When sould I pump?

[mpvelaz]

I'm going back to work soon . DD is 8 weeks old and I work nights. I will be gone from 6pm until a little befoe 8am three days a week. DD is not on any type of schedule and wakes up sporadically during the night but not very often. She usually nurses to bed around 8pm, then wakes up anywhere from 12am-2am to nurse (a couple times she has gone until 4am) and then depending on when she woke up the first time she will wake up again between 4 am-7am. I will nurse her before I leave at about 5:30, then I was thinking I would pump at 8pm, 1am, and 6am (I told DH that if she wakes up around 7am or later than to wait for me to get home to nurse her). I want to try to pump the same times she would be eating, but with her being sporadic it is hard. Do you think that pumping at these times would be good? It seems like I should be pumping more often for such a young baby, but I guess at night it would be different.
What do you think?

[Cavy]

Your plan sounds really good to start. You may have to see how it goes, be ready to modify your schedule if it seems like you need to. She may well take less overnight from the bottles and then guzzle like crazy in the mornings when she can get it from source.

[mpvelaz]

Originally Posted by Cavy

Your plan sounds really good to start. You may have to see how it goes, be ready to modify your schedule if it seems like you need to. She may well take less overnight from the bottles and then guzzle like crazy in the mornings when she can get it from source.

Meaning I might not want to pump so close to coming home in the morning at 6am? and maybe pump at 5 instead?

[hotharmony]

Depending on how easy of a time you have at pumping I would consider pumping every 2 hours for the first couple of weeks and then cut back depending on how much milk your LO is taking while your away.

She may miss mommy and want more milk while your gone, and her sleep may and probably won't stay in it's current pattern. For my lo we have had many different patterns of sleep in the 9 months he has been with us so far. So sometimes you might need more milk than others, and it's always better to have more stashed milk than less.

[mpvelaz]

Originally Posted by hotharmony

Depending on how easy of a time you have at pumping I would consider pumping every 2 hours for the first couple of weeks and then cut back depending on how much milk your LO is taking while your away.

She may miss mommy and want more milk while your gone, and her sleep may and probably won't stay in it's current pattern. For my lo we have had many different patterns of sleep in the 9 months he has been with us so far. So sometimes you might need more milk than others, and it's always better to have more stashed milk than less.

Pumping every 2 hours would be impossible at my job. I'm not worried about the amount of milk I leave for her because I have a little bit of over production and have gotten about 10oz each time I pump following this schedule. I went back to work last night and dd took little from the bottle (she is not very used to the bottle). I think I am going to keep the schedule that I have here.

What if she starts sleeping through the night in the future. Would I still need to pump at night?