Having trouble expressing-what am I doing wrong and how much will I need?

[wallababy]

I am ending my 6 week old dd and tonight going for a night out with hubby, my sis is looking after dd, I have been expressing for the past couple of days and only managed to get 6 oz overall what am I doing wrong??
I have tried expressing in bewteen feeds but seems there just isn't much there, then tried after feeds but again nothing.
My sis is going to need enough for dd's 2 feeds overnight, I will be in the house for the 2nd one but will have had a few drinks so worried about feeding her, does it harm them??
Grateful for any advice,all this worry is going to ruin my first night out in forever!!

Argh predictive phone!! I typed EBF-ing not ending!!

I leave my 7 week old DS in nursery when I have to work, and I leave him 3oz bottles of EBM for each feed. (I give them 4 bottles, so they can feed him every 2 hours if he wants it. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. At home he ALWAYS wants boob, bottles he will only take if he's actually hungry. I expect they're less fun!).

The mum's group I go to is as our local hospital and run by a lactation consultant. She has a v. sensitive scale, and encourages us to weigh our babies before and after a feed so we can 'see how great you're doing at getting milk into him!'- I did that a few times before going back to work and noticed he was drinking between 2 and 3 oz of milk. As I read on kellymom.com that babies take between 19 and 30oz a day, with the average being 25 oz, I thought leaving him with 12oz for a workday was a generous amount. Sometimes he eats it all, sometimes he doesn't - it doesn't seem to make a difference when he comes home, the evening clusterfeeds are the same on workdays and days when we're together!

Anyway, long-winded way of saying that you probably have enough already if you have 6oz - that's quite a lot for 2 feeds. And don't compare to the volume of formula you'd leave - the two don't match up.

As for expressing - I get most first thing in the morning or in the small hours of the night, I get more if DS hasn't just fed, I get more using an electric pump and if I do both breasts at the same time - but at the start I still only got 1oz at a time. Now I get 2 from each side, usually.

Hope this helps - and I hope you enjoy your night out! :)

Thanks blackcurrants although dd feeds for a long time every 4 hours, so guessing she would have a bit more? I think my main question is if I have been drinking am I ok to feed dd at 5/6am?? Will I give her alcohol poisioning?

Depends how much you have been drinking.

The pdf found here contains more information www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/pdfs/Alcohol_and_Breastfeeding_March_2009.pdf

See also www.kellymom.com/health/lifestyle/alcohol.html

I also remember reading that each unit of alcohol takes 2 hours to leave milk but can't remember where I read that.

Enjoy your night out!

The amount of alcohol in breast milk is equal to the amount of alcohol in blood. From bloodalcoholcontent.org - a blood alcohol content of .40 is typically the lethal dose for more than 50% of adults.

The average no alcohol beer has 0.5% ABV so if you can manage to breast feed whilst in an alcohol induced coma your milk will still have less alcohol than no alcohol beer.

If you want to drink and then breast feed your main concern will be falling asleep whilst feeding/dropping the baby so you need a sober person with you to hand you the baby, monitor you feeding and then take the baby back (the same as if you were to bottle feed whilst drunk). Obviously drinking regularly isn't good for you or baby but the occasional night out isn't verboten.

Kellymom has some great advice/info on alcohol & breastfeeding.

Enjoy your night out!