Pumping - when?!

[Cee3008]

My DS is 8 wks and EBF. I want to pump once a day to get one feed which can be given by bottle to help DH get involved and ensure DS is comfortable with a bottle so I can sneak out of the house for a little 'me' time :-)

Is there a good time of day to do it? How much do I need to express? Will it do anything to my supply? Anything else I should consider?

Hello,
I'm not an expert, but I'll give you some suggestions, and bump the post so others see it too.

Kellymom has some tips on bottle feeding a BF baby and a calculator as to how much milk per feed.

Many women find it easiest to express first thing in the morning - for example if baby only feeds from one side for the first feed, expressing from the other side straight after. However, others prefer to express at the time the bottle is being given, which then means they have the option to BF directly instead if that is more convenient. Others find that other times work better for them, so you could experiment. It's also not unusual to find you need to express more than once to get enough for a single feed, so that's something to consider. Supply-wise, if you are fairly consistent from day to day, then with time I guess your supply would increase at the time you're expressing, and decrease at the time the bottle is being given? One other thing to be aware of is that it's certainly not unusual to find it hard to express at first, and if you don't get much, this isn't a sign of any issue with supply - just that pumps are not as efficient as babies. Many women find it easier to get a letdown for a pump with practice, although some do find that while they can EBF successfully with thriving babies, they are never able to express very much.