small amount when expressing, is it worth it?

[falaalaalah]

I'm currently only able to express around 160-180ml (3ish feeds) in 24 hours. It's a bit of a slog expressing all the time and just wondering if it's worth it? DS is 4 weeks and taking around 12 feeds (feeding on demand )

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Can I ask why you started expressing? If you don't need to then I wouldn't bother - I found it an almighty faff and was very glad when I could stop!

[falaalaalah]

Ds had a tt and lost weight so needed top ups that has now turned into bottles only.

I mixed fed (bf and bottle) my other dc until they were 9 months so feel like l owe ds that too. I am absolutely gutted not to be bf him but the thought of 8 more months expressing leaves me feeling a bit depressed.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Maybe decide to express x number of times a day, that you can manage without it getting you down, and see how you get on with that? You'd still be mix feeding, just the proportion of ebm to formula would be different.

[MirrorMouse]

There's no point in doing anything that leaves you feeling depressed. And you don't have to think about expressing for the next 8 months - you don't need to decide now about that far ahead. You could just decide to express for another few days or weeks then see how you go on.

If you can express 8 times a day or something approaching that you might find that you can express much more as the days and weeks go on and your supply is stimulated by the expressing.

It is always possible that your baby might latch later if you keep trying and keep your supply going by expressing.

But again, if it's getting you down you don't have to continue, and you definitely don't have to continue for another 8 months!