Engorgement, Pumping and Foremilk Question

[judyblume14]

Hi Ladies!

Background - I'm EBFing my daughter who will be 5 months (!!!) this weekend.  On a typical night, she will wake up once in the MOTN, around 2 or 3 to nurse (from one side only).  Then, she'll nurse from the other side around 6 am before we head to day care.  During my first pumping session (9am-ish), I usually get about 4 oz per side. 

Today's Situation - LO had a longer first stretch of sleep last night, and didn't wake up until 4:45 to nurse from the right.  When it was time to wake up for the day, she was not interested in eating. If I had not been in such a rush, I would have pumped a little before work - but alas, I was crazy rushed this morning to get to an early meeting.  So by the time I was able to pump at work (8:30), it had been about 12 hours since an milk had been expressed from my left side.

I pumped about 3 oz from my right (little less than normal since she'd eaten from that side later than she typically does). And I pumped a whopping 7.25 oz from the left (expected that I'd pump a bunch more because it'd been so long, and I was engorged.

Ok, now finally to my question.  The 7.25oz pumped from the left seemed like it was all foremilk.  The right side was creamy and normal, but the left was totally watery.  I pumped until empty, so shouldn't there have been some hind milk in there?  Is it weird that all 7 oz are watery?

[ellabee]

Completely normal. Not weird at all. This happens to me a lot. We had several months where DD was pushing her last MOTN feeding out like you described. Sometimes I wouldn't get around to pumping until past 9am. My first pump would always be super watery. What I do is save those oz to mix with other milk I pump later in the day.

Even now, DD STTN and only takes one side in the morning before daycare. I pump the other before I go to work and save/mix later on. Especially now that I occasionally run a pumping deficit at work from dropping a session, it's nice to have some to top off bottles.

Congrats on making it to 5 months!

[judyblume14]

Feb 5, 2015 9:56:14 GMT -5 ellabee said:

Completely normal. Not weird at all. This happens to me a lot. We had several months where DD was pushing her last MOTN feeding out like you described. Sometimes I wouldn't get around to pumping until past 9am. My first pump would always be super watery. What I do is save those oz to mix with other milk I pump later in the day.

Even now, DD STTN and only takes one side in the morning before daycare. I pump the other before I go to work and save/mix later on. Especially now that I occasionally run a pumping deficit at work from dropping a session, it's nice to have some to top off bottles.

Congrats on making it to 5 months!

Thanks - that's exactly what I did - I mixed the watery milk from my let boob with the creamy milk from the right!

I'm so happy we've made it to 5 months.  My original goal was "oh my gosh I hope this works," then I graduated to "dear God, please let pumping at work get easier," to now, I'd really like to make it a full year!  I am very lucky that my biggest breastfeeding struggle was the first 8 weeks which were pure hell because my tiny little peanut was jaundiced, and sleepy and refused to regain her birth-weight.  But the past two months have been relatively smooth sailing, and i will never take that for granted!

[casey]

Totally normal. Also normal for the more watery milk to look a little bluish. It's thinner in am to help rehydrate (something like that).