Don't know when to pump, help me get it right this time

[ifaistos]

I bf dd1 until she was 15mo but never got the hang of expressing. I could get milk out but couldn't get the timing right. She was so unpredictable, no schedule at all, she'd want a feed every hour or more some days. Often I'd pump and then she'd be hungry 10 mins later and I'd be worried I didn't have enough milk. She also rarely accepted a bottle (now she's 2.7mo and can't give up the bottle, but that's another story...).

This time round DS1 is a bit more regular. He's feeding every 2 hours incl. through the night. He's 7 weeks old.

DD1 is starting nursery on Wed. and I need to be with her for 1 hour, twice a week to get her started. I'd like to leave DS with my husband and a bottle, so I can give DD my full attention.
But I still don't really know when to pump. Should I do it just after a feed, or in between? At the same time every day? Or should I start by pumping instead of a feed and then try and add in an extra pump later?

Watching cos I have this problem too!

Any way you can feed and express at the same time? That would be ideal. Otherwise the same time every day is best I think. If DD feeds from one side only at a time then maybe pump from the other side prior to her next feed? That way it will have had 4 hours to build up and you should get a good amount with practice.

tbh there's no right or wrong. My DD also fed every 2hrs until 6 months (though she's not that much better now but at least in the day she has solids).

I tried all three. In the end, I normally plucked for 45 mins after a feed and picked 2 feeds a day to do this. This meant I was doing roughly the same time each day which helped yield. If you don't need much then once a day would probably be fine. I found it took 3-6 days to be getting a good amount out. As Zimm said, if he only takes 1 side, then during the feed or just after would make the most sense. I pumped more as I was building up to going back to work. I also quite often pumped at night as morning/afternoons I had no time to pump.

Sounds like DS will only need 3oz bottles. This will do 2-3 hours easily. He'll probably take more if offered, but he doesn't need more. That's just how it often is with bottle feeding.

I found it easiest (in terms of time and supply) to do it at the same time as feeding, pref in the morning to avoid evening cluster feeding

Otherwise i would express half way between feeds, but that does become time consuming

well, I tried yesterday at the same time as feeding and managed a whopping 10ml, and had horrible stomach cramps after. Not sure if it's related. Trying again today. Thanks for the replies.