What is it about the weekend???

[dudleypippen]

I work full time and pump then bf on demand in evenings. I am usually getting 10-12 oz at my morning pump sessions. I swear my boobs can tell time- Saturday and Sunday mornings I wake up engorged and pump around 18oz just for comfort! I understand that your supply increases with more time around baby, but the only difference in routine is Friday afternoons I pick up LO early from the babysitter's. I rarely ever experience engorgement any other time and I only ever leak Saturday and Sunday mornings. Anyone else have crazy supply issues on weekends?

[twood80]

Yes and no; oversupply will never be my issue, so on days when I'm with LO I've got to pump just to keep up. Why? I finally made a bar chart to show my mother that illustrated the mechanics of pumping for daycare vs nursing (unfortunately I don't do pictures here), here it is in math.

Nursing: baby needs to eat A.
Pumping: baby still only needs to eat A. But you have to have sufficient supply to account for A + B (provider overfeeds) + C (it's easy to get milk from the bottle/need to suck) + D (pump fails to well empty breast compared to baby).

So on days when I'm home with LO, I have to pump enough to make up B+C+D, while baby continues to eat A. Otherwise LO will not have enough milk on days when I'm at work. I look at the positive, it means I end up with a freezer stash.

Hope that helps.

[seacat]

Yes. I have maintained an oversupply because I work full time and need extra for bottles (babies always take more from the bottle than the breast) during the week, so on the weekend if I don't pump I wind up massively engorged (he takes much less if I BF on demand). I was determined that I was not going to pump yesterday and I gave the poor little guy a work out. I just wished he had been that efficient as a newborn It was really nice not to pump though, first day in seven months I haven't pumped.