
Hi everyone, my name is Jamaila! I wanted to talk about my exclusively pumping-to-breastfeeding success story, because
when I was going through the transition process I found there weren’t a lot of mamas
doing the same thing quite so late as I did. So my usual
‘find-everything-on-the- internet’ strategy of self-support was rough!
My twins were born at 36+5, blessedly free of pretty much
all complications except that they couldn’t seem to latch. We had the help of
great LCs and lots of L&D nurses, but my girl, as the smaller
twin, just couldn’t do it. She had some suck/swallow delays, and my hubby
syringe fed her while I worked on nursing our boy for the first two days. Once
she learned how to eat at all, both of them took all the milk I could pump and
a bit of formula to help them gain weight while in the hospital.
By three months, we had a routine that worked as efficiently
as it could, but I hated it. I rarely got to just sit and cuddle my babies
after I fed them, because I always had to go pump. I started asking about solid
foods, just because I was so eager to get away from the pump. By this point, my
little girl – the non-latcher! – would occasionally comfort-nurse when she was
upset, but we were still so anxious about tracking how much milk they were
getting that we were hesitant to try moving away from bottles.

Finally, I was desperate. I decided that I was going to try
direct breastfeeding for just one feeding a day – the one feeding that I had to
handle alone, after my husband left for work and before my MIL came over to
help for the afternoon (bless her!). So one day, I tried it. And, to my shock,
they both latched, and ate for about twenty minutes. Afterwards, my breasts
felt just as drained as when I pumped, so clearly they were getting enough
food! It worked! I was delighted. At first, I pumped after the feeding just to
be sure, but when I got almost nothing – barely an ounce – I knew it was
working as intended. So for the next week or so, I nursed them for that
feeding, and we continued our routine the rest of the time.
Then I added another feeding. I picked one of the afternoon
feedings, and left a pumping/bottle feeding in between the two nursing feedings
because I was still nervous about drainage. It worked again, and I was so
gleeful about it that I went virtually cold turkey after two days and switched
all but the very first morning feeding to direct breastfeeding. It WORKED. And
the religious pumping schedule I’d established when I was exclusively pumping
meant that I had plenty of supply.
So my transition from EPing to EBFing didn’t happen until my
babies were four months old – but it happened, and it’s doable! Don’t give up
hope!
A final note: it took us until seven months to switch the
very first morning feeding from bottle to breast, because I had an overnight
oversupply – engorged breasts in the morning, lots of foremilk. Eventually I
was able to manage it and we transitioned to nursing in the morning,
too. They seem to like it. And it makes the morning routine much simpler – I
get to sleep a little extra, and they get to play a little more actively since
I’m not attached to the pump trying to wrangle them!
Until about nine months, I continued to pump right
before I went to bed for about ten
minutes – like a ‘system flush’ – I think that making sure everything
was drained once a day regardless of how well they had nursed all day
was helpful in
preventing clogs and other issues. Eventually, I dropped that last pump,
too (all the milk I'd been pumping at night had just gone to the
freezer, since breastfeedings filled all their nutritional needs during
the day). The first morning after I dropped it, I woke up in a puddle of
milk and had to change all the sheets on our bed (if you don't have a
waterproof mattress liner, GET ONE). The second morning I was just
uncomfortable, but not leaking. By the fourth morning, everything had
equalized and I had no more oversupply issues. Thanks, biology!
I now no longer pump at all, unless I miss a
feeding (date night!). My pump no longer lives on my bedside table, and I
look forward to continuing our healthy breastfeeding relationship for
months to come. I’m glad I EPed as long as I did; in a lot of ways it
made
the first couple of months easier – we even got to go out on a couple of
date
nights, because other people could feed the babies! And I’m glad our
babies
know how to take a bottle! We’re still able to get away once in a while.
But
I’m so glad that they finally learned how to nurse!
If you have any questions for Jamaila, CLICK HERE to email her or you can visit her blog: Jamaila Brinkley.
This is such a great post! I too found it difficult to breast feed two littles right away and they were so small, so I did the practice nursing, feed formula bottle, then pump for maybe a week. It's so much and takes forever! Once my husband was returning to work I decided to drop the nursing and exclusively pump (but supplemented with formula). I never went back to try nursing but I often thought about it since with the pumping your supply isn't diminishing (probably). I'm so glad to hear it worked for you!! I would definitely try to communicate to new twin moms it doesn't have to be all or nothing, and just because nursing might not click for everyone in the hospital doesn't mean you can never do it! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletePerfect timing for this post! I'm going through this transition right now and you're right, there is NO information on it! It's very encouraging to hear another twin mama have success going back to breastfeeding. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone! Glad I was able to share some encouragement - it's so hard to find resources about this out there. Thanks to everyone who is getting in touch! So happy to share my experience with other mamas!
ReplyDeleteI love this! This is kind of how I started exclusively pumping. I will try breastfeeding tom and see if it works. My twins are 2 months old.
ReplyDelete