going to be an issue despite my output being what I want? Can you increase or decrease after 12 weeks? What does it really mean to go from hormone regulated to supply-and-demand regulated?

I’m confused about what the transition is and if there’s anything I need to do to prevent accidentally losing supply.

Please help me understand! Thanks!

Hey everyone, I’m 3.5 weeks postpartum. I currently pump 6x a day and the amount I get per 15 minute session has increased gradually over the weeks. Right now I get 140-150mL per session, so averaging around 850-900mL per day.

I would like to end up around 950-1000mL per day long term. What I’m trying to figure out is, should I add in an extra pump, or will my volume per session continue to increase over the next weeks? I’d love to stay at 6 pumps a day for my convenience sake, but I’m happy to increase if that is what will be better for my long term supply. I’m scared of not doing enough and under supplying in the future, but I also don’t want to end up with crazy oversupply either (which is why I’m already only at 6 pumps per day).

I’m very new to all this (was expecting to EBF but had a 35 week preemie), so really appreciate the knowledge from this group!

I debated on whether or not to post this here, because it’s decidedly not a home birth. But I think it’s really important to share my story with you all, since it could happen to anyone and it’s good to be prepared for the unexpected!

I gave birth to my little guy two weeks ago, and it has been an absolute whirlwind. One of my proudest accomplishments is that we were able to go through the entire birth process without any medication at all, despite being 35 weeks pregnant, and ending up with a hospital birth despite planning a home birth.

Thursday 5/14 I noticed that I had some watery discharge and didn’t think too much of it. I let my home birth midwife know and she told me to just keep an eye on it and let her know if anything changes. 5/15 I woke up and waddled to the bathroom to some bloody discharge. I called my midwife and sent her a picture and she said what I absolutely hoped she wouldn’t — “looks like your mucus plug, head to the hospital to get checked out.”

So at 34 weeks and 6 days, my husband and I headed to the hospital that my home birth midwife used to work at. She was able to call ahead to all her contacts, and it was amazing to have people expecting us when I was so nervous. I got swabbed and they tell me my cervix is closed and hard but that it is definitely amniotic fluid that has been leaking for the last day. I get an ultrasound too and they say baby is extremely happy and healthy with lots of fluid, but there is no doubt that I have a leak.

A leak is not something you can recover from or really wait out — it was time to have my baby…five weeks early, in the hospital instead of at home.

They wheel me to L&D and I’m given a series of choices to make:

\- Steroid shots: baby was premature, so they often recommend shots for their lungs. But the MFM who reviewed my ultrasound said she could go either way on the recommendation, so I decided to go without.

\- Penicillin: because I was early, they didn’t know my GBS status. They said they recommended penicillin because a GBS test would take 3 days to get results. (Note that my home birth midwife doesn’t recommend antibiotics even if you’re positive, it’s just information to have to monitor after birth.) I said I’d prefer to avoid antibiotics, especially if we didn’t even know if I were positive. Then suddenly they had access to a rapid test…and turns out I was GBS negative. Also, while doing the swab, the OB saw that my cervix had actually gone to 3cm dilated and 50% effaced, which was a surprise to me.

\- Other antibiotics: because my waters had been open more than 24 hours, they wanted me on other antibiotics too. However, I had no signs of infection and they were monitoring me closely. We held off (and never needed them).

Next was the topic of induction. A nurse talked to me about cytotek and pitocin to get things moving. But we knew my cervix was already ripening on its own, and when they got me hooked up to the monitors, we could see that I had contractions going! My body must’ve gotten the memo, because it had kicked into gear all on its own. I couldn’t really feel these contractions at all.

The next roadblock was that, because I was technically under 35 weeks, if I gave birth on 5/15, they were going to automatically send my baby to the NICU and I wouldn’t be able to deliver with the hospital midwife who knew my home birth midwife. So I laid back in my bed and did absolutely nothing to progress my labor until midnight of 5/16. Just took a nap.

Midnight hits and I know it’s go time now. I get up and active labor ramps up immediately. My doula joins us (she had stopped by earlier just to check in as well) and I start feeling the surges with more and more intensity.

Around 3AM, they want to do a cervical check. I went back and forth on this, because I know that they don’t really mean much, and I didn’t want to feel disappointed if it hadn’t progressed much after three hours of active labor. But ultimately we did the check and I was 100% ready to go.

After another 3 hours and lots of intensity, I was able to get my little boy out! He came out \*screaming\*! I had mostly just breathed with my contractions the entire time, and only had to “push” a couple times at the end to get him out (I wanted to wait for one more contraction, but he had a big deceleration). The intensity was a lot but being able to focus on breathing and knowing that it was all temporary was a huge help. All my prep for the home birth absolutely applied to the new setting.

I had one first degree tear, but it was even and didn’t need a stitch. Honestly, if she hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known. Two weeks later and I feel pretty much back to normal downstairs.

As far as hospital deliveries go, I’m pretty happy that it went the way it did. I’m also happy about how informed we were going in, and to have had my home birth midwife on the phone for all our decisions. I can see now how women are often bullied into choices that don’t necessarily make sense. (There was a LOT more of that in the recovery ward!)

