Expressing - when and how often?

[starkadder]

Hello wise MN people

DD is 6 weeks old and EBF. It's all going well. I haven't expressed at all this time as with DS, I got a bit overexcited with the old breast pump and ended up with mastitis. So this time I thought I'd wait till everything had all settled down a bit before messing around with pumps and suchlike.

Anyway, I think things are now pretty well established and I would quite like to introduce a bottle of expressed milk every now and again, if possible, so that if need be I can leave her with DH for a few hours.

My question is - is there a best time of day to express? And should I make sure I only express a small amount at a time to avoid any lack of immediate supply for her/long term oversupply issues? Expressing in the evening will be the most convenient time for me because it is when DH is here and I have 10 seconds to breathe, but I am worried about doing that as evenings are the times when DD wants to be permanently latched on, & I don't want to take away any milk from her, IYSWIM.

Thanks in advance :)

I found I had more milk first thing in the morning, or after some sleep (yeah right!) Why not try a few different times of the day and see what works for you? I don't think you should worry about how much you express. As far as my experience goes, I always fully expressed and there was never no milk for my baby at feeding time. I found that it works on supply and demand. As the baby grows and sucks more, you get more milk.

You might struggle in the evening- especially if baby wants to eat more too. I found first thing in the morning the best time too as it was the only time I could get a decent amount. Not great for lie ins though! I was quite relieved when DD refused a bottle and I didn't have to get up and pump at 5am!

Thank you both :) and sorry for crap slow thank you - have been reading MN via iPhone recently, one-handed, in the dark, feeding DD...so have been gratefully reading replies but finding it hard to type much back.

Turns out she is not very impressed with bottles anyway so the expressing question may turn out to be a moot point.