My Experience: Exclusively Pumping For 1 Year

In that bottle holds a little bit of what we call liquid gold.

Before I had Leah, I naively thought I would easily breastfeed and didn't even think about having to exclusively pump for a whole year.

Yes, I could've given her formula (which I have nothing against), but... mom guilt.

I think I could've tried harder to breastfeed, but the stress of it all was too overwhelming at the time and being able to see exactly how much breastmilk she was drinking from the bottle was reassuring.

I knew nothing about pumping... like... literally, nothing.

I didn't really start pumping until about a week after Leah was born.

And even then, I wasn't doing it right.

I only pumped 10 minutes at a time, instead of the suggested 20 (more or less)

& I definitely wasn't pumping often enough, which would've told my body to make more milk, which I desperately needed.

Though not too often, I did supplement with formula the first couple months when it was needed.

After a couple weeks of learning more about it, I started pumping for 20 minutes at a time every 2-3 hours... including throughout the night, which was hell.

Side note:

Never officially diagnosed, but when I was trying to breastfeed & throughout the year of exclusively pumping, every time right before I was about to have a milk let down, I noticed I felt very depressed/homesick/angry. It was just for a couple minutes, but without fail, when Leah first breastfed and when I transitioned to pumping, I felt it. 

So I looked it up and it sounded like D-MER. 

Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex.

How did I get through it?

Since there's no "cure," I did my best to distract myself while pumping, which was almost always to just look through social media or watch enjoyable youtube videos.

Anyway, this was a huge reason it was so hard for me to "enjoy" breastfeeding or pumping.

As you can tell, I wasn't a big fan of exclusively pumping.

However, I'm very grateful that I was even able to make it to a year, because I would've sworn I wouldn't have made it past 6 months with my low supply.

In that one year, I've experienced a dramatic drop in my supply and a dramatic increase in my supply.

During the months of my low supply of milk, I was desperate to the point of crying and praying to just let me make more milk. I didn't care that she was still waking up every 2-3 hours.

And during the months of an increase of milk supply, I had so many bottles of breastmilk in the fridge that I accidentally dropped a 10oz bottle on the ground, which cracked and splashed everywhere, and I was totally okay with it.

Go figure, huh.

An added note... during Leah's first year, I felt like a cow.

So if you ever decide to exclusively pump, prepare yourself to feel like one.

I'm definitely no expert at exclusively pumping, but these are a few tips I would've told myself when it all started. And perhaps to remember in the future...

• The first few months are crucial, so start pumping early and often! Leah was on my boob alllll day at the hospital, so I would probably start that crazy pumping schedule right when I get home. 
• I think I will always have low milk supply (as I pumped through those very tiring nights until Leah was about 9 months). BUT, that crazy schedule includes pumping for 20 minutes every 2 (maybe 3) hours. Although I don't plan on exclusively pumping again, I'll probably do this just to increase my milk supply.
• DON'T STRESS! That's probably the #1 reason for a decrease in milk supply. I remember going to Leah's, I think, 2-month doctor's appointment and her doctor could tell the low milk supply was stressing me out. However, him telling me not to stress about it helped like crazy for some reason. I didn't stress as much anymore and, no joke, my milk supply increased.
• Eat A LOT and drink A LOT. I easily ate more than Justin while pumping, and he'll gladly admit it. I noticed any time I ate a lot more, the next couple sessions, I pumped out a lot more milk than normal. Good & healthy foods, obviously. Some say to have water next to you while you pump as well.
• If I go extra long without pumping for whatever reason, the next session, I pumped extra long (maybe 30 minutes total). Can you see why I felt like a cow?
• Pump right after nursing your baby if you just want to increase your supply.
• One I didn't know until monthsss later. You don't have to pump on the highest setting. In fact, I recommend you not to put your pump on the strongest setting. Pump at what's comfortable for you.

And that's all I can think of right now!

Exclusively pumping for a whole year is hard.

I usually won't give a shout out to myself, but I deserve a freaking shout out for this LOL

While breastfeeding is hard in itself.. I say this because I obviously wasn't able to do it... exclusively pumping is physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing as well.

Those nights Leah woke up 3 times after we went to sleep meant feeding her, burping her, putting her back to sleep, then doing those 20-minute sessions of pumping, washing bottles and finally going back to sleep, knowing you'd have to wake up in another 2 hours to do it all over again.

However, it did get better. I slowly wasn't pumping as often at night and was able to be a little "lazy" here and there. And ultimately, I don't regret doing it.

This was my my experience and won't be the same for all.

Some women have a great milk supply and probably won't be putting all this effort in to increase their milk supply. But if anyone is on the lower-milk-supply side, then maybe this could help!