How easy is it to 'Express' BM?

[Tiredemma]

Im PG with DC3- big shock and surprise, didn't find out until I was 24 weeks pregnant, due in 6 weeks so had only a 'short' period of time to get our heads around it.

Of course now we are all excited about it but its obviously made us have to change plans for the next few months. Im now on four weeks annual leave and then commence Maternity leave on September 2nd.
Baby is due on Sept 16th.........My second year of my Masters starts in October.

Ive thought about this and deduced that I am far more likely to cope and continue with my MSc whilst on Maternity Leave than I will if I defer for a year and try to do it with a 1 year old, whilst back at work full time.
My course is 1 day a week and my mum has said that she will provide childcare on that day.

Both my previous children (now age 12 and 10) were formula fed- I tried to BF DS1 but found it painful and didn't get much support ( I had a third degree tear also and I think looking back that this made me reluctant to battle on trying to BF)

I want to BF with DC3 - but it occurred to me today that ill obviously need to provide milk for that one day a week where I am out (between 9-3pm).
Just how 'simple' is it to express the amount of BM that I would need to cover this period. Its not something that I want to be stressing over and I would feel awful if I left my mum with a screaming, hungry baby most of the day.

Any tips/advice?

thanks for your reply.

I had thought about the Formula Cartons as a last resort but as I've never breastfed before wasn't sure if this would just go onto create more problems?

I obviously need to read up a bit more about BFing I think- as I can feel myself stressing about this.

Thanks for the advice

I am a new mum so no expert, but I started expressing when DD was 3 weeks and get about 3-4oz per pumping session. DD (5 weeks) currently takes 2.5-3oz per feed every few hours so if I was in your position I would easily build up a day's worth of feeds over the week ready for the day you're away. DD also happily switches between breast and bottle despite introducing it early at 3 weeks.

Good luck!

I managed to exclusively express feed DS til 22 weeks. He had a tongue tie and couldn't latch on. By the time I was fully established (around 2 weeks), I was expressing 1200 mls a day

You need a good electric pump and to express pretty much everytime you feed which is tiring in the early days with all the night feeds

By around 12 weeks, I had dropped night expressing and only needed to express 3-4 times a day. But I know I was very lucky with a very good supply. That meant I was much less tied to the house. However, my sister ended up still having to exoress about 7 times a day up to 24 weeks

The benefit was that DH did night feeds between 8 - 12 at night so I got sleep and all night feeds on a Friday and Saturday

Brilliant advice.

Massive thanks to you all.

Feel a bit more positive about it now

You'll probably find a certain time that its easier for you to express. For me it's first thing in the morning - I've honed the skill of feeding one side and expressing the other! I basically express in the morning for the bottle she has in the evening. I tend to get 2-4oz in total when expressing from both boobs.

I reckon if you express once a day on the days you're at uni you'll have enough to leave while you're away for the day. You will need to introduce a bottle fairly promptly but not too soon (it can cause nipple confusion). We introduced a bottle at 3 weeks - she was ok BF still but generally takes the bottle well too.

Have a look and see if there's a BF support group in your area. Mine have been very supportive and there's a girl who is pregnant who wants to BF who came along - nothing like preparing in advance! Do use Kellymom too, I've found it an invaluable resource!

I could easily get 4 ounces everytime until my supply settled at around 6 Weeks and now i'm lucky if I can get 1 ounce :(

we had an Avent manual pump to start with but it just lost suction one day which is apparently a common fault so I got an electric Medela Mini which works but doesn't get much out.