Hellobee Boards

Have you tried upping the power just a bit after the first 10 min? I usually keep it close to the lowest setting and almost always experience a second letdown at around 18 min. But if that doesnt happen, i'll turn up the dial and that does the trick!
I always pump for 20 min.

You can also try turning it off for a minute and starting it again for another letdown.

I was religiously pumping for 20 minutes, but DH is back at work now and it's so hard to find the time to pump for that long, so I now aim to pump for 10 - 15 minutes.

I used to get the majority of my milk in the first 5 mins too, but I would pump for 20 to get a couple of letdowns and a good amount of hind milk.

@winniebee: They say to pump for 20 for 2 reasons. 1-your baby is much more efficient at draining the breast, so if he nurses for 10 imnutes, he might get out what would take you 20 to pump. And 2-it fools your body into thinking the baby wants to nurse more, so it helps with supply. Id say I stopped pumping for 20 minutes around like 8 weeks, it was just too long even though I was only doing it twice a day or so. Also, try ordering some Earth Mama Angel Baby Nipple Butter and use that while you pump. Its safe for the baby to ingest, but helps keep things lubricated. I found that if I put that on my whole nipple (areola included.) it would help output a tiny bit.

@winniebee: Yep, I put it on before and after. Liv loved the taste of it, so sometimes Id put it on before nursing. It helps a lot during pumping. You dont get the friction. I dont use it anymore (she is almost a year old and we're still at it) but I used it religiously until my nipples stopped being sore. Im actually going to get Lauren some of their stuff so she has it before baby comes =o) I swear by all of EMAB's stuff!

@winniebee: Yeah, no kidding with the sore nips lol. It does go away, I promise! I know! I had lunch with her on Sunday. She looks amazing. ALL belly (not a very big one lol, I dont mean ALL like she is huge) So cute