Reddit reviews Simple Wishes Signature Hands Free Pumping Bra, USA Company, Comfortable, Adjustable, Supportive, XS-L Black

If you have a little extra money, surprise her with a pump bra. It totally frees up your hands.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004S8MGGQ/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_qZKPyb8748841

There are cheaper ones, but this one works really well.

Oh man, this post is like my jam. I'm currently tandem feeding twins and supplemented at the start. I did not have PCOS, so I did not have that barrier to overcome. Here's what I did:

Bring to hospital: hands free pumping bra, angled flanges, hot packs, lanolin(at first, I liked the medela lanolin better since it spread a lot easier, but now I like the lasinoh lanolin ointment more. I'd buy both, and apply after every feed/pump)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S8MGGQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085CBA90/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Day 1 - breastfeed baby as often as they want, but at least every 3 hours. This is your time to be working on latching and such. After each feed, you need to hook yourself up to the pump using your fancy new angled flanges(more comfortable, and allow you to recline while pumping - your back will KILL if you are trying to slightly lean forward all the time while pumping) and pumping bra(you do not want to sit int he hospital and be pumping for 10-15 minutes and have to hold the stupid flanges up yourself). As someone who worked NICU, has used both the spectra and the medela symphony, you'll want to go for the symphony at this point. Colostrum is thicker than normal milk - the spectra I don't think would draw the colostrum down as well as it does regular milk, so that is why I'd use the medela until your milk has come in, and for about a week or two after. When you are pumping, you should throw the hot packs towards your boobs and be massaging down towards the nipple.

The reason you are pumping at least every 3 is chances are your kid either has a crappy latch or not a strong suck, and both of those things are not going to stimulate your supply to come in the way you want it to. Not a lot of kids come out into the world and both latch strongly and suck and swallow to adequately and easily drain the boob, and that needs to happen.

For bottle feeding - the hospital we were at gave Similac Supplementation, and we used that until we were off formula. We used it with the hospital Similac slow flow nipple that screwed onto the ready feed bottle, and then used Dr Brown premie nipples at home. So, the shape of the nipple you use for bottle feeding isn't actually that important in my opinion. I'd say the bigger thing would be flow - definitely want slow flow/premie nipple in whatever brand you pick, and then technique. For technique, do not put the baby in your arms cradling them and then point the nipple at the back of their mouth like you are the virgin mary feeding the baby jesus. Instead, put them in an elevated sidelying position, and then angle the nipple sort of towards the top of their head. Basically, you're trying to mimic the boob nipple position with the bottle nipple position, and by having them sidelying you're also mimicking how they breastfeed.

We did 15 mls of formula starting around 24 hours of life after each breastfeeding attempt. This gradually did increase to an ounce. I had enough supply in by day 6 or 7 to stop supplementing with formula after each feed(I still pumped after each feed for breastmilk). I stopped supplementing altogether around a week and a half, but continued pumping so my husband could give a bottle a night while I slept for a couple hours.

Which actually, that's another part of this everyone overlooks. There is this oh poo poo new mothers shouldn't be sleeping and need to be awake every hour to feed/pump/whatever. You should do this for the first couple of days, but honestly, for your sanity, you need to pick a 3-4 hour block of your life to be uninterrupted and unconscious and have someone else feed and care for the baby. If you are in the throws of breastfeed/supplement/pump, you're not getting a lot of sleep, and are going to need a window somewhere to actually sleep. 3-4 hours sounds like nothing now, but when you are consistently getting 20-30 minutes, it's life changing.

On a random note, I saw from comments you want to use the Spectra S2 - I strongly believe in angled flanges, so here's the adapter to go from medela to Spectra so you can continue to use angled flanges.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DGEDVUM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When it comes to formula, I'd keep a couple things in mind. Your baby literally has NO taste experiences in their life(other than amniotic fluid). Therefore, breastmilk and formula will be all they know. Think of it like the kid with food allergies - you taste their allergen free brownie and think it's disgusting but they love it because they don't know any better. We switched formula on kids fairly often in the NICU for various reasons, and typically we had babies be fussy for a feed or two and then settle into the new stuff if they were going to fuss at all over the change. Therefore, I'd use whatever they give you, but have a box of formula at home that is unopened and returnable.

Start pumping at least once a day after your LO feeds. I made sure to have a good freezer stash for my first day back at work. Have you introduced a bottle to your LO yet? If not, do it right away so he/she gets used to it. Make sure you're not the one giving him the bottle, cause sometimes they won't take it.

Pumping hurts the first few times, but do yourself a favor and get a hands free pumping bra. LIFE CHANGER. When you have both your hands free it makes the session go so much faster. Here's the one I have:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S8MGGQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Drink plenty of water, and depending on how much you get in a session, don't be afraid to go upto 20 mins. I have about three letdowns in 20 mins, each about 7 mins apart. The first time milk stopped coming out after the first letdown I was very disappointed, but then I decided to keep pumping and I had a second letdown. I usually average about 4 oz in 2 hours, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S8MGGQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I had this one and loved it!

I'm using this, which works great for the mostly hands-free double-sided pumping I'm doing. I sometimes stick my hand in and massage engorged areas, and that's pretty easy, but it's probably not the best choice if you want to do constant massage/compressions, since it's meant to be worn tight against your body.

Before this I was doing double-sided pumping just holding the flanges on, which is completely 100% for the birds, do not recommend ever.

I have a brand new hands-free pumping bra (I take it back - it's a small) that I would be happy to mail to you. I got it right before my freakout/decision to stop pumping. It's this one and I've been looking for someone to give it to. Seriously. If you'd like it, PM me. (I keep editing this, but it's yours for free.)