Advice about expressing please

[seashore]

Hi,

I've bf before but always on supply and demand and since I was at home with both babies I didn't have to express. Anyway, I have now have 4 mth old dd and soon I'm going to be working a few days of the week and will be gone for six hours so my questions are how much milk should I aim at expressing? How many bottles do I need to leave? Oh and any advice about what type of pump to buy would be great.

I don't know why, but although this is my third time bfeeding I'm a bit daunted about the whole process of leaving milk there for dd, I suppose because it's new to me, she has had a bit of reflux so I am concerned to make sure I leave enough milk at home for her,

any advice welcome, and thank you.

It depends on how old dd will be when u actually leave and how much she will drink, some feeds she could take 6oz others maybe 3. I would start expressing now and then you can freeze it so you know there will def be enough. For 6 hours I would say around 2 maybe 3 bottles depends on how often dd feeds. I started off with a tomme tippee manual pump. too much effort so I bought a tommee tippee electric pump didn't really think too much of it and in the end I Hand expressed for all feeds. Just found it easier and quicker.

Hi

I had an Avent manual pump with ds but found it a lot of effort. I'm using a tommee tippee electric one for my dd which I find much easier. I can still only express about 2oz in a session though and I need about 4oz per feed.

My dd will be 8 months when I go back to work and will be left from 9am to 4pm. I'm aiming to leave her 2 feeds of 4oz each and hope that'll be enough.

Kellymom has a calculator here to help work out how much you might need.

Also just some tips, I find it easier to express on one side whilst feeding dd on the other. It takes a bit of practice and lots of cushions, I have dd kind of in the rugby hold and pump attached to bra with elastic bands - its not elegant but works for me! :)

Also if you are going to build up a freezer stash make sure your dd will drink it and that your storage is working. I had to dump a load cos dd wouldn't take it and it smelled weird. She's fine with the fridge stuff that's only a day old so I'm currently experimenting with different storage bags and length of time it's been in the freezer for to see if it makes a difference.

Good luck

Thank you both so much, I feel much better set up now to embark on this, lots of great tips there, it's already making more sense to me, I'm going to follow your advice and I now have a feeling it'll work out fine! Thanks

Just don't get a manual pump! I know it's expensive but if you are going to use it extensively for a long period of time then I found the Medela Swing amazingly good.

I expressed for DD for three months, eventually giving up as she needed more milk than I was producing. I used a Tommee Tippee electric pump and usually got around 5oz twice a day.

I got on really well with the Medela Swing too, def recommend.

I usually produced 4-5oz per session.

Beware wonky boob syndrome tho, my righty produced 1/3rd more than poor old lefty throughout 6 months of expressing! I tried to rectify it by always feeding and expressing first on the smaller boob, and it kind of evened out. Still a bit wonky tho, hoping it'll go back to normal when I stop bf. :)

Wow, thank you everyone, def don't want a wonky boob! DD already seems to feed better on my right, I have no idea why. I will def get an electric pump. You have all been so kind and generous sharing these great tips, thank you. I feel so much more reassured that other mums manage to provide their milk and get on back to work. I have taken a big career gap and I realize now I have gotten it into my head this is too hard a thing to do. But I see now dd will be fine and my milk will still be there for her.

Thanks all