how long to establish a supply

[mrsf0831]

Hi,
i have been EPing for a few weeks now. I have twins and neither are really good at latching. however I do plan to try to work on their latch and nursing with the shield.LO's are 5 1/2 weeks and i pump 8 times a day (sometimes 7 if I miss a session)
 started off at 15 mins since thats what I was always told but have upped it to when the milk stops flowing 30-45 mins. Im hoping those times I end up pumping only 7 times instead of 8 I havent started to mess up my supply. TIA

ETA i have been using a hospital grade pump as well and plan to return tomorrow if my supply has already been established

[Widget123]

I agree with badw0lf that your supply still might not be established yet. If you don't want your boys to take any formula, I don't think you should ease up at all yet with pumping frequency and duration. However, I am of the mindset that you don't need a hospital grade pump to establish supply, it just may make it easier.

[abbalish]

I have a follow-on question to this - how can you tell that your breast is completely empty? I'll watch my nips in the pump for a few minutes at the end of my pumping session and I'll still get a few random droplets here and there, but by and large, the pump isn't producing anything at that point. Is it recommended to keep at it longer, until literally nothing is flowing?

FWIW, I usually pump until the flow slows way down, then take off the shields and do breast massage/compression/shake and then put it back on until the flow essentially stops. This typically takes 25-30 minutes.

[mrsf0831]

Thanks all I am keeping the pump one more week then I swear im giving it back lol. I was also wondering how you know its officially empty.

[gldnbearz]

The breast is never officially empty since it's not a storage tank.

[mrsf0831]

May 21, 2015 20:53:37 GMT -5 gldnbearz said:

The breast is never officially empty since it's not a storage tank.

I know its not really ever empty, I didn't mean it like that. But everyone says pump till its "empty" if my breast arent hard before then how am i.supposed to assume its empty

[mc13]

May 21, 2015 8:46:32 GMT -5 abbalish said:

I have a follow-on question to this - how can you tell that your breast is completely empty? I'll watch my nips in the pump for a few minutes at the end of my pumping session and I'll still get a few random droplets here and there, but by and large, the pump isn't producing anything at that point. Is it recommended to keep at it longer, until literally nothing is flowing?

FWIW, I usually pump until the flow slows way down, then take off the shields and do breast massage/compression/shake and then put it back on until the flow essentially stops. This typically takes 25-30 minutes.

I don't have an answer but this is what I do as well. DD is 4 1/2 months old and I pump 4 times a day for 30 minutes and what you describe is about what I wait for to know I'm done.

[rachydc]

Hi guys! Crossing over from July 15. Im a FTM, EPing with an almost 5- week old.

Follow up question: how can you tell if/when your supply is actually established?

[madalynw]

Re empty breast. Right, your breasts are not *empty* BUT that doesn't mean that there is much in there. I think that's one of those BFing myths people fall victim to. Just bc your boob keeps releasing a couple of drops every now and then doesn't mean that said boob is doing a sufficient job feeding....

It is recommended to pump through 3-4 letdowns. Those will happen at different times for everyone so different people will need different times to 'empty'. For me, i got my 2nd letdown about 5-6 mins in, then the 3rd 11-12mins in and 4th 15-16mins in... After that I was just getting drops every 4-5 sucks so at that point I knew I could cut it off. The only difference was my 1st pump of the day, where I was still getting letdowns after 30mins (that's after sleeping all night) so I usually pumped about 45mins in the AM.

You have to watch your own body and once you figure out a pattern then go by that.

As far as when supply is established, 'they' say that after 3mpp milk production is no longer purely hormone driven, so that's why it is considered that supply is established by then.