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I only pumped for 9 weeks before Sam was born and could pump about 8 oz/day. That meant that I was probably producing about 10/12 oz per day or about half of what he needed. When you pump you assume that you are only getting 50% to 75% of the milk you are producing becaseu the pump is not as effective an expressor as a baby is. If I had had more time I could have achived a high % of his daily needs. We had a real rough patch after the first month when we started a major outbreak of thrush. It took nearly two months and several trips to both the Ped and the LC to get rid of that and to fix his latch which was really hurt by the thrush. Once that was done I started building supply again.
The first milestone was eliminating the supplimenter at night, then in the mornings. It was several months brofre I could totally eliminate the Lact-aid all together. One of the issues I had with Sam as that he was exclusivley breastfed (with some suppliment) and did not eat any solids (we tried he just wasn't havin' it). That meant that I needed a higher than average milk supply for him in the second half of the first year. By 8 months he was probably downing about 40+ oz/day.
It took me 9 weeks of pumping and 8 months of nursing to go from 0 to 40+ oz/day. That estimate is based on his weight and the rate at which he was gaining. Figure if your baby is gaining .5 pounds per week he is probably getting 2.2X his weight in pounds in oz of breastmilk. I built supply the fastest was after I saw the LC and she had me nursing AND pumping 10x/day. I went up about 16oz perday in less than a month. I probably could have gone on o build a full supply sooner if I had continued pumping but it was too hard. I had two older kids who needed to be driven all over creation.
I used a hospital grade rental pump. It was a Medela Lactina I think. I heard of one women who pumped for 9 months and was able to build a full supply without domperidone. It can be done but alot of it has to do with luck and how well ou respond to a pump. Many women never letdown for a pump very well but still have excellent milk supplies once the baby is nursing well.
lisa
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