This morning I went down a lactation rabbit hole in search of finding what pump cycle speeds correspond to a newborn's suckling pattern. My thought process is that if I can figure this out, I can do this rather than flounder about trying to find what"feels good", cuz all settings end up feeling good after a while lol

Am thinking along these lines because I feel I haven't gotten far enough at this point in my journey (almost 8 months) & felt I needed to change focus - not knowing what pump settings to use was really confusing me cuz none of what I was doing was producing significant results, other than a trace here and there.

I came across a research paper (see info at end) that came to the conclusion that using three different suckle patterns/cycles over a 15 minute period double pumping, where together both breasts produced 1 ounce gave best results. Doing this helped with not just the initiation of milk production, but also for long-term milk output.

What they found was to do 120 suckles per minute for the first 2 mins, then go down to 90 suckles per minute, then again down to 60 suckles per minute, all within a 15 minute session. They didn't mention how long to do the last two cycle speeds. A maximum of 7-10 sessions in a 24 hour period of a duration of 15 mins each session produced best results. They also concluded double pumping gave better results over single pumping. I believe it was with mothers of infants who were NICU and pre-term with no other health issues & the mother decided to exclusively pump instead of breastfeeding.

That info lead me in search for what a newborn phase means. Apparently it's from the time of birth to 3 months old.

With all this information, I hooked up my Limerick and using the settings my husband said worked best for him, I dialed in 3 settings to mimic suckles per minute for 120, 90 & 60.

Then I did the same for my Freemie portable pump. I did this by having the Limerick attached to one side and the other pump on the other side, and dialed the portable to get as close to the Limerick as possible. Rather than just doing what only felt confortable.

After that, in my rabbit hole searching, I came across an article by "Exclusively Pumping" website (can't remember the name of it) that mentions when you're ready to decrease amount of sessions within a 24 hour period, to increase the duration of each session so you continue to make the same amount - if that's your goal.

Now armed with all that knowledge & learning recently that I shouldn't go longer than 5-6 hours between session, I was ready to make a plan to refocus my efforts. So starting tomorrow I will be doing 10 pump sessions in a 24 hour period for 15 mins each session for the next 3 months, or until I am producing an ounce. Then I will switch to the next phase of my plan to maintain my supply.

I will be using my Limerick Joy as my main pump for when I will be home. My Freemie will be my portable, which I will use when am away from home for a few hours to a day. I will be purchasing Limerick's rechargeable battery pack that I will use for trips & aren't able to access a wall plug. I also got my Pumpables Genie Advanced dialed in as close as I could, just in case I use to if my Freemie dies and need to use something else while waiting for a replacement. I will also be doing the same thing for the Pumpables Super Genie and Spectra. That way I have backups if something should happen to the pumps I plan to use as my main go to ones.

I will be keeping a tab on my hydration intake and my diet to make sure am meeting my goals there.

Am determined to make 2025 the year I start producing & reaching my lactation goal. And hopefully my husband will be able to start suckling again soon too!

For those interested in reading it ... NIH paper name: "Breast Pump Suction Patterns that mimic the human infant during breastfeeding: greater output in less time spent pumping for breast pumping dependent mothers with premature infants" Author: J Perinatol Date: August 1, 2012)