advice on expressing needed

[ginger2000]

Hi - have just had a go at expressing whilst 17 day dd2 asleep - got barely an oz from both boobs. Is this about right? I can't remember from last time! It seems a pitiful amount - will it increase the more times I do it? Also, anyone know roughly how much a BF baby drink from the breasts during feeds? Just interested!

She will need to take a bottle when I go back to work so am keen to get her used to one hence the early start (BF is well established)

Any hints/tips on successful and prolific expressing!

Hi

I found the best time to express was straight after the first feed of the day

You can add to what you have expressed over the course of a day and then freeze all together

Kellymom has some advice www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index.html

Practice makes perfect!!

I've been expressing for about 10 weeks now and only last week found that I didn't have to keep pumping to get the milk out.

Once the milk is flowing, if I press the handle and hold the milk keeps coming and my hand doesn't get sore :) After a while this stops and I have to go back to little pumps.

Also, when the milk stops coming I take the pump off and give my breast a little massage and I manage to get between 1/2 oz and 1 oz more.

At the beginning I only managed 1oz a time, now if my boobs are really full I can get 4oz from each boob in one sitting :o

Good luck and happy pumping

cor peanut - 4oz! Sounds like the holy grail! Will have to keep practising. Thanks Ruby - will have a look at that link.

I suppose I'm a bit worried that I have expressed all my milk and that when she wakes up starving in a little while, there won't be anything there! I know that is not the case but...

Just remember that your baby is much better at getting your milk than your pump is. So even if you can't express your milk your baby will always be able to feed :)

And I get 4oz from each boob when I'm at work and there's no baby to feed so my breasts are really full. In a normal session it's about 4oz in total if I'm lucky!

I can also get around 4oz each side if I've mixed a feed and am really full. If I tried at home without missing a feed I would also get a tiny amount although got quite a lot in the mornings after first feed - but only once he started sleeping through the night - and I was waking up really full. I am not sure about practise - for me expressing only worked when my breasts felt really full - try expressing from fuller side while baby feeding from other side, esp first feed in morning.

Hmmmm, am about to try and engage with the pumping issue as well. Silly question- do you always warm the milk before giving it? We don't have a microwave so seems like a hassle...

We warm the milk by putting it in a saucepan of boiling water. This works for frozen milk as well and is alot quicker than leaving it overnight to defrost.

I don't think you're meant to heat the milk in the microwave anyway.

MumNWLondon - good advice about first thing in the morning although we are nowhere near sleeping through, I think there is probably more milk as she goes about 3-4 hours without a feed.

Its a bit of a chicken and egg thing isn't it - I need a bottle of EBM to give her so I've missed a feed and can then express!! Will keep at it!

rosw - would warm up milk at this stage as peanut explains - think it would be a bit of a shock to have it fridge cold!

Thanks peanut... (and ginger) just read that as well. Useful to know.

It all seems such a hassle for the sake of a few hours out! Still, my husband is v keen to have a go at feeding, which is nice.