Why Pump You Ask?

I figured I should tell why I pump.  You may not care, but some Mom may read it in the future and find it helpful.

I had my identical twin girls at 33-weeks via c-section.  I had preeclampsia (I also had it with my first born) and preterm labor that was not stopping.  My babes ended up in the NICU at Children's Hospital in St. Paul, MN.  Although they were 7-weeks early, they were a hefty 4lbs 11oz each and required minimal breathing assistance for just a few hours.  They were in isolettes with tubes and wires everywhere and couldn't nurse so I pumped.  The whole ordeal is still pretty hazy in my memory, but I do remember clearly waking up the next morning and being focused on getting a pump.  I couldn't hold my babies, I couldn't be with my babies, but I could pump.  And I did.

That day I met with the lactation specialist from the NICU and she gave me a whole folder on pumping.  How to pump, when to pump, how long to pump, etc.  I was given containers and labels and a chart for keeping track of my sessions and amounts produced.  It stated on the sheet that I needed to pump every 2-3 hours around the clock for a total of 8-10 times in a 24-hour period and my goal was to produce 24-30oz in that period.  Each pumping session was to be 10-15 minutes long. 

So I pumped.  I pumped every 2 hours around the clock for 15-minutes each time.  I brought saved every tiny bit.  At first the amount was so little that I needed to use a syringe to suck it all up out of the container to bring to the NICU.  I almost felt embarrassed over how little it was and that it was kind of pointless.  The NICU nurses reminded me how important the colostrum was and even though it didn't look like a lot, it was doing big things for my babies.

So I kept on pumping and I slowly started to produce more and couldn't wait until I hit the 24oz mark and then I realized that the information I was given was intended for someone who had a singleton.  I was going to have to produce twice that much!  When I next saw the lactation specialist I asked her if my assumption was correct and she said "Oh yes!  With twins you are going to want to get up to 48-60oz in a 24-hour period".  I didn't think that was ever going to happen.

I kept on pumping though.  I brought more and more breast milk to the NICU every day.  I felt like a child showing of their latest piece of artwork when they got home from school every time I brought in my bags of milk to the NICU nurses.  I was like a little kid saying "Look!  See what I did?" and hoping for a gold star.

I eventually got my first gold star on the day the lactation specialist came to ask about my 'production'.  I didn't think I was making very much and (my very favorite) nurse Sue said "she is doing awesome and is producing a ton.  She is making enough for her babies to have only breast milk now"  My second gold star was when Sue told me I was now producing so much that they had to start putting some in the freezer.  My third gold star came at home, from myself, when I realized I was making an average of 75-freaking-ounces a day!!!

I did try to nurse in the NICU and had some successful nursing sessions, but it just added stress to the whole NICU experience.  I worried if I was doing it right with the nurses watching.  UGH!  I worried if they were getting enough to eat because I would have to time it and guesstimate how much of that time they were actually eating and then try to figure out how much they should then get through their gavage feeding.  I cried one whole night because I was worried that I estimated wrong and that my baby would now be unnecessarily hungry until her next feeding.  They also had to show that they could drink from a bottle to be able to go home.  Then one twin went home before the other but the other twin couldn't come back with me when I went to the NICU because it was flu season, so I just decided to pump.

I decided somewhere along the way that I didn't care how they got the breast milk, I just cared that they had it.  I also wanted to have them home and they were doing better at bottling than at nursing and that was just fine with me.