Silly question...

[Dozeyland]

I know this probably sounds silly & you're all thinking "what she's having a baby"?! lol

BUT..........

Breast-feeding & Expressing....

When you are feeding your baby

Feed the baby (until full or finished) on one boob, and start from the other boob on the next feed.

but when you want to express in between feeds how do your boobs not get empty?

Say if you wanted to feed and you'd only just expressed and you wanted to feed off the boob??

my pregnancy head (36+4) is fuzzled and i can't make sense lol

Your breasts don't really get empty, every time they are stimulated - either by baby suckling or by expressing - they get the message to make more milk.

scrap whatever book you've read that in

offer BOTH breasts at each feed, unless baby refuses.
so offer first breast, let baby come off by himself, wind him, then offer other breast.

if you want to express just do so. your breasts are nearly always making milk, and the emptier they are the faster they make it.

i found morning was my most productive pumping time, so would feed baby, have a cuppa then pump half an hour later.

Not a silly question at all!! This one still stumps me, and Im on my second baby (now 5 weeks old) so don't feel daft at all. Id love a definitive answer as my HV doesn't seem to give me one!

With my DS we had problems latching from the beginning so I was expressing at almost every feed and cup feeding so I had a freezer absolutely full of milk! But as he did settle and get used to feeding I cant remember what we did?
Im pretty sure I would feed him and then express from the other boob and then at the next feed put him on the boob that I had expressed from? as a pump is never going to be as efficient as a baby plus I never emptied the boob just took a few ounces off. Also I know that as he got older the morning feed was the best time to express as my boobs seemed fuller.

I am happy for anyone else to suggest something though as my brain is very sleep deprived!

Somebody wiser than me once said, think of the milk not as a pond that can be emptied but as a river that is always flowing.

Of course when I look at my breasts now I see the banks are starting to erode and some fecker's redrawn the boundaries and moved my particular river south slightly. But it's something to think about during the 3am feeds I suppose.

Thanks for your replies!

I am hoping to breast-feed (feeling anxious about doing so as DP & I are living back at home with my Dad & brother at the mo, me being a shy modest person when it comes to my body I am kind of apprehensive thinking about feeding in a house full of men! lol)

However, feeding is the most natural thing in the world, DP is 100% supportive and says we can just stay in our room when feeding etc.

When it comes to feeding in public, I might express some to take?

I want to combine feeding, so hense why i'm asking the questions, & like in kitys post incase we have latching on problems i still want baby to be having my milk.

I'm hoping that when baby is here i will have that "all of a sudden I don't care about other peoples opinions feeling"

Nothing wrong with bottle feeding though, I just want to give the BF a go.

Any other advice will be much appreciated! :)

You can express and take out bottles but please try to get comfortable with the idea od feeding in public. If you see it as something that has to be done in your room, then you will feel like you are being punished or doing something naughty. Your life will revolve around your baby's feeds and you will start saying no to things. Babies don't usually follow a feeding schedule and it's quite likely you'll do a feed and go out, only to find the baby wants another, half an hour later.
I know it seems daunting and all you ever hear are the negatives, but the vast majority of people get no comments (or only + ones) when feeding in public. I have fed 2 children (last fed DS in public at the age of 2) and have only ever had one look - and that was when I was feeding tiny DD, and I didn't even notice.

To deal with your anxiety go to an NCT or Surestart class ante natally.
Go out with a few bf mums (MN meet up??) and see how they do it.
After the first couple of weeks it really shouldn't be something you shut yourself away to do.

Dozeyland, it's understandable to be nervous of feeding in public - I remember being really self-conscious when out with my first. However, I think that expressing to feed when out might be an extra layer of hassle that you don't need in the early days.

IIRC I think the first time I did my first 'proper' public feed was when I met up in a cafe with my NCT group when DS was around 6 weeks old. For me I needed time to get to grips with bf, it's a skill that you have to learn like any other (and the baby is learning too). With my second I was less reticent! It can be a good idea to check out bf support groups before the baby arrives so you know where support is if/when you need it.

