Pump-Pump-Pump-Pump It Up!

DISCLAIMER: The topic of this post is boobies. Tee-hee!

Babies are supposed to return to their birth weight by the time they are two weeks old. Well, Maya had an appointment on Monday, and she only weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces. She was three weeks and three days old on Monday, and weighed 8 pounds, two ounces at birth. I talked to a lactation consultant, and she said I needed to bulk up my milk supply. So, I rented a hospital grade breast pump yesterday. It cost a pretty penny, but since Maya's food thus far has been free, I'm just treating it like paying for groceries. I'm just glad I didn't have to pop the $1,500 to buy one.

I got the Medela Symphony. It's pretty cool, and even has a suction control button to control how hard the thing sucks. I'm supposed to use it at least four times per day on top of her regular feedings, and this should theoretically increase my milk supply.


I feel like kind of a jerk for starving my kid. Poor little thing was pretty excited yesterday when she ate, and then 20 minutes later got to eat again when I fed her what I had just pumped. I didn't want her to have a bottle and get nipple confusion, so I just put her on the boob and fed her through an eye dropper that I slipped in while she was suckling. She slept so awesome last night, and only woke up once at 5am! (That actually kind of worried me, but I figure she would have woken up if she was hungry).

I pretty much feel like a cow hooked up to a milking machine when I use it. It's pretty bizarre. I figured out today that rather than doing both sides at once while Maya cries, I could pop in a movie and pump on one side while she was on the other side, and then switch up after 20 minutes. I'm pretty much sucked dry by the time it's time to switch, but Maya doesn't care as long as she gets to be latched on...her favorite place to be! Little stinker.