How much to pump?

[NinaD]

My baby is 8 weeks old and I'll be returning to work when he's about 16 weeks. I'm a teacher and will only be able to pump once or twice a day while I'm at work. I'm trying to figure out how much to pump for him, but since I'm nursing on demand, it's kind of hard to figure out.

When the time comes closer, I'm considering renting a baby scale and weighing him before and after most feedings for a few days to get an idea of how many ounces he's taking at a time. Does this seem like a good way to go about this?

I'm trying to store some up since I'll only have to be working for about 5 weeks before summer vacation. I'm adding a pumping session (trying) in before bed and in the morning. Of course, I only am able to pump those extra times a few times a week...

Any advice/tips are welcome. I know that mothers return to work and pump all the time, but I'm nervous about not having enough for him.

Thanks!

[thepeach80]

I can't really help w/ how much to pump, sorry. I know my kids never really took more than 4ozs at a time from a bottle for a while. AJ was 6 mos old and Evan barely ever got above that and he was on formula full time from 12-24 mos. He has always preferred to eat smaller meals more often. Olivia can do 3ozs now at 3 wks, but 2 is more common. We haven't done a bottle in a while though, but I'm freezing in 3oz increments for her. I pump before she gets up in the morning, or I do one side only if she's awake a little early and then I pump at night before bed and she's already sleeping. I get 2.5-3oz a day doing this, so a bottle a day for us.

[LittleGriff]

I went back to "work" (full-time grad school so was away much of a working day or more) when my son was 10 weeks. First of all, Kellymom has some good resources on pumping (http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html). According to the site exclusively breastfed babies consume 25 oz on average per day between 1 and 6 mo, with a range of 19-30 oz.

I believe my son drank 3-4 oz per feeding several times per day, according to my mom who was caring for him. Again, according to Kellymom most women can pump an average of 0.5-2 oz of milk (from both breasts) per pumping session ... so you may find you need to pump far more frequently than a few times a day when you return to work. Of course, much of your little one's milk consumption will come outside of your working day. I found I needed to pump every 2-3 hours in order to keep my supply up and express enough for the next day's feedings and was able to get 2-4 oz per session normally. I actually used a little manual Avent hand pump only and would often duck into the bathroom and just pump very quickly during a 5-10 minute break rather than setting myself up in the school's lactation room. Of course, the feasibility of this depends on your schedule and your body ... but an electric pump is probably more effective too.

Also, I found it very helpful to pump on one side while my son nursed on the other when I was home rather than trying to fit in an extra pumping session. Let down is much easier and it's just more convenient.

Boy ... I am not looking forward to that routine again (just a month away now). Good luck!

[Macnamara]

I went back to work when DS was 6 weeks. I was gone about 9 hours a day. He usually drank 2-3 3 oz. bottles per day.

Good luck.