Milk Supply & Expressing Q's

[SilverSky]

Hi everyone!

DS is 8.5mo and bf. I'm returning to work in six weeks three days a week.

At present DS is feeding four times a day. First feed of the day he drains both boobs, mid am and pm feeds are hit and miss with lots of pulling off and generally short disinterested feeds. If tired he feeds to sleep and bedtime feed really depends on how much he takes.

I've spent an hour pumping tonight, both boobs and got a measly ounce.

DS will be at nursery when I go back to work and will be about 10mo. So should have at least a mid pm bm (as well as his wake up/bedtime feeds) but if I can't make a stash to send with him to nursery what are my options?

Just two bf's a day? Water during nursery?

I've got to speak to work about expressing there and I know I'll only be able to do once a day (afternoons) as mornings are taken up by meetings. Already dreading expressing at work which I know won't help. Also if I don't express for those days I guess I'll run the risk of supply dropping??

If only I didn't have to go back to work then none of this would be an issue!

Thanks in advance for advice/tips!

[SilverSky]

Sorry - should have said the mid am/pm and bedtime feeds are one boober's only!

[RitaMorgan]

At 10 months he might be alright with just two feeds - maybe do a dreamfeed after he's gone to bed too? Or a cup of formula at nursery if you don't want to express.

He'll probably only need 3oz of milk at nursery. My 11 month old has just gone down to 2 breastfeeds a day with around 2-3oz of cow's milk as a drink in the day.

[SilverSky]

My original post should say that the bedtime feed qty/duration depends on how tired/quickly he drifts off. Some days quicker than others.

Rita thanks for the advice. I was considering the cows milk for the afternoon feed as he faffs so much during day feeds. I don't want to dreamfeed as he sleeps through and I don't want to mess that up as i like my sleep!!!

I do have some bm in the freeze but not 8wks worth. I was planning on stopping bfing at a year. Thats the plan!

Up until he starts nursery I thought I'd continue offering him the mid am/pm feeds to get as much into him as poss.

[organiccarrotcake]

Hi Silvie,

TBH if it's a choice between formula or cow's milk, I'd choose formula at his age. WRT expressing it can take quite a few days for things to really work. Being as relaxed as possible will help (I know this is hard), and you can try expressing from one boob as he's on the other. That often works well.

My concern about work would not be your supply dropping, but your getting too full. You don't want to be getting blocked ducts or mastitis. It may be fine, but if possible it would be worth carrying on practising the expressing so you've the chance of getting some off during the day if necessary. At his age your supply will be pretty solid.

I can't remember what you've said about how close nursery is to work - no chance of popping there at lunchtime??

WRT stopping, is this because of work or because you see a year as the point to stop for you? Are you ready to finish completely?

[rrreow]

Have a look at the tips for expressing on this site (and do some Googling too). I found them very helpful. The first few times using a breastpump it can be a bit difficult (I found that anyway) - getting out only a little bit. But as you/your body gets used to the pump your milk will start flowing more easily and your body will adjust to making more milk.

Basically one of the most important things is that you're wanting to trigger a letdown, so the milk really starts flowing and your body makes more milk. The key to this is being relaxed and there are many tips on how to trigger a letdown, just see what works for you. What I do is I close the curtains so the room is dark, put on some classical music, make myself a cup of herbal tea and then think about my baby (or look at a picture of him, or look at the real thing!).

Hope it will work for you! Good luck.

[japhrimel]

Stick with the expressing. I'd actually say 1oz is quite a good start for a first pumping session with a baby this old.

After the baby is 4 months old, supply is almost entirely demand driven, so to pump extra for a stash, you need to give your supply time to adjust. If you pump everyday at the same time, you'll get more and more, especially as you get better at letting down for the pump.

[SilverSky]

Thanks everyone. I find my pump sometimes ends up with milk sliding down my boob so perhaps the suction is off?

I've got six weeks or so to get supply sorted if not then I'll have to review my options.

carrot if I were to do ff would that be just for the mid pm? Would that be just til a year? Work is 20mins away so not doable, tho that would be a nice solution! I'm a bit dubious about ff ONLY cos of skin issues as I think we have discussed before.

My thoughts on stopping at a year is that I think I'll be ready to stop and give myself a break before hopefully TTC %232.

Is ff follow on milk a complete marketing scam or more beneficial than cm?

[organiccarrotcake]

Silv, it's the skin probs which made me question cow's milk before a year, although bear in mind that formula is cow's milk anyway, so although it's changed around a bit it's still cow's milk protein which is the bit you personally want to avoid.

As Japhrimel says, keeping on with the expressing is probably going to mean that pretty soon you'll be getting a lot more, so you might feel that doing that for a few weeks and seeing how you go before making any more decisions is an option.

Regarding stopping, are you feeling like you want to stop, or are you worried about the stress on your body? Meaning, are you feeling stress on it or assuming there will be some? If the latter, don't worry, your body can make milk through a pregnancy and beyond just fine. If you're feeling tired or ready to stop, that's another matter. Prob worth calling the NCT line for a chat about it with one of the trained counsellors.

Follow on formula is not much different to infant formula, and you can use infant formula for an older child just fine (although not the other way round). It's basically just like giving vitamins though. If you're worried about vitamins, you can just give cow's milk and vitamin drops and do the same job. If you are able to keep bfing you avoid the cow's milk protein, get the vits from the milk and also the immune-boosting components which you can't get from cow's milk or formula - and which is fab when they're at nursery.

[SilverSky]

Thanks for the info carrot! I'm going to rock on with expressing of a night and see if I can improve my output. I've got a few weeks to get it going/established.

I must contact work too!!!