EXPRESSING... how, what, when etc

[F1rstT1meMummy]

Hig. DD is nearly 13 weeks old and exclusively breastfed.
i would like to go out for a few hours and leave her with DH, so want to build up a little supply in the freezer.
My question is - how do I do this (I know, a stupid question). For example, what is the best time of day, do i do it before or after a feed?, do i do it one side, and feed DD exlusively on the other side in that feed?
I have borrowed an electric pump and a hand pump and have had a little experiment - managed to get more using the hand pump than the electric pump in less time.
Thanks in advance.

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules, and it depends on your supply. I always used to drink loads of water after the 7pm feed, then pump off one boob around 9pm before doing the dream feed on the other. But loads of books suggest doing it early in the morning after the 7am feed, so maybe if you're worried about your supply try that first and see how you go.

Yup, I always got a better supply early in the morning, but I do my expressing regularly in the evening after DD has gone to bed because I have the time.

If your baby is feeding rougly every 3 hours, I would just try doing 10 minutes or so about an hour after a feed and see what you get. Don't worry about "running yourself dry", there's always something in there, and I think I read somewhere that you only take an hour or so to fill up. If you can bear it, get up at 3/4am to do a pump, as you will get big results. You really just have to work it around when your baby feeds (or, more correctly, when your baby doesn't feed).

I freeze the milk in 150 ml bags, and usually pump about 75ml at one session. I don't really know how many ml constitutes a feed, because I haven't done formula, but I tend to leave 1 x 150ml bag for one feed if I'm going out.

I've found one of the most effective ways is to pump while feeding. I have a pretty good let-down in both boobs when DS feeds and so I take advantage of this.

This is going to sound really strange, but if I look at something that reminds me of DS I'll start thinking about it and it helps to stimulate a let-down

....I must admit Im rather jel of you mums who are able to breast and bottle feed! Im really hoping dd eventually takes a bottle, have just started expressing a little for her and she doesnt like it as yet. x

Thanks everyone

Poley, my friend had an absolute nightmare finding a teat that her ebf ds would take until she tried the medela teat. It is a lot smaller than normal teats and he took to it straight away, my ds seems to like it too. May be worth a try. I suppose it's horses for courses though - what one likes another may not