Starting expressing a few months down the line

[Edie78]

Grateful for some MNers advice on expressing.

I'm ebf my 6 week old ds and it all seems to be going fine. We co-sleep so I'm not finding the nights too bad and my dh is very hands on looking after ds in every way except feeding. I haven't yet tried expressing because I wanted to get bf established and can't really be naffed to clean bottles etc.

I'm happy to continue as we are but think that in a few months time - say when ds is 4 or 5 months - I might want a night out or need to be away from ds for a few hours. In that situation, I'd need dh or my mum to feed him. Would it be a problem to leave trying out expressing until then or is it something I'd need to try sooner so I don't have problems? I want to avoid ff if I can. Also, I imagine that expressing will be an infrequent necessity rather than something I'll do regularly.

Grateful for suggestions/ideas about when to try it out and how to see off any potential problems.

Thanks!

Its two different things really. You'll need a few pumping sessins to get enough milk for a feed probably and some people find it can take a bit of practice, although others get masses easily. And the other thing is whether your baby will take a bottle.

Ds hated them and I found expressing such a hassle once you've got into the swing of bfing, I never really bothered. By the time they are 4 or 5 months they can go quite a few hours without a feed if they are being distracted successfully. And he might be sleeping through by then so you could go out later on...