Question regarding pumping

[prevatt77]

I was wondering how many ounces everyone gets from each breast when they pump?  How long do you pump for?  

I have a 5 week old and he just developed thrush and it's very painful for him to nurse right now, so I have been pumping and giving him a bottle, I still give him the breast but not as much but I have been pumping to keep up my milk supply.  But I was wondering how much is normal to get from each breast.

Thanks a bunch,
Debbie

[Super_sally888]

Hi Debbie,

my baby is 2 weeks old.  I currently get about 4 - 5 oz from each breast when I pump in the morning (I tend to pump one side and give baby the other, then finish pumping the side baby was on if I can get any more out).

But later in the day I get less - maybe 2 oz per side....

1 breast also produces more than the other.

I don't know what's normal, 'cause I'm completely new to this.

[mommyofTre]

My son is 9 months old and i get anywhere from 5-8 oz out of my left side and 3-5 out of my right every 3 or so hours while i'm at work. But that's an average day. Some day's i'll pump uptp 10oz from each and other 1-2oz.

[Diane1003]

I've got a 7 month old - when I'm at work and pump I get about 5 oz - more like it - I have to stop at 5oz - 2.5 per side b/c i have small bottles.  so long as you pump to keep your body up with your son's schedule I'd imagine you'd be fine.

[tiredbuthappy]

it depended on how long i went between pumpings, and how many times a day i pumped.
In the beginning, I didn't make too much- just enough for DD to eat. Once my supply was established, i seemed to get an ounce/hour from each breast. so... if i went 5 hours, i got a total of about 10 ounces (avg 5 from each breast, although they never produced the same amounts). towards the end, i was only pumping 3 times/day. My mornings were crazy- some mornings i would get a total of 17 or 18 ounces combined from 1 session.

how long i pumped also depended on how often. In the beginning, when i pumped every 2-3 hours, i pumped 10-15 minutes. The more time between pumpings, the longer i had to pump to ensure that i was empty and to stimulate supply. When i was pumping only 3 times a day, 2 of those pumps had to be about an hour long each. The midday pump was less only because i was at work.  

[prevatt77]

Thanks for all your help.

I normally get 3 ozs from one breast and 4 ozs from the other, and that it only pumping for about 5 - 8 minutes, I will only pump for 2 let downs.  He is only 5 weeks old, does that sound like I'm getting a good amount???  But he does weight 12 lbs now.  

Maybe I should try pumping for the full 20 minutes and see what I get.

Thanks again all.
Debbie

[mum2beagain]

As your baby is still so young I would recomend pumping until nothing else comes out and then continue of 5 more minutes, that way you ensure the breast is emptied and the extra 5 minutes will stimulate your body to produce more milk as your baby will need more as he gets bigger. At this point I would pump every 3 hours during the day and every 4 or 5 hours at night to keep your supply going.
Best of luck.