How do you get the right balance?

[Dozeyland]

DD is 3 weeks old on Wednesday, Breast feeding well HOWEVER - the soreness has come back... her latch is wonderful its just they feel so tender all around, plus the initial first bit of the feed... my left boob is more inverted so i use a lasinoh pump to draw out the nipple... which has helped but im still sore.

the leaking is still quite a lot, but is calming, I collect the milk in the shells you can get, and store in the fridge, I have expressed but im not sure how you get the right balance of express and breast feeding..

SCENARIO...

I have what i think is a good milk supply, I BF DD and only really give her the "shell milk" just because i dont want it to waste, and it is handy if my out and about... or if my boobs just need a break... but if i plan on going out for a meal, SIL looks after DD..

How to i get the right balance of expressing & making sure my boobs produce the right amount for when i BF dd...?

Scenario 2.. and when i go back to work...

How do other mums do the EBF whilst back at work ??

I express with one breast once a day in the morning, when feeding from the other. I get about 3 oz a day that way. It's either given in a bottle by DH to let me go and do something like a hair cut or bike ride without worrying about getting back, or is put in freezer for future use. I tend to express if DH has given a bottle as well, so I've not missed giving a feed.

Re EBF and going back to work, I suppose it depends on when you go back. I'll be going back when DS is around 7 months (8 if I can swing it) so he'll be eating a bit, so bfing less (hopefully!). I expect to carry on exressing so he will hopefully be able to have a midday feed, and then bf morning and night. DS is only 10 weeks though, so could be talking out of my arse on that one, as I have no idea how much he'll actually be feeding then!

I was advised not to express until 6-8 weeks as I had a lot of milk and it would caise my body to make more milk and possibly leave me engorged. I found it easier to express in the mornings but the most important thing is that you are relaxed and have enough time. I have expressed in the evening as ds2 doesn't feed after 8pm until about 1am but the best thing I found was to express about half way between 2 feeds, so if he is feeding every 3 hours I'd do it 1 1/2hrs after the last feed. I then get my mum/dh to feed ds2 and I go to another room and express then so I maintain my stock in the fridge but if it's not a very frequent bottle you won't need to to keep your supply up.

I went back to work when ds1 was 6 months old, I expressed once at lunch time and once at 4ish- that gave me enough milk for the one 8oz bottle he had at around 4 with his childminder. Depending on the weekend I would express at lunchtime if I had time and then give him a bf at 4 so try and keep my supply stable. We carried on like that until he was 9 months when he dropped that feed and only had a bf before breakfast and before bed. I was given access to the first aid room to do my expressing, didn't actually find it busy when I needed it for the whole 3 months!