So that’s my story of how I went from “meditating and visualizing giving birth surrounded by candles in a tub in my living room” to “being hooked up to continuous monitors in the hospital giving birth five weeks early.”

Even with everything thrown in the air, I was able to stick to my guns and have a beautiful birth.

I gave birth to my little guy two weeks ago, and it has been an absolute whirlwind. One of my proudest accomplishments is that we were able to go through the entire birth process without any medication at all, despite being 35 weeks pregnant, and ending up with a hospital birth despite planning a home birth.

Thursday 5/14 I noticed that I had some watery discharge and didn’t think too much of it. I let my midwife know and she told me to just keep an eye on it and let her know if anything changes. 5/15 I woke up and waddled to the bathroom to some bloody discharge. I called my midwife and sent her a picture and she said what I absolutely hoped she wouldn’t — “looks like your mucus plug, head to the hospital to get checked out.”

So at 34 weeks and 6 days, my husband and I headed to the hospital that my midwife used to work at. She was able to call ahead to all her contacts, and it was amazing to have people expecting us when I was so nervous. I get swabbed and they tell me my cervix is closed and hard but that it is definitely amniotic fluid that has been leaking for the last day. I get an ultrasound too and they say baby is extremely happy and healthy with lots of fluid, but there is no doubt that I have a leak.

A leak is not something you can recover from or really wait out — it was time to have my baby…five weeks early, in the hospital instead of at home.

They wheel me to L&D and I’m given a series of choices to make:

- Steroid shots: baby was premature, so they often recommend shots for their lungs. But the MFM who reviewed my ultrasound said she could go either way on the recommendation, so I decided to go without.

- Penicillin: because I was early, they didn’t know my GBS status. They said they recommended penicillin because a GBS test would take 3 days to get results. I said I’d prefer to avoid antibiotics, especially if we didn’t even know if they were necessary. Then suddenly they had access to a rapid test…and turns out I was GBS negative. Also, while doing the swab, the OB saw that my cervix had actually gone to 3cm dilated and 50% effaced.

- Other antibiotics: because my waters had been open more than 24 hours, they wanted me on other antibiotics too. However, I had no signs of infection and they were monitoring me closely. We held off (and never needed them).

Next was the topic of induction. A nurse talked to me about cytotek and pitocin to get things moving. But we knew my cervix was already ripening on its own, and when they got me hooked up to the monitors, we could see that I had contractions going! My body must’ve gotten the memo, because it had kicked into gear all on its own. I couldn’t really feel these contractions at all.

The next roadblock was that, because I was technically under 35 weeks, if I gave birth on 5/15, they were going to automatically send my baby to the NICU and I wouldn’t be able to deliver with the hospital midwife who knew my home birth midwife. So I laid back in my bed and did absolutely nothing to progress my labor until midnight of 5/16. Just took a nap.

Midnight hits and I know it’s go time now. I get up and active labor ramps up immediately. My doula joins us (she had stopped by earlier just to check in as well) and I start feeling the surges with more and more intensity.

Around 3AM, they want to do a cervical check. I went back and forth on this, because I know that they don’t really mean much, and I didn’t want to feel disappointed if it hadn’t progressed much after three hours of active labor. But ultimately we did the check and I was 100% ready to go.

After another 3 hours and lots of intensity, I was able to get my little boy out! He came out *screaming*! I had mostly just breathed with my contractions the entire time, and only had to “push” a couple times at the end to get him out (I wanted to wait for one more contraction, but he had a big deceleration).

I had one first degree tear, but it was even and didn’t need a stitch. Honestly, if she hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known. Two weeks later and I feel pretty much back to normal downstairs.

As far as hospital deliveries go, I’m pretty happy that it went the way it did. I’m also happy about how informed we were going in, and to have had my home birth midwife on the phone for all our decisions. I can see now how women are often bullied into choices that don’t necessarily make sense. (There was a LOT more of that in the recovery ward!)

So that’s my story of how I went from “meditating and visualizing giving birth surrounded by candles in a tub in my living room” to “being hooked up to continuous monitors in the hospital giving birth five weeks early.” Even with everything thrown in the air, I was able to stick to my guns and have a beautiful birth.

I gave birth two weeks ago and it has been an absolute whirlwind of ups and downs.

One of the things I was concerned about was all the stories of people saying they got home and everything had changed about their feelings towards their pets. I’d seen dozens of posts and hundreds of comments of people saying they felt completely ambivalent about their pets after having a baby, or even that they actively resented or hated them.

Now, I’m not here to say that those feelings are not valid, because they absolutely are. I can totally understand why having another living being to take care of during a huge change would be overwhelming.

What I *am* here to say is that it doesn’t happen to everyone. I love my dog so much still, and even more so watching him gently sniff at my new little baby and knowing they’re going to be best friends so soon.

So if you’re stressed out that you’re going to hate your beloved first fur children, just know that it’s not necessarily going to happen.