First time breast pump user

[BeRealOtter]

My baby is 5 months old, he has been exclusively breast fed till now. No problems. However I have an event I want to attend in 1 month so I am planning to start pumping. I have a Medela handsfree pump. Firstly, I am feeling kind of upset about it, which may be a bit irrational and I know it's my choice, and feeling overwhelmed about pumping and doing all the bottle things I have never done. But, i have decided to do it. If anyone has any advice re what I've said above, if they felt similar, I would appreciate it. But my main question is, if I am pumping, will my breast then be soft meaning baby cannot feed? He is big baby and can get frustrated if a side is too soft. When is the best time to pump? I would like to be able to give at least one bottle a day and build up a supply for when he is being minded for the few hours that day. Obviously provided he will take the bottle. Any advice for first time pumper is appreciated basically. Thank you for reading.

I would start by pumping straight after feeds. Your body can't tell whether it's pump or baby, so if you feed both sides, then pump both sides, it will mimic your baby sucking for more and your body will learn to produce more. For me, I could feed, then pump till the flow had more or less stopped and then my body would rapid refill before the next feed. For me once I had done this a bit, I had enough "overflow" to build up a full feed, off the ends of maybe 3 feeds. Obviously if your baby then drinks that milk for one feed, you will be able to pump of a feed that he has missed, which will then give you a feed in the fridge/freezer for another time baby needs a feed not from you. One thing to think about is, to begin with, I HAD to pump at the time I should have been feeding, otherwise my breasts would be huge, painful and free flowing partway to the next feed.

My advice is to get someone else to try and feed him with the bottle, rather than trying to do it yourself. And don't be in the room when they do it.

I went back to work when my daughter was 5 months old. I gave my childminder bottles of expressed milk and my daughter happily drank them. She would never accept a bottle from me though.

Ok thank you both so much for your replies and advice.

I tried to pump today (bit painful and felt so strange!) from the side I had just fed from, didn't get anything from that. Tried the other side just to see and did have some success but felt I had to stop as the side would be empty when he came to feed. I think the problem is he feeds a lot, feeds before all sleep etc, so I'm not always getting a chance for a very full side. Anyway, I will persevere, try to start properly tomorrow. Many thanks!

Would you consider the Haakaa pump? I expressed a lot with my first but have only used this second time around and it’s been amazing. It just attaches to the side you’re not feeding on via natural suction and then as your baby feeds it just collects what naturally leaks from the other side. I get around 40ml per feed so I have 150ml for a bottle each day quite easily and the side is still full enough to keep my very greedy 7month old happy!

Oh my god you just reminded me I have one I have never taken it out of the box! Thank you, I will definitely try this too. I wish I'd planned ahead earlier on when he was cluster feeding and I was over supplied, could have been saving all that excess! Anyway, ya live and learn 😀