Pumping & Feeding Schedule: 0-1 Month

The first month felt like a total crap shoot! We were trying to find our groove as new parents and how to juggle everything. The hospital staff worked with us to try to get the girls to latch for nursing. We were minimally successful and started giving formula right away to make sure the girls were getting enough nourishment. I did a hybrid of pumping/nursing for the first month, supplementing with formula when there wasn't enough milk [remember, FED is best!]

As a family, we made an effort not to get them hooked on sucking fake nipples and since they were so tiny, we fed them in their first few days of life with a syringe + our thumb to get them used to the idea of having something in their mouth.

Picture of us feeding them with the syringe + thumb combo:

Kinsley was admitted to the NICU the day after we came home as a family (more on that in other posts), so I started pumping to make sure I had some breastmilk to bring for her.

5 Days Postpartum - pumping while putting on some makeup

I nursed on demand to the best of my ability. My milk was slow to come in, I had a rough delivery, and had just been through major surgery. About 2.5 weeks in, Jayna bit me while nursing, and that was when my pumping journey really started.

Picture of tandem nursing (women are AMAZING)

Feeding

12AM

3AM

7AM

11AM

2PM

6PM

9PM

Pumping:

My goal was to pump milk right before they consumed it and I was trying to nurse in the middle of the night when we woke up to feed them. Had I known I was going to be EPing for them, I should have been a bit more aggressive about getting more pumps in each day to help build my supply in the early weeks.

6:30AM

10:30AM

1:30PM

4PM

8PM

10PM