Trying to express but only getting an ounce!

[hodgiebreeder]

Hello! Just after some reassurance really. DS is 4 weeks old and I have just started to express with the view to introducing him to a bottle every so often. Trouble is I'm only managing to get small amounts of milk at a time (got just over 2oz in 2 sittings yesterday, this morning only 1oz so far). Should I be worried? Or will this increase the more I do it? Was hoping to get 3/4oz (which from what I've read is the equivalent of 1 feed??) in one sitting otherwise it gets difficult to fit expressing around his regular feeds. Any info/tips very welcome!

Hi I dont know what you are using to express but I know from experience that the only time I ever got enough expressed milk was with an electric pump.They work really well and the milk just flows with no effort at all.

Not everyone can express unfortunately.

However, to increase your chances you have to learn how to trigger your let down. Things that can do this are things like being relaxed, thinking of your baby, hearing your baby or just thinking about anything that makes you go 'mmmmmm' like sliding between silky sheets or eating chocolate or whatever.

Attaching an unsexy gadget to your breast and staring anxiously at it in desperation absolutely supresses your let-down reflex.

Hope that helps a bit and good luck with your next attempt.

Stick with it! It will increase, I'm sure.

Try early mornings. Also, many people advise pumping after baby has just fed, or pump from one boob while baby drinks from the other. How to hold baby and pump at the same time, I do not know!!

Also - different pumps suit different people. what are you using?

(There are often threads about this, so do a bit of a search if you don't get many replies)

An average feed is more likely (at 4 weeks) is more likely to be about 2-3oz and in fact even when DD3 was 9m she only ever took as an absolute max 4oz/120mls if she was starving but more normally was 3oz/90ml (was ebf but I was in hospital for a week so she had a bottle in between visits to me).

There is some great info here on how much milk a baby needs and some more info here on pumping.

Please don't worry about how much you can pump, it shows nothing more than how much you can get out with a pump, not how much milk you have or how much your baby gets. The more you fret over it, the less likely you will be able to much get out, and I found the more I looked at the milk coming out of the pump the less that came out - throwing a muslin over the pump helped!

Thanks for the tips. Am using a medela swing which seems to be working fine (I have friends who swear by them) so reckon I just need to relax and keep trying. Just not quite the same plugging yourself into a milking machine when you could just be giving your little man a nice cuddle!! Would love it to work as it would really free things up for me work-wise but if it doesn't it doesn't I guess! Good job I enjoy breastfeeding!!

I first expressed when my baby was 6 weeks. I got just under 2oz in a sitting. The following week, I pumped the final amount out of the breast he'd been drinking from and got 3oz in total. Now, at week 9, I have expressed a third time and found I got 5oz in one sitting (15 mins or so) from one breast. One thing I've noticed recently is that my baby feeds more quickly, too. Maybe it's all just getting faster :)

I have a medela swing, but have used a hospital one as well. Some people can't express, and I'm just one of them. Maybe it's a relax thing. Like you I feel like a milking machine with the pump! I don't think it'll free things up work-wise because to empty my breast, I was taking around 45min with the pump, while my 7mo LO can do it in under 5min. Even the hospital pump is incredibly slow. If you don't mind formula, how about just use that if you want to relax a bit?

I should add that I let my baby feed from one breast while I express from the other. I also watch him as much as I can rather than the breast I'm expressing from. It helps.