Lost my Expressing V-wings! But now have Qs...

[mummycow]

I feel very proud of myself as I've just expressed for the first time. I hope this is the beginning of a few more hours (even minutes) of sleep and a chance to get my hair done. (my dd was born 2 weeks early so I never got to go to my hair appointment and I'm in desperate need of a colour n cut!)

However, now that I've got my golden chalice of EBM, I find I have loads of Qs that I hope someone can help me with...

I've expressed about 100ml/3oz... will this be enough to cover one feed?
If it's not enough I intend to put her back on the breast afterwards if she's not full...
And if it's too much, what do you do with the milk she's left? can it be used again later? or do you have to tip it all away?
And what about the temperature? I presume it'll be too much of a shock for her if it comes out cold so I thought I'd warm it up in a bowl of warm water first.

Finally, if I'm expressing about 100ml/3oz every time (I guess this will increase the more I do it), how often do I need to express in order for my dh to be able to do one feed a night or give me the odd night off here and there? I suppose I just do one or two sessions a day until we've built up a store?

Sorry for being a real thickie! Hope you experienced expressers out there can help!
(btw - dd is 3 weeks and 1 day old, been EBF on demand every 2-3 hours or so).

EBM can be kept at room temperature for 6 hours if started (formula is 2 hours) and given to the baby again but NOT reheated.

Your baby may well prefer hotter milk than you expect (skin temp is something like 32/33C but body temp is 37C which is what breastmilk is as well) so testing on the wrist may give a colder temp milk than baby may like.

Having said that some babies are happy to drink milk straight from the fridge or at room temp - it may take some trial and error.

Some babies also like having the teat heated too.

For details of all of the types of storage/time see this leafet

A quick calculation for how much milk is 1oz per hour away + 1oz extra per feed i.e you are away for 6 hours and expect baby to feed 3 times you will need 3 bottles/cups with 3oz in each or 9oz overall.

This is based on babies aged 1m-6m taking an average of 25oz a day - most babies will take between 19-30oz a day with each baby having a normal intake that remains constant i.e. Baby A might take around 20oz a day and Baby B might take around 27oz a day and this will remain fairly constant for 1m-6m.

A good source of information on how to bottle feed a breastfed baby is this so it might be worth while printing out the pdf version for your DH/mum/Mil to read.

You shouldn't expect to express 3oz every time you express - it can really vary so don't be disheartened if next time you don't get as much or even any milk (you could get more though!) as expressing is not any reliable indication of the state of your milk supply. It just tells you how much milk you were able to express at 7am that day (for ex.) rather than what baby could have got if they had fed instead or give you an idea of how much milk you make.