And I have never had a nasty comment when bf in public, and have even had a few nice ones :). Mostly tho, people are oblivious...

Yeah I am planning on going to some Breastfeeding groups, The baby cafe in Oxford. so this should help.

I know i just hope these worries will get worked through, and like most people have said to me, " once the baby is here, you will just have an instinct & not care" - providing you have some support too.

I think it mostly is the fact that my dad & brother are still a bit "OMG" about me having a baby anyway, and I keep saying to them - HELLO i have like 25 days left stop being wierded out by it. but i think its hard for them to see me as becoming a mum, and not just their daughter/sister.

I want more than anything to be comfortable to feed, and feed in public.

dozey if you can afford it a nursing top may make you feel more covered (I like the ones which have a flap at the bottom which lifts up. Or wear a tank under a tee - or a bump band. I like to keep my belly covered! You could practise having a muslin over your shoulder and over your baby's head - all these give you more privacy.

I personally don't care about BFing in public and you probably will get to that point, but you'll need practise. I have two children, DS1 I BF until 15 months and DS2 is 12 weeks and I have had only lovely positive comments so don't worry. Don't forget it's illegal to stop someone from BFing anyway.

Your question isn't at all silly. Personally if I want to express I do so in the morning, as do many here. I tend to express on one side while feeding on the other but that takes practise (and it's not pretty ). Just express on the side you're not feeding on, or on the side that you DIDN'T do most of the feed on last. Say you feed on the left then finish on the right, express on the right and then offer the right at the next feed. But don't worry if you get it wrong!

I wouldn't try to express until you're sorted with breastfeeding though (unless you really have to). Write down this number and stick it on the fridge or something:

0300 330 0771

It's the NCT breastfeeding line. It's run by very highly qualified people who know all there is to know about baby feeding (including formula) and they will talk you through resolving any problem you have at all, or just give you support if you're finding it tough.

It's great that you're planning to BF. It is tough to start with for most people and takes a few weeks to get the hang of it but when you do it's the easiest thing in the world, ready when you are, free (formula costs about £700 per baby) and packed full of stuff to help protect your baby against diseases.

Ask away anytime - no question is a silly question.

I think almost everyone feels nervous about feeding in public at first! Nursing tops (or actually I prefer wearing a vest under a loose t-shirt so I can pull the vest down and t-shirt up) are great. I found baby groups at my local children's centre were a good place to practice feeding in public as it was just other women and lots of them were breastfeeding too - so easier not to worry about flashing your nips while you get the hang of it!

congrats dozey and good on you for planning to bf! Once you crack it it's incredibly convenient. Do read up about the mechanics of bf a bit, esp how the milk "comes in" as this sometimes throws first time mums. Sorry, that was a digression. I actually wanted just point out that it's preferable not to use a bottle, even for ebm, for the first at least four weeks as the baby is still learning how to feed. Artificial teats (bottles or dummys) use a different technique and so mixing the two up can cause "nipple confusion" making it hard for the lo to go back to the breast.

Good luck for the rest of your pg, birth, and beyond.

Thank you everyone for your tips & advice!

One more thing...

With breast-fed babies, when feeding on demand, each time your baby cries, is the first thing you do - offer the feed? or do you cuddle, check nappy, or???

and through the night feeds too???

Hi Dozeyland

on the feeding on demand topic - during the day you will not usually have to wait for the baby to cry before knowing they are hungry, they will have other little cues you can follow. Things like chewing hands, smacking lips, and sticking tongue out. They only cry if you don't notice these things. In the night, you won't notice, so the first thing you get is a cry. You get to know the difference between types of crying pretty quickly though. With my DD its 99% of the time a feed she wants, as she does not seem to mind having a wet nappy and cuddles always seem to lead to at least a little feed. I always offer the breast as the first thing to settle her.

I am a first time mum though, and my DD is only 5 weeks so there might be more experienced mums who want to add to this.