Nursing SAHM's- Do you pump?

[Adaline'sMama]

I am mostly a SAHM. I WAH and I do have a retail store in the front of my apartment, but basically I dont *have* to go anywhere ever. With DD I had a really hard time being motivated to pump, because I just didnt see the point. So, I never went anywhere without her. Now that DS is here, Im pumping once a day for 5-7 minutes and getting 3-4 oz of milk. I've used it twice. Once when I had a stomach bug and had DH give DS a bottle while I was puking and once when I went out for my birthday dinner. I happened to have some milk in my car, just in case he was crying on the drive into town (an hour) and I could reach back and appease him (while DH would be driving). When we dropped DD off at my moms, she had just assumed she was watching them both so I let her watch him. We were only two miles away. It was good for me, because otherwise I probably would have not let anyone watch him until 8-10 months old, same as DD. I feel way more comfortable leaving DS than I did DD. And since DH and I have even less time alone than we did with DD, it will be nice to have the grandparents watch him occasionally. Im still not planning on any overnights until about a year.

So, I have about 60 oz of milk in my freezer and we are going out tomorrow night. We have tickets to a show and my mom is going to keep him. He eats a crapload in the evenings, so Im going to send 20 oz (1/3 of my storage for 5 hours of babysitting) of milk and whatever she doesnt have to thaw out she can just keep in her freezer. Im really liking the freedom that pumping gives me, but it is a really hard habit to get into. My two year old wants to pull at the horns and tubing, so I have to do it while she is napping or after she goes to bed if I dont want to fight her off. I dont want to sacrifice my sacred naptime sitting on a breastpump! I know that must sound so selfish, but I want to drink a beer on my porch or be in my garden, not attached at the boobs.

How and when do you pump, if you do? How much do you try to get a day, even though you know you dont have to go anywhere regularly?

[StephandOwen]

I only pump if I know the bottle will be needed. With ds1 I had oversupply and pumped all the time (was a sahm) and he used very little of it (i did give it to my sister to feed her son bc she had low supply). This time I have a very small freezer stash (maybe 20oz) that will likely never be used because it was pumped before I took out ds2's allergens from my diet. But it will remain in the freezer in case of an emergency (allergy milk is better than no milk). I sometimes pump a bottle for dh to feed the baby that day if he's wanting to. I'm almost never away from baby though so it's not really an issue.

[Masel]

I didn't pump every day. If I was planning a weekend date with DH I'd have some mother's milk tea on Tuesday and or Wednesday. The next day or two I'd be able to pump a little extra milk beyond what my baby needed. By the date the tea and extra pumping effect would have cleared my system and I wouldn't be distracted by feeling extra full. 

I also tried to keep a couple of fresh packets of milk in the freezer in case of emergencies. 

One big thing or me was that when baby was 5 months old I hurt my knee and had to have surgery. I went into a flurry of pumping to have enough while the drugs cleared my system. Having a bigger stash would have been helpful. 

I still have two little packets of milk in the freezer. Baby is now 2.5 years old and weaned last December. I should just pitch it but it still seems so precious. LOL 

[Honey693]

With both my kids I always pumped enough to keep about 20 spare ounces in the freezer.  We never ended up using most of it sinc eboth kids hated bottles, but it gave me peace of mind.  

[Mummoth]

I think I have about 6 or 8 ounces in the freezer. I've been able to pump enough for whatever we had planned in the week before the time away from her. DH sometimes takes her for 2 or 3 hours and I just pump a bottle and feed her right before they go out. She's only 3 months old, and she sleeps in the truck so it's mostly for peace of mind.

I want to up the freezer stash a little bit because I've heard of people making breast milk slushies and I want to try that. She'll be teething in the summer and she'll probably like playing with a spoon. Plus she's got a 10 and nearly 8 year old brother and sister who will think it's cool to feed her 'ice cream'. 

[sweetBBkendall]

I was a SAHM and breastfed dd for a year. After about three months my supply went from abundant to non-existant, mostly because fiance kept warming up bottles and then not needing them :-/ so... I ended up not having any. I was going to school in town at the time and I would just come home and feed her as needed. By the end of that summer dd wouldn't take a bottle. We tried different nipples and she didn't like any of the ones we tried. We eventually figured out she would take a sippy cup before she would take a bottle. Weird...

I would actually pump anytime I found the time. Except night... towards the end it seemed that night was the only time I had any extra milk to pump but who wants to hook up a bunch of equipment to suck at your nips in the middle of the night when you are completely exhausted?? Not me...

[alegna]

Nope.  I never pumped.  I don't leave babies until they're older anyway though.  I did leave a sippy of milk for ds when he was around 6? months?  But he held out until I got home.

[Katie8681]

I pump when I have oversupply; happens pretty often, what with growth spurts and all. I had mastitis once and am very careful now not to get engorged. Once I pumped 10 oz from one breast! (I don't know if that's actually a lot. It sure felt like it.) I usually have about 20 oz in the fridge. It's really, really nice to leave ds w/ a sitter or dh for a few hours and not be worried that he'll be hungry and they'll be helpless, even though ds definitely prefers to nurse and often holds out until I get home. It sucks when you thaw milk that ends up not being used. 

[MrsGregory]

I pump a few times a week so that I can go out and leave our daughter with my husband over one of her meal-times.  Four ounces in 5-7 minutes sounds AMAZING!  I pump for about 10 minutes a side and get about 2 ounces, unless she's skipped a feeding.  So I have about 20 ounces stored up, and now I'm just maintaining that level by pumping for the one or two bottles she'll need a week.  I despise pumping.  It's uncomfortable in so many ways.  But I'm determined she'll never have anything but breastmilk or food, so I pump.  I'm a stay-at-home mom with no outside activities at present.

[CherryBombMama]

I EPed with ds1, but that is a whole different story.

With ds2, I really tried to pump.  It's just that by the time I was finally settled into having two kids, and starting a pumping schedule (to donate, not for my ds) I got pregnant and my supply totally fell. So it only lasted about two months.